Part of the BRE Trust
Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Delivering Sustainable Buildings: Savings and Payback – Breakfast Briefing Yetunde Abdul, Principal Consultant, BRE
– BREEAM UK New Construction 2011 scheme
– Covers costs associated with: § ‘Pass’ to ‘Excellent’ ratings § Energy and water capital and life cycle costs,
payback and utility savings
– Key contributors § BRE Global – project managers and authors § BRE Trust and Cabinet Office – funding bodies § Sweett Group – provided costing information,
conducted cost studies and produced cost results
BREEAM UK New Construction scheme – New BRE Trust capital and life cycle cost study
– Lack of cost data relating to post 2008 UK BREEAM schemes
– Builds on previously BRE Trust research e.g. Putting a Price on Sustainability
– Key BREEAM stakeholders requesting more recent evidence of costs associated with sustainable buildings
– Inform BREEAM scheme development - BREEAM UK New Construction 2011 to the 2014 version
Why conduct this research?
– Three case study buildings: § an air-conditioned office § a secondary school § a community healthcare centre
– Base case building established (meets statutory requirements)
– Range of sustainability measures identified and applied
– Represented progressively higher levels of BREEAM ratings
– Factors taken into consideration in determining costs include: § Location (poor, typical, good) § Range of specification choices/design decisions
Methodology: an overview
Capital costs – Achieving lower BREEAM ratings incurs little or no
additional cost
– Targeting higher BREEAM ratings incurs some additional cost but this is typical less than 2 %
Lifecycle costs – The study of operational costs shows that this can
be paid back within 2 - 5 years through utility cost savings
Key results
Office case study
Office case study building General project information – Speculative building, consisting of five storeys
– Gross floor area = 13,800 m2
– Net office space area = 11,150m2
– Base build capital cost = £27.6m (£2000/m2)
Features – Steel-frame construction, concrete ground-floor slab and upper floors, glazed
curtain walling, double-glazed windows – Four-pipe fan-coil air conditioning served by gas boilers and water cooled chillers,
efficient lighting system, electric instantaneous hot water to all toilet and kitchen areas
– High quality space expected to attract tenants with an interest in the green agenda
Increase in capital costs for each BREEAM rating
Location
BREEAM score and rating for the case study building
% Increase in capital cost relative to BREEAM rating of Pass, Good / Very Good / Excellent
Pass Good Very Good Excellent
Good 46.7 (Good) 0 0 0.13 0.87
Typical Further information available in the report for these location types Poor
Energy consumption life cycle costs and savings: Contribution to BREEAM Excellent rating – Option 2
Energy Solution
Energy price scenario
Capital Costs (£)
Lifecycle savings (£)
Payback period (years)
Annual Gas Savings (kWh)
Annual electricity Savings – (kWh)
Annual CO2 savings – (kgCO2)
Option 1 - Passive chilled beams Option 2 - Active chilled beams
Central DECC energy prices
167,250
479,352 8
-1450 153,870 79,264 High DECC energy prices
503,313 8
Lifecycle savings equate to the net electricity and gas bill savings less any additional maintenance or replacement costs over 25 years.
Water consumption life cycle costs and savings BREEAM credits
Capital Cost (over baseline) (£)
Payback period (Higher tariff)
Payback period (Lower tariff)
Water saving per annum (m3/years)
1st 0 0 0 2847
2nd 1220 1 1 3566
3rd 8570 1 1 5014
4th 14,150 1 2 6017
5th 74,150 3 9 6425
Lower tariff (Ofwat figures) assumes a tariff of £1.692/m3 (Thames Water) plus a 0.5% tariff increase per annum. Higher tariff (Ofwat figures) assumes a tariff of £4.351/m3 (South West Water) plus a 0.5% tariff increase per annum.
Growing evidence of sustainability benefits
Investment costs not as high as perceived
2013 World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) report
2012 BSRIA Report: The Value of BREEAM report
2012 RICS report :Supply, Demand and the
Value of Green
2012 Town & Country Planning Association’s
publication ‘Good Practice Guide – Sustainable Design & Construction
Potentially significant life cycle cost savings
Increased value, suggested higher staff productivity levels
Decreasing costs
Trend towards a reduction in the increased capital costs associated with BREEAM ratings: Offices
BREEAM rating
BREEAM version used in capital cost studies
2004* 2008† 2011‡
Pass 0.0 – 0.0
Good 0.0 – 0.05 – 0.15
Very good 0.2 0.17 0.13 – 0.34
Excellent 0.1 – 5.7 0.77 0.87 – 1.71
* Putting a Price on Sustainability (2004) † Steel Construction info, Target Zero (2008) ‡ Delivering Savings and Payback (2014) This version of BREEAM does not necessarily denote the year of building construction or year of BREEAM assessment
Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Thank you www.breeam.com/value [email protected]