BREEAM Infrastructure Technical Manuals

What is BREEAM Infrastructure for Projects

BREEAM Infrastructure for Projects is applicable to all types of civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping and public realm works. This is divided into BREEAM Infrastructure for Projects UK & Ireland and BREEAM Infrastructure for Projects International, which enables the BREEAM Infrastructure manual to respond to locally sensitive guidance or governing laws.

Choosing your assessment type

There are five assessment types available in BREEAM Infrastructure for Projects, one for the whole project team and four for parts of the team where not all project partners can take part or where individual members of the team would like to have their own role assessed and recognised separately:

• Whole Project: the full BREEAM Infrastructure assessment applied jointly by the client, designer and principal contractor(s)
• Strategy & Design: for a joint application by the client and designer. This can be achieved before construction begins and can be applied for where approval for the construction stage has not yet been secured, or where the contractor does not wish to participate in a Whole Team Award.
• Design: principal designer(s) only. This can be useful to enable the designer to secure experience of BREEAM Infrastructure without the involvement of the other parties to the project, or where the designer wishes to gain recognition for their contribution to a project when the client and contractor do not wish to participate.
• Design & Construction: joint application by the contractor and their designer.  Useful where the designer and contractor wish to gain recognition for their contribution to a project but the client does not wish to participate.
• Construction: principal contractor(s) only. Useful to enable the contractor to secure experience of BREEAM Infrastructure without the involvement of the other parties to the contract, or where the contractor wishes to gain recognition for their contribution to a project when the client and designer to do not wish to participate.

Additionally, assessments can be verified at stages as the project progresses, including strategy stage, design stage, and – for Whole Project assessments – interim design stage.

• Strategy & Interim Design: Only available as part of a Whole Project assessment. This enables teams to add a verified BREEAM Infrastructure Assessment during the design stage of a Whole Project assessment. The stage in the design process at which the interim assessment is undertaken can be chosen to best suit the applicant’s needs and procurement process. The client and designer can then secure recognition for their contribution to the project at this early stage on their way to a Whole Project assessment, and a Strategy & Interim Design assessment can even be applied for before the contractor is appointed. The benefit of an interim assessment is that the applicant can decide how far through the design they wish the verified assessment to take place. In this circumstance, the interim assessment is superseded once the project is finished and the Whole Project assessment completed.

What is BREEAM Infrastructure for Term Contracts

BREEAM Infrastructure for Term Contracts applies to civil engineering and public realm works that are undertaken through contracts over a number of years and in a geographical or operational area, via term maintenance contracts.

Term contracts offer a convenient means of carrying out large numbers of discrete jobs of relatively low individual value. Through this mechanism procurement costs per job are minimised by work simply being initiated by a written order or instruction. The success of such contracts is normally a reflection of the strength of the contractor’s understanding of the client’s requirements, the teamwork generated amongst the parties, and the successful delivery of these requirements.

It is thus recognised that the assessment process should be a team effort between all parties involved in the contract: client, designer (if included), contractor and contract manager or engineer. This approach should maximise the opportunity for any BREEAM Infrastructure assessment to be ultimately successful.

Choosing your assessment manual 

BREEAM Infrastructure for Term Contracts has two manuals:

• Maintenance: for works such as highway repairs and resurfacing, bridge repairs and maintenance, and rail track maintenance. The work may involve a number of different types of work across the operational area at different times, and the precise nature, scope and location of all works to be undertaken may not be known at the beginning of the contract.
• Construction: where new construction, and significant modification of existing assets that includes new works, is involved.

Choosing your assessment type

There are two assessment types under the contracts scheme, independent of the manual being used.

• Whole Team Award & Assessment: available when the client mandates the use of BREEAM Infrastructure on a contract.
• Delivery Award & Assessment: available when the contractor(s) and designer(s) making up the contract delivery team wish to use BREEAM Infrastructure to assess their performance without the direct instruction or involvement of the Client.