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This study examines the relationship between environmental building certification Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM-NL) and office rents in the Dutch office market.

A hedonic price model was used to assess the impact of BREEAM certification on office rents. The study is based on 4,355 rent transactions in the period 2015 to mid-2022, in which 331 transactions took place in certified office buildings and 4,024 transactions in non-certified office buildings.

The results provide empirical evidence on quantitative economic benefits of BREEAM-certified offices in the Netherlands. After controlling for all important office rent determinants, the results show a rental premium for certified office buildings of 10.3% on average. The green premiums highly differ across submarkets and vary between 5.1 and 12.6% in the five largest Dutch cities. Additionally, the results show significant positive correlation between BREEAM-NL label score and rents, whereby better performing buildings generally command higher rents.

The study contributes to the current literature on green building economics by providing, as one of the first, empirical evidence on the existence of financial benefits for BREEAM-certified office buildings in the Dutch office market.

The UK government’s support for sustainable construction involves an explicit attempt to introduce a new institutional logic into the construction sector, while the use of Building Research Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) as a preferred policy mechanism exemplifies neoliberal use of voluntary self-regulation to promote policy goals. This paper uses the case of BREEAM to examine the role of science and scientific expertise in the exercise of neoliberal governance. More specifically, it combines a neo-institutional analysis of change with Foucault’s theory of governmentality to explore the effect of BREEAM on eight construction projects. The concepts of visibility, knowledge, techniques, and identity provide an analytic grid to explore the effect of BREEAM on understandings and practices of “green building.” Appeals to science and scientific authority are found to be most important in those instances where institutional logics clash and the legitimacy of BREEAM as a carrier of sustainable construction is challenged. From a theoretical perspective, the case studies highlight the role of instruments in the micro-dynamics of institutionalization. Empirically, it underlines the limited, but nonetheless significant, effect of weakly institutionalized neoliberal policy mechanisms.

Buildings are a substantial contributor towards CO2 levels, and design methods to make buildings much more energy efficient are evolving. In the UK, the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) has been in operation for over ten years. The scheme is intended to produce a label that distinguishes sustainable developments in the marketplace. This paper uses an in‐depth case study to examine the role of BREEAM in the design and marketing of a city centre office development. The influence of BREEAM in the design process and among the designers is seen as significant, but its influence in the property market is not explicit. The paper concludes that internal environmental conditions are increasingly important to occupiers, but evidence of sustainable development being led by the market is not observed in this case study.

Recent years have seen a growth in the importance afforded to environmental issues, including the environmental aspects of property. One manifestation of this growth is the emergence of the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) developed by the Building Research Establishment (BRE). Using a limited research vehicle, this paper examines the basic requirements for a BREEAM assessment and the skills required to undertake such an assessment. It compares these skills with those held by building surveyors and considers whether building surveyors are sufficiently well placed to offer BREEAM assessments as part of their portfolio of services. The conclusion is that BREEAM assessments do represent a potential market opportunity which merits consideration.

This paper aims to investigate the drivers and barriers for green leases and tenancies in sustainable “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method” (BREEAM) and “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED) certified office and office buildings in Norway, the UK and the USA. This study focuses on the differing perspectives between owners and tenants. It is then considered as to how these issues are dealt with during different phases of a buildings life cycle. This research is based on existing literature and semi-structured interviews that studied qualitative and quantitative elements in the context of ownership and tenancy of single and multi-tenanted sustainable office buildings.

Using a mixed-method approach involving semi-structured interviews with both qualitative and quantitative elements along with desk research, this paper evaluates how green leases and tenancies in offices and office buildings that are BREEAM and LEED certified require a reconsideration and re-evaluation of the acquisition, operation and disposal of office buildings by building owners and their tenants. These stakeholder relationships are supported theoretically using a theoretical model that outlines the interrelation between the sustainable building and the relationships of the building owner, the user and the FM service provider.

The data gathered from the interviews justify and partly contradict some of the statements within existing literature, diminishing the importance of cost and the barrier of split incentive but instead illuminate the importance of less tangible considerations such as company policy or a sustainability strategy. The results also note the realisation of a changing market for commercial real estate driven by the sustainable business needs of tenants for the occupation of workspaces.

These findings have the potential to further develop theories and provide an insight into how the relationships between actors from a business, procurement and contractual perspective need to be developed to ensure more proactive development of green leasing of new and existing sustainable office buildings, along with where strategic attention is required during the building design, construction, operational and use phases.

This paper is based on original research through interviews and literature studies supported by an existing theoretical model. The results have been partly presented and initially discussed at the WBC World Congress 2016 in Tampere, Finland.

