BREEAM Expertise: Unlocking Sustainability in the Light Industrial Buildings Sector
It is well documented that industrial facilities can have a negative impact on the environment, both in the UK and globally. It is therefore vital that industrial buildings are constructed or refurbished in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. This article looks at how Mainers BREEAM expertise can help you.
Experienced in BREEAM
Mainer Associates has extensive experience in achieving the highest BREEAM ratings in the Light Industrial Buildings Sector, ranging from Offices, through Industrial, R&D, Retail and Healthcare buildings.
By achieving a high BREEAM rating you can contribute to environmental protection and future-proof your buildings, making them less polluting, as well as more resource efficient and cost-effective in operation.
Through the coordinated expertise of our in-house teams, Mainer Associates has developed a range of design approaches and specifications that satisfy BREEAM requirements and meet regulatory best practice.
Crucially, we focus our efforts on the most cost-effective, sustainable solution for our clients at every RIBA stage. It is easier to start at the beginning and design your building in a sustainble manner that will achieve certification from the outset, rather than attempting to retrofit sustainability as an afterthought. To this end, we recommend early stage pre-assessment services, to discuss likely and potential scoring and help achieve the sustainability targets of your projects.
While other consultancies may simply undertake an assessor role, at Mainer Associates we look to bring our wealth of experience in sustainable design to the project team. It is through the inclusion of our experts at the early feasibility and design stages that the most appropriate solutions can be implemented to achieve higher BREEAM ratings.
BREEAM Industrial
The BREEAM Industrial methodology is used to assess the environmental impact of the development and construction of storage and distribution centres, light industrial units, and factories and workshops in the following circumstances:
Speculative: Speculatively developed buildings with an unknown end occupier.
Fitted Out: Buildings that are being designed and fitted out for a known end occupier, or the end occupier is unknown but the operational area is being fitted out.
Our BREEAM assessors will conduct industrial assessments and BREEAM certification for:
UK New Construction Scheme, and
Buildings undergoing a major refurbishment
UK New Construction scheme
This is a performance-based assessment method and certification scheme for new buildings in the UK. The main aim of this scheme is to mitigate the environmental impacts associated with construction and operation of new builds. This is achieved through integration and use of the scheme by clients and their project teams at key stages in the design and construction process. Clients can evaluate and reflect the performance of their new building against best practice in an independent and robust manner.
The scheme can be used to assess buildings at the following stages:
Design stage (DS)
Post construction stage (PCS)
Post occupancy stage (POS)
Early engagement with the BREEAM UK New Construction scheme and appointment of a licenced assessor is important to achieve optimal building results through greater flexibility in design solutions. Mainer Associates can help you assess your new building at any stage, through consultation with one of our licenced BREEAM assessors.
Building undergoing Major Refurbishment
With the onset of minimum standards of energy efficiency in the lettings market, comes a need to improve the sustainability credentials of existing building stock. The use of the BREEAM Refurbishment and Fit-Out scheme can assist in this, whilst also providing robust accreditation which will allow existing building stock to compete with newly constructed developments, which are likely to have been constructed in accordance with the equivalent New Construction Scheme.
Tracker Plus
Tracker Plus Communication and project management is key to the success of any BREEAM assessment. We undertake all assessments using our online BREEAM Project Management tool, Tracker +.
As a BRE-accredited piece of software, it has been specifically designed to provide project teams and assessors with a platform to upload and assess project information and provide a level of access to progress previously absent.
What is perhaps the most significant benefit of the system is that our assessors and consultants are able to remove many of the administrative tasks associated with BREEAM and undertake a more involved role for the client.
Tracker Plus helps assessors and APs to manage assessment while providing design team members and other stakeholders with unrivalled access to progress information and tracker documents that are fully filterable, such that the specific information required by each team member can be easily reviewed.
Our Case Studies
Milton Park, Oxfordshire
Type: Office, Industrial Warehouse and Distribution
Client: MEPC
Services: BREEAM
Milton Park development consists of 7 properties across 3 buildings providing high tech research and development workspace with offices.
Comprising a total GIA of just under 80,000 sq ft, featuring 7 new research and development workspaces ranging from 6,000 sq ft up to a single building of 30,000 sq ft (557 - 2,787 sq m).
Mainer Associates was appointed during RIBA Stage 1 / 2 of each project being progressed at the site, which include office space, high tech industries and laboratories.
Due to the Local Development Order facilitated by the Local Authority, the relaxed planning regulations make each development on the site move very quickly.
Mainer Associates were brought in at the very early stages of the development to ensure the company policy of BREEAM Excellent is achieved with as little additional cost as possible.
Grove Business Park, Oxfordshire
Type: Office, Industrial Warehouse and R&D
Client: TOF Corporate Trustee Limited
Services: BREEAM
Located in Oxford, the development is aiming to deliver a phased rollout of multi-use industrial, office, warehouse and laboratory spaces. The site currently holds existing buildings, and we’ve been brought on to develop the Phase 1 works, consisting of 3 'block' types of buildings: 2 x Tech Boxes and 1 x Hybrid.
These units represent ~87,000 sq.ft featuring a mix of warehouse and office spaces, alongside laboratory spaces where required by the tenant. We were appointed at the pre-assessment stage, formulating a BREEAM credit scenario for each of the buildings to achieve BREEAM Excellent. Mainer have since gone onto assist the design team through the early design stages, ensuring time sensitive surveys and reports are completed. We aim to provide the design team, and eventual tendering contractor, with cost effective and efficient pathways to achieving the BREEAM rating.
Silverstone, Northamptonshire
Type: Multiple Buildings (Light Industrial)
Client: MEPC
Services: BREEAM
Mainer Associates worked with our client, MEPC Limited and architect, SRA Architects Ltd on Phase 3 of this development, helping to deliver a BREEAM Assessment.
Phase 3 has been completed and Phase 4 and 5 are currently underway.
The project include properties to suit high-tech engineering companies of all sizes, with industrial units and workshops located opposite the illustrious Silverstone Formula 1 circuit amidst the beautifully landscaped surroundings of the technology and research Park.
Monks Cross, York
Type: Retail Units
Client: Oakgate Monks Cross Limited
Services: BREEAM
For the Monks Cross development near York Mainer undertook multiple BREEAM Assessments, including 10 Retail and 1 Bespoke.
The development includes a number of retail units and a new community stadium and community centre. We worked closely with the project team and providing ongoing support to ensure the stringent planning and tenant requirements was met.
Mainer were instrumental in the decision-making process for the selection of renewable technologies for the site and were able to utilise our influence within the project team to change the chosen renewable technology to be installed on site from ASHPs to Solar PV. This not only provided the retailer with the most appropriate technology for the site, but also enabled a significant uplift in the number of BREEAM credits awarded.
If you have a BREEAM requirement in the Light Industrial Business Sector
please contact us at hello@mainer.co.uk for a consultation
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