RE05 - Low impact materials – Above Green

(6 credits available)

Aim

To reduce the environmental impact of construction through the use of low impact materials in the public realm.

Assessment Criteria

The following is required to demonstrate compliance:

Sustainable materials

One to three credits

Contractors and sub-contractors have environmental management policies and procedures, such as EMAS/ISO14001, in place to ensure the sustainable management and supply of materials used in the public realm.
Credits are awarded based upon the percentage of materials (used in the public realm) that achieve an A+ to B rating, as defined in the Green Guide to Specification:

Credits	Percentage of materials in the public realm (by volume or weight)
One	Between 40 - 60%
Two	Greater than 60%
Three	Greater than 80%

Road construction materials

One to three credits

Credits are awarded based upon the percentage of road or path construction material that is locally reclaimed or constituted from recycled material.

Credits	Percentage of road or path (by volume or weight)
One	Greater than 15%
Two	Between 25% - 30%
Three	Greater than 30%

Compliance Notes

Ref	Terms	Description
CN1	Green Guide ratings See criterion 2.	Green Guide ratings for the specification(s) of each element can be found online at: www.thegreenguide.org.uk
CN2	Matching specifications to those in the Green Guide See criterion 2.	Exact matches for material specifications are not always found in the Green Guide. But it should be possible to identify a similar specification and use its rating for the purposes of assessment. Where no similar specification can be found, seek guidance from the BRE Global (breeam@bre.co.uk) for the appropriate rating.
CN3	Sustainable materials See criteria 1 & 2.	The 'sustainable materials' section of this assessment issue relates only to materials used in the public realm but excludes roads. This issue does not cover the use of materials in the buildings themselves. All material identified for use, must be used on site and materials identified for re-use must be sourced from the site. See the additional information section in SE 07 – Public realm for a definition of public realm.
CN4	Reused materials See criterion 2.	The Green Guide gives a default A rating to all materials that are being reused on the site. Reused materials are those that can be extracted from the waste stream and used again without further processing, or with only minor processing, that does not alter the nature of the material (e.g. cleaning, cutting, fixing to other materials). This includes reused materials from the development site and/or from the local area, assuming that the reasons for sourcing these materials locally can be justified as a sustainable solution by the assessor.
CN5	No new materials	The maximum available credits for the 'Sustainable materials' and 'Road/paths construction materials' sections can be awarded automatically when no new material is being used on the development (possibly for refurbishment projects).
CN6	Locally reclaimed. See Criterion 3	It is possible to source materials from within a radius of 30km to demonstrate compliance.

Evidence

Criteria No.	Final Assessment
1	A copy of the environmental management policies and procedures.
2 & 3	Design specifications.

Additional Information

Please refer to best practice guidance on incorporating recycled content in roads from AggRegain WRAP1.