Outlines the development of the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), and discusses the operating process behind the first version BREEAM 1/90. Examines the objectives and criteria for BREEAM, highlighting its functions to provide recognition for buildings which are friendlier to the global environment than normal, so stimulating a market for them; to raise awareness of the dominant role which the use of energy in buildings plays in global warming; to provide a common set of targets and standards. Explores the environmental issues addressed in BREEAM, concentrating on global, neighbourhood and internal issues. Suggests future issues and comments on the assessment process.

As green buildings have become more widely accepted, constructors (general contractors, construction managers and subcontractors) have become more involved and are playing an increasing role in the success of these projects. As a result, constructors need and want a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) projects, while exploring ways to provide a “value‐added” service to the projects. Past research has identified “Innovation in Design (ID)” credits as a potential “value‐added opportunity” for constructors to become preferred members of LEED project teams. Similar opportunities may also exist on Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) project teams. This paper seeks to address these issues.

The methodology encompassed an overview of “Innovation Credits (IC)” in LEED‐NC, BREEAM green building guidelines and an analysis of the ID category in LEED‐NC from a constructor's viewpoint in general, and electrical contractors in particular.

The findings of this research have identified ID credits as a potential “value‐added opportunity” for constructors to become preferred members of the LEED project teams. In contrast to LEED, this research has identified that similar opportunities for constructors do not exist for ICs under BREEAM as past or current ICs are not available in the public domain unless accessed by a BREEAM Assessor or Approved Person. This lack of access to information could have a negative impact and stifle future innovations and is an area worthy of further research.

This research provides an understanding of the constructor's role in the ID category and contributes to the broader literature related to the role of the construction industry in the green building movement. It is envisioned that the research output will serve as easy to use reference resources for the electrical contracting industry for proposing and achieving ID credits on LEED projects. It is also envisaged that this research will lead to recognition of the need for BREEAM ICs to be accessed within the public domain.

The construction, use and demolition of buildings carry enormous environmental burdens. As one step to reduce a building’s environmental impact, green building design guidelines and certification programs, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Cradle to Cradle and the Whole Building Design Guide, promote the specification of alternative, non-traditional building materials. Alternative materials carry a variety of potential benefits: reducing the amount of energy and other resources needed to create building materials; creating healthier indoor and outdoor environments; diverting or reducing waste from landfills; reducing the use of scarce, critical or economically volatile materials; and spurring innovation in the building industry. However, a lack of clarity surrounds alternative materials and creates a barrier to their usage. The purpose of this paper is to review definitions of alternative materials in various design guidelines in order to provide context to their specification and usage.

Through a survey of green building programs and guidelines, existing literature on alternative materials, and life-cycle assessment using multiple inventory databases, this study tackles the following questions: what constitutes an alternative building material; what are the current barriers to their specification; how are they specified in the most common design guidelines; and do alternative building materials present a “greener” alternative?

These results show that while often alternative materials do in fact show promise for reducing environmental impacts of the built environment, by how much can be a challenging question to quantify and depends on a variety of factors. While many green building guides and certification systems provide recommendations for use of alternative materials, the sheer diversity and uncertainty of these systems coupled with the complexity in understanding their impacts still present a significant barrier to their specification. Much work remains in a variety of disciplines to tackle these barriers. A clear emphasis should be on better understanding their environmental impacts, particularly with respect to the context within the built environment that their specification will provide energy, resource and emission savings. Other key areas of significant work include reducing costs, removing regulatory and code barriers, and educating designers, consumers, and end-users.

Alternative materials are defined and specified in a diversity of contexts leaving the design and construction communities hesitant to promote their use; other work has found this to be a key barrier to their widespread usage. By compiling definitions, barriers and design guidelines instructions while also exploring analytically the benefits of specific cases, this work provides a foundation for better understanding where new, more sustainable materials can be successfully specified.

The purpose of this paper is to present research that analyses the energy performance and occupancy satisfaction in two very similar buildings that have been designed, constructed and are in use by one government department within the UK.

The work presented applies post occupancy evaluation (POE), metered data and benchmarking to evaluate the two case study buildings.

Findings are related to a (BRE environmental assessment method) BREEAM assessment that was undertaken for one building, but not for the other. Results show that these closely related cases have similar occupancy satisfaction levels, but rather different energy performance. This last aspect is thought to be due to differences in functions of the buildings. Surprisingly, the use of a BREEAM assessment during the design stage has not contributed to making the case involved more energy efficient.

This paper only compares two cases, with all inherent limitations. The methodology is limited to POE and metered data; no full monitoring or thermal simulation efforts have been conducted at this stage.

The project demonstrates that very similar buildings might perform differently. Findings raise some questions over the impact that can be expected from BREEAM ratings.

The study of two closely related buildings provides interesting information to practitioners on factors that might be underrated in current design methods and performance assessment ratings.