Building Certification

A building certificate confirms that the building meets certain criteria. It is a complex assessment of building´s sustainability and it includes several categories, such as efficiency of energy consumption, emission of greenhouse gas, health and well-being, land utilization, pollution, or garbage and water treatment. We provide the internationally recognized certificates  BREEAM ®, LEED ® and SBTool CZ. We are able to make the whole turnkey certificate, as well as provide any of the parts of the certification process, including an expert´s assessment.
If you are interested in PENB (Certificate of the Energy Demands of a Building), currently required as one of the materials necessary to obtain a building permit, go to this link.

Main Benefits

• Confirmation that the building meets certain standards
• Reduction of operating costs
• Increase in the value of the building
• Positive marketing
• Improved living and working conditions

What you get: Higher standard of your building

Suitable for

• Buildings owners
• Investors
• Developers
• Asset management
• Property management

More and more investors, building owners, and tenants demand that the building that they own or inhabit have a sustainability certificate. A sustainable building draws on the principles of sustainable development and green architecture. Besides energy-related parameters, it also takes into consideration various social and economic aspects. There are several types of certification systems used to assess the eco-friendliness of buildings. The most well-known, as well as the most used, are BREEAM, LEED, and DGNB.

Why should you have have your building certified?

• A certificate in sustainability provides a significant advantage over the competition.
• It reduces operating costs while increasing the value of the building. On the market, such certificates generally stimulate the demand for eco-friendly buildings with little negative impact on the environment.
• A sustainability certificate confirms that time-proven principles of sustainability and environmental protection have been used in the building.
• It serves as an inspiration in the search for innovative solutions that minimize the operating costs and the building´s impact on the environment.
• It is a standard which significantly goes beyond the minimum requirements stipulated by regulations.
• It improves the working and living environment in buildings and it supports healthy and comfortable working conditions of employees.
• Certification serves as a guarantee of high quality and it proves that you have realized certain elements of sustainability in your project.
• It also provides companies with the opportunity to develop organizational goals related to energy conservation and improves the image of the company on the market.

Certificates in sustainability go above the standard of requirements stipulated by legal regulations. They improve living conditions in buildings and make sure that employees work in a healthy and comfortable working environment.

There are several types of building certificates which are currently used:

BREEAM®

We offer services related to the certification process developed by the British authority BRE (Building Research Establishment), particularly the BREEAM certification (BRE Environmental Assessment Method). It is the oldest and currently the most used certification method in terms of energy saving and building sustainability. It confirms that modern techniques have been used in planning of the building and that the building does not have a negative impact on the environment. The BREEAM evaluation uses respected efficiency measuring scales set up according to well-established criteria. The assessment focuses on several aspects, such as energy use, water, interior climate (health and life quality), pollution, traffic, materials, waste, ecology, or management processes.
BREEAM may be used either in the assessment of a building that is either in the stage of being planned or which is already being used. Our company is able to take care of the whole certification process or to prepare materials for the individual chapters separately.

 

LEED®

We also offer our services in the LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), guaranteed by the USGBC(U.S. Green Building Council). The LEED certificate is an objective confirmation that a building or a compound excels in 6 key areas. These include sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovations. It is a globally respected certification scheme whose significance is rapidly rising. The certificate is focused on specific features and it analyzes whether or not the building meets certain criteria in these categories. The certificate may evaluate either projects in the stage of development, or buildings already constructed. Our company is able to make a turnkey LEED certifiacte, or to prepare materials for the individual steps.

SBToolCZ

We also work with the SBToolCZ certification, which serves as the only Czech national certification tool for building assessment. This method is based on multiple criteria which take the principles of sustainability into consideration. The criteria used in the certificate and its form vary according to the type of the building (residential, administrative, etc.) and how old the building is. The evaluation serves as a confirmation of the building's qualities and as such it serves the public interest. Currently, SBToolCZ is the only Czech certificate which takes the specifics of the local environment into consideration and which respects the domestic climate, as well as Czech legal regulations in terms of construction engineering. It is also significantly cheaper compared to foreign methodologies.
We are able to take care of the whole certification process or to execute partial steps that lead to the certificate. SBToolCZ is intended primarily for the certification of projects and their subsequent realization, but it may be used for certification of already constructed buildings as well.

Which certification system should I choose?

All of the aforementioned certification methods are very similar in that they share some of the basic features of building certification – the main difference lies within the process. While BREEAM must be arranged by a qualified evaluator, the LEED certification may be obtained even without a LEED specialist. BREEAM is also much stricter in terms of its demands regarding materials and documents.

The most important aspect in the decision is, however, the locality of the building or compound and the structure of investors, potential tenants, and other involved parties. For example, LEED is usually preferred by American companies, while BREEAM is more popular among the British ones.

Are you interested in building certification?Contact us