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Last edited 26 Jan 2021

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BREEAM Evidence gathering

The following comprises of comments from people with experience gathering BREEAM evidence

Make sure client team are including BREEAM performance in their appointments, sub-contracts and key reporting criteria for PMs
Include in your fee proposal and initial reports information on design responsibilities relating to evidence gathering and format/types using the BREEAM evidential requirements section from the manual as a guide.
Ask the design team to add into the specifications the full list of evidence to be provided by the contractor.

A pre assessment summary report with a summary of the information required from each party
Set out strong description of what is required for each issue at a very early stage, and keep this in regular discussion, making sure people actually understand what is required and when. Ideally this should be done directly rather than at a big meeting which is often not productive, or the client is present so people nod and say ‘yes i know what im doing’ and then deliver nothing
Meeting with the full team where all issues are explained and where every team member hears what his responsibilities are. During the meeting everybody writes in the pre assessment report what he is responsible for
Clear fee scope and an early meeting to discuss and agree design team responsibilities.

Providing the team a timeline for the delivery of the evidences and managing to monitor this.

Prepare a Contractors BREEAM Specification document, an M&E BREEAM spec document and Architects BREEAM spec which describe what is required and when
Provide schedule of evidence required against each credit and assign responsibilities

Evidence examples and templates are very useful for teams
Ensure team know how to improve any evidence sent asap, what is good / acceptable and what is not compliant
Collaborate with the BREEAM AP or other client project owner, throughout the design and construction phases. Indirectly keep BREEAM on the project team’s agenda!
Praise good evidence so they know they can produce this in the future for further assessments
Clearly explain that most evidence can be based on “usual” project documents if they contain the information needed.

Online portal through which all project team members can access the
criteria and provide evidence in real time.
We use IESTap
Use shared online spaces for sharing documents and records (Dropbox, OneDrive, etc), ensuring the privacy and correct visibility of each folder for each design team/requirement/theme
IES TaP or BREEAM TrackerPlus work well

Provide regular feedback on the evidence they submit rather than just leaving it so they don’t know where they stand.
Attend regular meetings to provide updates on the evidence still needed.
Send out regular evidence trackers - use traffic light system to name and shame the team.
Regular updated action lists for each project team member confirming exactly what they need to provide.
Issue regular score update and list containing the typical design/post construction stage evidence required.
Regular updates and feedback on what has (or hasn’t) been provided.