More snow at Morden Hall Park and while the builders have been digging service trenches in the snow, surveying drains in the snow and shovelling snow in the snow, we have spent many a happy hour researching A+ rated fridges and finding out where the nearest cash point and pharmacy are as part of the BREEAM assessment for the project. As exciting as that sounds, it doesn't make a good picture so here's a photo Lucy took of the park instead

NTPL/Lucy Alfred

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BREEAM (Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method) is the world’s leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. Credits are awarded in ten categories according to performance: Management, Waste, Health and Wellbeing, Pollution, Energy, Land Use and Ecology, Transport, Materials, Water and Innovation. The credits are then added together to produce a single overall score on a scale of Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent and Outstanding.

As our project falls outside of the scope of the standard BREEAM schemes (courts, offices, prisons, beehives etc - only joking, although a beehive should score quite well considering the good potential for natural ventilation, reduced night time light pollution and easy access to outdoor space) we will be assessed under the BREEAM Bespoke process.

Our initial meeting to discuss the assessment with the consultants covered everything from the likely Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating to the distance to the nearest bus stop. Because of the high standards that we have set ourselves during the design stage and the choices we have made our Pessimistic Target Score is 'Good' and the Optimistic Target Score is 'Excellent'.

There’s a lot to do over the next few months to pull all the information together but with a predicted pessimistic score of good, it’s encouraging to know that all the discussions during the design stage about paint, insulation and our commitment to making the project as green as possible is paying off.