We offer sustainable development consultations (like BREEAM) through the whole development lifecycle (from planning to technical design stages). Our expertise includes compiling single analyses as well as project management in sustainable development.
In sustainable development, different building quality and environmental evaluation standards are used. In practice, most sustainable projects in Estonia choose to use BREEAM as the certification standard.
What is BREEAM?
BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world’s longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of buildings, with 200,000 buildings with certified BREEAM assessment ratings and over a million registered for assessment since it was first launched in 1990. A BREEAM assessment uses recognised measures of performance, which are set against established benchmarks, to evaluate a building’s specification, design, construction and use. The measures used represent a broad range of categories and criteria from energy to ecology.
BREEAM includes several sustainability categories for the assessment, generally:
- Management
- Energy
- Health & wellbeing
- Transport
- Water
- Materials
- Waste
- Land use and ecology
- Pollution
BREEAM assessment and certification originates from England, but is also popular in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe, with several countries having established their own country-specific BREEAM schemes.
Experiences and quality. BREEAM in the Baltics
Potential clients are the real estate developers who seek for high quality and reputation as a sustainable company. There is growing evidence that BREEAM-rated buildings provide increased rates of return for investors, and increased rental rates and sales premiums for developers and owners.
The first BREEAM certified project in Estonia (extension of the Ülemiste Centre in Tallinn) was finalised in 2015. Since then there is a growing number of developments in Estonia applying for BREEAM certification, same trend can be seen in other Baltic States.
A certificated BREEAM assessment is delivered by a licensed BREEAM Assessor and in Estonia the Estonian Green Building Council (GBC) has the best expertise in this. Hendrikson DGE belongs to the GBC and works closely together with the most experienced BREEAM Assessors in Estonia. Hendrikson DGE sustainability expert – Green Building Professional (Sustainable Pro) – is Jaak Järvekülg, who is our leading expert on BREEAM.
Since 2011 we have worked with BREEAM assessments on 8 different development sites and performed over 25 different studies/analyses for these assessments, both in Estonia and Latvia. The most prominent examples include Ülemiste shopping centre in Tallinn and Origo shopping/business centre in Riga.
Estonian Green Building Council has fairly good contact network to find Clients in in the Baltics.
Hendrikson DGE has done and is ready to provide the following services/studies within the sustainability spectrum:
- Project management in sustainability assessment process;
- Ecological assessment;
- Life Cycle Cost Analyses (LCC);
- Life Cycle Analyses (LCA, CO2 emissions);
- Travel Plan;
- Adaption to Climate Change;
- Storm Water Management;
- Energy Modelling and Calculations (together with sub-contractors);
- Acoustical Assessment (together with sub-contractors).