Aberdeen City Council is to be the first local authority in Scotland to have in-house BREEAM assessors who will review developments for environmental performance.

A total of 15 staff are being trained by the BRE Academy in Scotland to be able to carry out the work, and they range from building standards officers to senior planners to sustainable development officers.

BREEAM - the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Methodology - sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building’s environmental performance.

It is used in master-planning and new construction, through to operational use and refurbishment and encourages designers, clients, the construction industry and building owners to think about low impact design, construction and operation through the entire life cycle of a building. BREEAM helps minimise the energy demands created by a building, and it considers energy efficiency, occupant health and wellbeing, alternative technologies, location, proximity to transport networks, construction materials used as well as many other aspects.

The assessors will use the information to review new city council or city council-related developments.

Aberdeen City Council communities, housing and infrastructure director, Pete Leonard, said: “This is an exciting development for Aberdeen City Council as this is the first time we’ll be able to carry out our own assessments. We’re looking forward to seeing how the work goes and making a positive difference to the environmental performance of buildings.”

He added that using BREEAM and having in-house BREEAM assessors will also help support the complexities of the planning process.

He said: “It will help us underpin our commitment to environmental performance by embedding BREEAM within our own policies. I understand the Scottish Government is keen to see how Aberdeen City Council applies the BREEAM criteria to buildings, and showcased our local authority as a case study at the EcoBuild conference in London.”

Previously, Aberdeen City Council had contracted BREEAM assessors to visit sites so the new move is designed to save money in the long term.

BREEAM is the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings, with 425,000 buildings with certified BREEAM assessment ratings and 2million registered for assessment since it was first launched in 1990.

It is used by clients, planners, development agencies, funders and developers, property agents, design teams and managers around the world.

BRE’s BREEAM operations director, Tim Bevan, said: “BREEAM is an international standard that is locally adapted to recognise the social, environmental and economic challenges and opportunities within a country.

“Working with local expertise, knowledge and assessors helps ensure BREEAM delivers the best possible and cost effective outcomes in terms of both the whole-life performance of buildings and the business and occupier benefits that result from having higher performing, higher value assets. Aberdeen City Council’s decision to develop its own in-house knowledge and capacity for BREEAM assessments can only lead to more positive outcomes for the council and buildings of the city.”

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. They include aspects related to energy and water use, the internal environment (health and well-being), pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes.

BREEAM addresses wide-ranging environmental and sustainability issues and enables developers, designers and building managers to demonstrate the environmental credentials of their buildings to clients, planners and other initial parties.