The first pilot project aimed at facilitating the introduction of the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for European retail property will be launched in July this year, according to Clare Lowe, principal consultant for BRE Global. The pilot project will run for 12 months and will be reviewed in July 2009, Lowe said during the ICSC Europe conference in Amsterdam. The pilot project follows the creation in January 2008 of an advisory group under the ICSC umbrella to discuss the characteristics of a BREEAM standard for Europe. Lowe said that the pilot project aims to facilitate easy comparisons between retail buildings on the European Continent by introducing a uniform certification of their level of sustainability.
The first pilot project aimed at facilitating the introduction of the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for European retail property will be launched in July this year, according to Clare Lowe, principal consultant for BRE Global. The pilot project will run for 12 months and will be reviewed in July 2009, Lowe said during the ICSC Europe conference in Amsterdam. The pilot project follows the creation in January 2008 of an advisory group under the ICSC umbrella to discuss the characteristics of a BREEAM standard for Europe. Lowe said that the pilot project aims to facilitate easy comparisons between retail buildings on the European Continent by introducing a uniform certification of their level of sustainability.
The first BREEAM standard for retail was launched in the UK in 2004. Since then, about 116,000 buildings have received BREEAM certification, while no less than 714,000 buildings have been registered to be certified under the BREEAM standard. According to Rowe, the initiative to establish a European BREEAM standard for the retail sector was prompted by developers such as Redevco and Multi Corporation which needed to assess their buildings outside the UK. At present, Multi and Redevco are evaluating a total of twelve projects with the BREEAM standard in Germany and Turkey. Multi has a retail pipeline of 3.9 million m2, the largest retail pipeline in Europe. Redevco is active in a total of 12 countries and has a retail pipeline of 610,000 m2 of gross lettable area.
Jaap Gillis, chairman of ICSC Europe and chief operating officer of Redevco, told PropertyEU WebTV that BREEAM is the most suitable environmental certificate for Europe and the ICSC is campaigning for the retail industry to adapt it as the standard. 'We have to try to avoid having too many types of certificates for energy efficient or environmentally friendly buildings. This is exactly what we foresaw as a board - we should act as an industry'.
