Two developments in Scotland have joined some of the finest examples of sustainable buildings from across the world in being shortlisted for 2016 BREEAM Awards.

The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation and South Lanarkshire College’s Low Carbon Teaching Building were both named in the ‘Education & Health’ category, drawn from the from highest scoring buildings last year under the BREEAM schemes for assessing building sustainability.

Catherine Cosgrove from Austin-Smith:Lord, lead architect on the Low Carbon Teaching Building, said: “Our brief from South Lanarkshire College was a very simple one – to design a new eight classroom teaching building that achieved a BREEAM Outstanding rating. Construction is one of the three main departments within the College and the Client team wanted to experience every part of the design and construction of a low energy building. They intended to use the process as part of their teaching curriculum, something that worked well for them previously when they built a low energy exemplar house on the campus.

“Particular attention was paid to planning methods of post occupancy evaluation. Not only is this monitoring a requirement of the BREEAM “Outstanding” target but it can also be integrated into the construction curriculum. The intention is that the students will play an ongoing role in monitoring and assessing the performance of the building throughout its life.

“It is hugely rewarding to be involved in such an exemplary project which has education at its core.”

Built by Graham Construction, the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI) became the first refurbished building in the UK to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Outstanding’ in October last year, achieving a score of 87.5 per cent.

The shortlists include groundbreaking developments from the UK, France, Sweden, Russia, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Romania.

Director of BREEAM, Gavin Dunn, said: “This year we are celebrating 25 years of BREEAM so it’s great to see such a fantastic variety of innovative and inspirational buildings that demonstrate just how far developers and architects how come on the sustainability journey in that time. We look forward to celebrating the achievements of all the shortlisted teams at the awards dinner on 8th March.”

Architect Bill Gething, UKGBC’s policy advisor Louise Sutherland, Claudine Blamey Head of Sustainability at The Crown Estate, Sarah Richardson Editor of Building magazine and John Cole of the Home Office will join BREEAM’s Technical Director Alan Yates on the judge’s panel for 2016.

The winners will be announced at a celebration dinner at the London Marriot Hotel in Grosvenor Square on 8th March 2016.