Sustainable shopkeepers

It was not for nothing that Napoleon described Britain as a nation of shopkeepers. There are more than 322 000 retail outlets in the UK and, at the end of last year, one in nine of the workforce (nearly 3 million people) were working in the retail sector. We are certainly a nation of shoppers, with the retail spend for 2002 totalling £234 billion.

In view of the size and importance of this sector, a new version of BRE's Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), has been developed to help improve the environmental performance of retail developments.

Since its launch in 1990 BREEAM has become widely accepted in UK construction and property sectors as offering best practice in environmental design and management. The government's sustainability action plan, Achieving Sustainability in Construction Procurement, specifies that all government procured projects must achieve a BREEAM, or equivalent rating of "Excellent" for new builds and "Very Good" for refurbishments.

BREEAM Retail has been developed over two years by BRE's Centre for Sustainable Construction in partnership with FaberMaunsell, WSP Environmental UK and Upstream. The scheme's development was sponsored by a number of key players in the retail industry – Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury's Property Services and many more1 – who also made important contributions.

"We had recognised the need for an environmental auditing scheme some while ago," says Barry Knight, head of engineering, energy, maintenance management and cleaning at Marks & Spencer. "So when we heard that an already established assessment method was being adapted to the retail sector, we were keen to support the initiative.

"We hope to apply BREEAM Retail to the design and management of new stores, to refurbishments and, when we have greater experience with the scheme in practice, to the management of existing outlets," says Knight. Marks & Spencer piloted the new scheme on its flagship store at Marble Arch in London. "It was a very valuable exercise. I think both M&S and the assessors, FaberMaunsell, learned a great deal. We now plan to apply the scheme to the refurbishment of one of our Head Office sites at 27 Baker Street in London and also in our new Marks & Spencer Lifestore opening in Gateshead in Spring 2004."

How does BREEAM work?
BREEAM's success over the last decade stems from its ability to cover a wide range of environmental issues in one assessment, and to present the results in a way that is transparent and easy to understand. Table 1 outlines the aspects it uses to assess a building.

The assessments are carried out by trained building professionals operating under licence to BRE. It acts as the auditing body for the scheme and provides a level of independence and consistency through its quality assurance procedures. Credits are awarded for meeting or exceeding good practice. The credit scores achieved under each issue category are then weighted to take account of the importance of that issue to the total environmental impact of the building. This allows an overall score for the building to be calculated and translated into a single BREEAM rating on a scale of: pass, good, very good and excellent.

BREEAM Retail can be applied to any retail development at either the design, tenant fit out or operation and management stage of a retail building's life. This version of BREEAM has, with advice from retail sector representatives, been tailored to meet the particular needs of the sector.

The assessment method has been adapted to cater for the very wide range of building types and functions in the retail sector. With BREEAM offices, for example, there is a set list of criteria, all of which are applied in each case – different office developments generally having much in common. For BREEAM Retail the system is more flexible and the content of the criteria more diverse. A large supermarket for example will have its cold store refrigeration system included as part of the assessment. But such a function would not be required in a designer shoe shop, so criteria such as this are not applied.

One of the features of retail premises is the relative frequency with which they are fitted and refitted – the shop floor gutted, the layout changed, units replaced. BREEAM Retail therefore includes a version of the methodology for assessing the materials , energy, and waste, etc during a tenant fit out.

The operation of retail businesses can involve particularly large amounts of waste because of the quantities of packaging that must be dealt with on a daily basis. The BREEAM issue category for materials has been adapted for retail to reflect this.

The BREEAM Retail Advisory Committee strongly suggested that a less formal version of the assessment be developed – along with the full version – which could be undertaken by a retail firm before committing to the full formal assessment. In response to this, a new feature of BREEAM is being developed specifically for the retail scheme. It is a building operation and management self-assessment package that allows the internal self-assessment of any retail site at the operation and management stage. As part of the package the user is trained to apply the methodology to their retail development, and to gain an accurate benchmark of their performance which is comparable to the BREEAM standard. This allows retailers to start a process of assessment and improvement using the BREEAM Retail assessment methodology without actually having to commit to a formal independent audit. The BREEAM Retail self-assessment package will be available this November.

Health and wellbeing
As well as design and refurbishment, BREEAM Retail focuses on aspects of the operation, management and maintenance of retail buildings in which building service engineers will be closely involved, such as health and wellbeing – credits are awarded, for example, for minimising microbial contamination of humidification and water systems; making good use of daylighting, avoiding glare and providing local office lighting controls, openable office windows and good air quality.

For energy assessment credits are awarded, for example, for specifying and maintaining energy efficient light fittings; controlling internal lighting in balance with occupancy and daylight availability; efficient specification and performance of hvac systems and controls; energy efficient specification and operation of cold food cabinets, stores and drink coolers, and specifying energy efficient laundry and dry cleaning equipment, lifts and escalators.

Under the water criteria credits are awarded, for example, for the use and maintenance of low-water-use sanitary ware; rainwater and grey water collection; and the efficient water use and use of recycled water in car washes, etc. Credits are also awarded under the pollution category. This includes credits for minimal use of ozone depleting substances in insulants and refrigerants and effective management of leaks; using low NOx boilers; minimising dust, odour and noise pollution, and separating oil and grease from waste water.

With several hundred office buildings having undergone the BREEAM process now it's the turn of Britain's shopkeepers.