30/07/2024

Reading time: 4min

Sustainable Buildings Team

Sweco UK

 

Sweco’s global teams have collaborated with the EIB to create an innovative ‘scorecard’ tool that applies standardised sustainability benchmarks for new buildings and renovations, to enable more informed decision-making for investment applications.

There are currently several different frameworks, certifications and seals of approval to consider when it comes to setting sustainability goals for built environment projects, with benchmarking targets and KPIs varying both nationally and locally.

The disparate nature of green certification criteria can make it difficult for developers, investors and other stakeholders to easily define what success looks like when it comes to sustainability.

Sweco was therefore asked by the European Investment Bank to establish standardised benchmarks for new buildings and renovations that would bring multiple facets of sustainability together through parameters aligned with green building certifications, labels and national guidelines.

Sweco’s team of dedicated building sustainability consultants collaborated primarily across offices in the UK and Denmark to aggregate and analyse the latest trends and best practices in green building certifications. The project encompassed a wide range of services, including proposing criteria for assessing the environmental sustainability of building projects.

Shruti Ganesh, Sustainability consultant at Sweco UK explains: “In short, we were required to create a ’Greatest Hits’ of sustainable buildings credentials that could act as a centralised, one-stop Terms of Reference.

Thanks to our deep understanding of green building certification systems in the building market, we were able to draw on our own real-world experiences across systems such as BREEAM, LEED, DGNB, EDGE and HQE to transfer the practical experiences from well-understood sustainability practices into a financial decision-making framework. The aim was to provide a tangible assessment tool that compares EU regulations against established sustainable building practices.

As an expert in sustainable development, Shruti made key contributions to the design and development of the benchmarking tool, working closely with a multi-disciplinary, multi-national team to ensure that the assessment tool incorporated the necessary expertise and considered regional specificities.

”Importantly, as is standard at Sweco, we didn’t settle for minimum standards on this project. We aimed to lift the general bar for sustainability, incorporating advice from different sustainability bodies to create a centralised almanac of sustainability principles and scoring factors.”

When asked about the international collaboration within Sweco, Scott Walsh, sustainability consultant at Sweco Denmark explains: “When it comes to sustainability, we are one team with no boundaries. With the nature of global financing and investment crossing geographical boundaries, it is imperative that we guide our clients with relevant, local, and specialised advice through utilising Sweco’s global network.”

Kartik Amrania, Head of Building Sustainability Team at Sweco UK adds:

“We are proud to have collaborated with the European Investment Bank on this significant project. Through our expertise and cross-border collaborations, we have contributed valuable insights and solutions to enhance green building certification systems, in a format that we believe will ultimately shape sustainable development ‘scoring’ for the industry as a whole.”

This project reinforces Sweco’s 30-year partnership with the EIB and exemplifies our dedication to pushing the boundaries of sustainable design – in this instance providing innovative tools and future-focused advice to help them make better decisions that embed sustainability measures in their projects.”

The author(s) take full responsibility for the contents of this report. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the view of the European Investment Bank or of the Promoter of the project.