Green Guide to Specification

BREEAM is the Building Research Establishment (BRE) Environmental Assessment Method, first launched in the UK in 1990. It sets best practice standards for the environmental performance of buildings through design, specification, construction and operation.

The Green Guide to Specification, also referred to as the Green Guide, is part of BREEAM. It was first published by BRE in 1996 offering a simple guide to the environmental impacts of building materials based on numerical data and including more than 1,500 specifications for six generic types building:

• Commercial
• Educational
• Healthcare
• Retail
• Domestic
• Industrial

Environmental rankings are based on Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), using BRE's Environmental Profiles Methodology. They are arranged on an elemental basis so users can compare materials and components as they compile specifications:

• External walls
• Internal walls and partitions
• Roofs
• Ground floors
• Upper floors
• Windows
• Insulation
• Landscaping
• Floor finishes

Data is set out as an A+ to E ranking system, where A+ represents the best environmental performance and E the worst. A summary of ratings is provided by The Green Guide rating, which is a measure of overall environmental impacts covering:

• Climate change
• Water extraction
• Mineral resource extraction
• Stratospheric ozone depletion
• Human toxicity
• Ecotoxicity to freshwater
• Nuclear waste (higher level)
• Ecotoxicity to land
• Waste disposal
• Fossil fuel depletion
• Eutrophication
• Photochemical ozone creation
• Acidification

This allows specifiers to select items based on their preferences or priorities.

You can find out more about the Green Guide at: https://www.bre.co.uk/greenguide

--BRE Group

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