Services: BREEAM and NEAT Biodiversity Assessments

BREEAM is the world's most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings.  It is used to guide the sustainable design of developments, and to allow developers to demonstrate the sustainability features of their proposals to the local planning authority.  A component of the BREEAM assessment is ecology and biodiversity.  We are licensed BREEAM ecological assessors and can offer this service as part of our ecological survey package for developers.

Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) is an element of BREEAM. CSH establishes a set of criteria to encourage building on sites which are not ecologically valuable, in order to protect sites that are important for nature conservation and, where possible, to enhance local biodiversity. CSH incorporates a checklist of criteria relating to the type of land to be used for new buildings or for access to building sites and a checklist to assist with assessing the value of ecological features. Should the proposed building fail to meet one or more of the ecological criteria the developer has a responsibility to ensure that measures are in place to minimise potential ecological damage and wherever possible take measures to enhance its ecological value. The code covers nine categories including ecology, which cover: ecological value of the site; ecological enhancement; protection of ecological features; and change in ecological value of site, all of which we can address in order to achieve maximum credits for developers.

NEAT is an assessment tool that aims to raise the awareness of the impacts that NHS facilities and services can have on the environment and also to estimate the level of environmental impact taking place.  It is a measure of sustainable construction; all new builds require a NEAT score rating of 'excellent' with refurbishments a score rating of 'very good'.  We have experience of undertaking the ecological component of the NEAT assessment and can offer this service for development on NHS land.

Please see Project Examples for details of our experience in BREEAM and NEAT assessments.

Links:

Project Examples

• Ecological Impact assessment
• Phase V1 Habitat assessment

Services

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