❗ BREEAM ≠ strategy ❗

I often hear people complaining about BREEAM or other Green Building ratings. The common refrain: "We are just ticking boxes one meeting after the other."

But when I ask that same person about their project's sustainability strategy, the response is often, "We're aiming for BREEAM Excellent." 🤨

Here's the thing: BREEAM is not a strategy. It's a certification and validation system we use to measure our actions against a standardized set of sustainability related KPIs for buildings.

🚀 So what is the game plan?

1️⃣ Start with a clear strategy and define your "North Star" for the project first. Discuss and communicate that in your team so everyone knows what to work towards and why.

2️⃣ Based on your strategy, define your primary objectives.
Make sure you find some focus areas that match your project's characteristics.

3️⃣ Set the key results you want to achieve reflecting your objectives. And determine which metric tells when you have been successful.
-> this is where BREEAM and other science-based metrics come in.

4️⃣ Implement your strategy.

During implementation you will indeed use checklists, because not everyone in your team knows the requirements by heart and you need concrete steps to follow. But it won't feel like ticking boxes anymore because you will use your 'North Star' to guide you towards the right decisions and know which results to achieve.

Oh, and there absolutely is a way use BREEAM in a very strategic way using a few key credits that drive a whole range of others. But that's a topic for another time. 😉

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