Background
BREEAM is the leading sustainability certification scheme for buildings. All types of buildings, from those newly designed to those in use for a long period of time, can undergo the certification process. By undergoing certification, a building can achieve better energy efficiency, minimise environmental impact, utility consumption and thereby reduce the cost of using the building.
BREEAM is a multi-criteria analysis, taking into account aspects of a building’s performance such as: Governance, Health and Wellbeing, Energy, Transport, Water, Materials, Waste, Land Use and Ecology, Pollution, Innovation.
The EU taxonomy, on the other hand, is a classification system that introduces uniform criteria to assess whether an activity can be considered sustainable. Its aim is to channel the flow of private capital to investments that are climate and environmentally friendly.
For an economic activity to be considered sustainable, it must make a significant contribution to one of the six objectives while not significantly harming the other objectives. The EU Taxonomy also covers the real estate industry: renovation of existing buildings, construction of new buildings, acquisition and ownership of buildings. The obligation to report compliance with the Taxonomy for the largest companies is from 1 January 2022.
BREEAM and EU Taxonomy
Although being separate schemes – both the EU Taxonomy and BREEAM certification apply to properties.
Currently, BREEAM certification is compliant with the Taxonomy criteria at quite a high level – most of the Taxonomy criteria are fully or partially included in BREEAM certification as well.
BRE Global declares that their certification will be increasingly compliant with the Taxonomy and they are committed to its further development. They have also announced a review of certification once the technical criteria for all EU Taxonomy targets have been published. These ambitious declarations will allow BREEAM to become increasingly compliant with EU legislation.
BREEAM certification covers many more aspects than the Taxonomy. Undergoing the certification process can help a company prepare for reporting compliance with the Taxonomy, making the process simpler. In addition, BREEAM can provide the data needed to determine whether a building makes a significant contribution to 1 of the 6 objectives of the Taxonomy, such as data from energy analyses carried out. In addition, validation of the assessment by an accredited assessor ensures the quality of the data used in the analysis and the final assessment of the building.
What can Go4Energy do for you?
We offer our clients to carry out an EU Taxonomy investment compliance analysis and :
- EU Taxonomy compliance analysis for new buildings,
- EU Taxonomy compliance analysis for building refurbishments,
- conducting an analysis of the impact of BREEAM, LEED and WELL certifications on the Taxonomy.
We also support the implementation of ESG and sustainability activities:
- creation of ESG reports for buildings and organisations,
- carbon footprint calculations for the building and organisation,
- preparation of decarbonisation strategies,
- preparation of a strategy to achieve climate neutrality for the company,
- development of a client-specific sustainability strategy,
- identification and verification of compliance with the EU Taxonomy to confirm the sustainability of investments according to EU requirements for both existing and new buildings,
- advice on EU climate change regulations.
If you need support in the process of Taxonomy compliance analysis or BREEAM certification, we invite you to contact us. Our experts will provide your organisation with expert advice and support at every stage of the process.
Author : Emilia Rogowska