Max Fordham set to deliver UK’s largest full timber structure, net zero carbon office building
BREEAM
Launched in 1990, BREEAM (the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method) was the world’s first methodology for comparing the environmental impacts of building and is still the most widely applied industry standard in the UK. Max Fordham has been providing BREEAM Licenced Assessor and Accredited Professional (AP) services to our clients for over 20 years.
BREEAM leaders
Total of 4 people
About BREEAM
We use BREEAM as a way of embedding real, workable sustainability aspirations in every stage of a project’s design and construction, leading to demonstrably positive sustainability outcomes. Thanks to our clear, simple, and timely BREEAM assessment coordination and practical guidance, many of our projects go on to achieve BREEAM 'Outstanding' or BREEAM 'Excellent' ratings.
Proactively engaging with clients and wider design teams early (ideally before RIBA Stage 2), we aim to simplify and add significant value to the process. We work closely with clients and architects to select the BREEAM credits that will not only satisfy Greater London Authority (GLA) or other Local Authority Planning requirements, but also most positively influence the whole building design, leading to the best sustainability outcomes. We help to secure credits through producing documentation from facilitated sessions, such as running workshops to start the conversation about circular economy principles, climate change adaption risk assessment, and whole life carbon modelling, as well as providing bespoke visual user guides as part of our Aftercare, Soft Landings, and Post Occupancy Evaluation services.
Case studies
Total of 3 projects
Related journal entries
All services
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All buildings should be comfortable and a pleasure to be in: warm, well-lit, well-ventilated, well-used, and well-loved. Our mechanical and electrical engineering, vertical transportation, acoustics, daylight, and lighting design services can help ensure just that. We maximise passive measures such as natural ventilation and daylighting, seamlessly dovetailing our designs with the building’s own form and architecture to result in simple, low-energy, and low-cost building services.
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In the face of an increasingly urgent climate emergency, it’s crucial that buildings consume as little energy as possible in their operation. Low energy, low carbon, and low operational costs are our watchwords when it comes to designing new buildings or retrofitting existing ones. We help our clients build sustainability goals into masterplans or early-stage feasibility studies, decarbonise existing estates, and optimise how a building performs against its targets for sustainability and user comfort.
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Meeting net zero carbon targets and minimising a building’s impact on the environment means reducing embodied carbon – the carbon tied up in the materials like steel, concrete, and plastic that go into a building’s construction and services design – as much as operational carbon (the carbon a building produces in its heating, cooling, and lighting). We facilitate material reuse with circular economy strategies, steer low embodied carbon design from the earliest project stages with whole life carbon assessments, and offer advice on planning and compliance, all helping to reduce the carbon footprint of construction.