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The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is a centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust. It is a former UK government national laboratory that was privatised in 1997. BRE provides research, advice, training, testing, certification and standards for both public and private sector organisations in the UK and abroad. It has its headquarters in Garston, Hertfordshire, England, with regional sites in Glasgow, Swansea, the US, India, the Middle East and China. [1]
BRE is funded with income from commissioned research, commercial programmes and by a number of digital tools for use in the construction sector.
The Building Research Establishment is owned by the BRE Trust, a registered charity that works to support research and education in the built environment. All of the profits accrued by BRE are passed to the Trust and are used to fund new research and education programmes designed to meet the Trust's goal of promoting safety and sustainability.
Over the last 20 years[ when? ] the BRE Trust has funded 117 PhDs on a total research programme of £15m, with other funding levered into the sector as a whole from research councils and European Union research sources.
The BRE Trust also financially supports five university Centres of Excellence. One of the first Centres established was at the University of Edinburgh in 2004, a research and education programme on fire safety engineering. The other centres are in Strathclyde (energy utilisation), Bath (construction materials), Cardiff (sustainable engineering), and Brasilia (integrated and sustainable communities).
BRE was founded in 1921 as the Building Research Board [4] at East Acton as part of the British Civil Service, as an effort to improve the quality of housing in the United Kingdom. [5]
During the Second World War, it was involved in the confidential research and development of the bouncing bomb for use against the Möhne Dam in the Dambusters Raid of 1943 [6] A small scale model of the dam used for testing can still be found at the Centre in Garston, Watford, today.
BRE was a founding member in 1976 of BSRIA, the Building Services Research and Information Association and the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) in 2007.
Having subsumed a number of other government organisations over the years, including the former Fire Research Station, and the Princes Risborough Laboratory, it was given executive agency status in 1990, before being privatised by the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions on 19 March 1997. [7]
From 1 January 2013, BRE took over the management of the UK and Ireland chapter of BuildingSMART. [8]
In August 2016, Constructing Excellence merged with BRE, with BRE undertaking to maintain the CE's brands and functions. [9]
Since the Grenfell Tower fire(2017), BRE has been criticised for holding poor fire safety standards, all the while via reviewing cases like that of Grenfell. [10] [11] [12]
The National House Building Council, usually known as the NHBC, states its primary purpose as raising the construction standards of new homes in the United Kingdom (UK), and providing consumer protection for homebuyers through its 10-year Buildmark warranty.
The UL enterprise is a global safety science company headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, composed of three organizations, UL Research Institutes, UL Standards & Engagement and UL Solutions.
Morden Hall Park is a National Trust park on the banks of the Wandle in Morden, south London. Its several buildings and associated parking included, it is 51 acres (21 ha) of predominantly parkland. Hinting at the former mill leats the river here splits into channels, generally, through it spanned by numerous footbridges. The estate contains Morden Hall itself, Morden Cottage, two well-preserved snuff watermills, a restored stableyard, a dog-friendly café, exhibition space and second-hand bookshop. A western part, separately accessed, hosts the National Trust's only Garden Centre.
Domestic housing in the United Kingdom presents a possible opportunity for achieving the 20% overall cut in UK greenhouse gas emissions targeted by the Government for 2010. However, the process of achieving that drop is proving problematic given the very wide range of age and condition of the UK housing stock.
EcoHomes was an environmental rating scheme for homes in the United Kingdom. It was the domestic version of the Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method BREEAM, which could also be applied to a variety of non-residential buildings. It was replaced by the Code for Sustainable Homes in April 2008.
The Low Carbon Building Programme (LCBP) was a payments system in England, Scotland and Wales. The UK Government programme was administered by BERR and ran from 1 April 2006 until its closure to new applications on 24 May 2010. The scheme was replaced by the Renewable Heat Incentive in November 2011.
The Code for Sustainable Homes was an environmental assessment method for rating and certifying the performance of new homes in United Kingdom. First introduced in 2006, it is a national standard for use in the design and construction of new homes with a view to encouraging continuous improvement in sustainable home building. In 2015 the Government in England withdrew it, consolidating some standards into Building Regulations.
The Haute Qualité Environnementale or HQE is a standard for green building in France, based on the principles of sustainable development first set out at the 1992 Earth Summit. The standard is controlled by the Paris-based Association pour la Haute Qualité Environnementale (ASSOHQE).
BREEAM, first published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in 1990, is the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of buildings. More than 550,000 buildings have been 'BREEAM-certified' and over two million are registered for certification in more than 50 countries worldwide. BREEAM also has a tool which focuses on neighbourhood development.
CEEQUAL is the international evidence-based sustainability assessment, rating and awards scheme for civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping and works in public spaces. It was established following work promoted by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and operated with a group of 14 industry shareholders. In November 2015 CEEQUAL was acquired by Building Research Establishment following a recommendation from the CEEQUAL Board; this move represents a shared ambition to bring together two successful sustainability rating schemes – BREEAM and CEEQUAL – to create a single, science-based best practice standard and certification tool for civil engineering and other infrastructure projects in the UK and around the world. From November, CEEQUAL will transfer its business operations to BRE Global, and CEEQUAL will, after this transfer, be delivered by the BREEAM certification team with continued support from the CEEQUAL scheme management team.
Both the public and private sectors in the United Kingdom promote green building. Presently, there are already regulatory mechanisms in place that establish Britain's commitment to this kind of building construction. The government, for instance, set out a target that by 2016, all new homes will have zero carbon emission and it also includes a progressive tightening of energy efficiency regulations by 25 percent and 44 percent in 2010 and 2013, respectively. The UK Building Regulations set requirements for insulation levels and other aspects of sustainability in building construction.
The Fire Protection Association is the UK's National Fire Safety Organisation. Established in 1946, it specializes on spreading awareness about wildfire. It offers education and training, a fire risk assessment service, a nationwide risk management survey service for insurers, and a membership journal.
Kingspan Group plc is a building materials company based in Ireland, trading in over 80 countries with more than 210 factories employing over 22,000 people. The company operates with six divisions; Insulated Panels, Insulation, Light & Air, Water & Energy, and, Data & Flooring, Roof & Waterproofing.
One Angel Square is a high-rise office building in Manchester, England. Construction work began in 2010 and was completed in February 2013. The landmark building is the head office of the Co-operative Group. Standing 72.5 metres (238 ft) tall, the building forms the centrepiece of the £800 million NOMA development in the Angel Meadows area of Manchester city centre. The building cost at least £105 million to construct and was sold on leaseback terms in 2013 for £142 million.
Green Building Initiative (GBI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that owns and administers the Green Globes green building assessment and certification in the United States and Canada. It was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
Exova Group plc was a laboratory-based testing company, operating primarily within the Testing segment of the Testing Inspection and Certification (“TIC”) sector. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Element Materials Technology in June 2017.
SABRE was launched in 2017 by the Building Research Establishment (BRE). Organisations such as RIBA have already acknowledged SABRE as a recognised security approach.
Green building certification systems are a set of rating systems and tools that are used to assess a building or a construction project's performance from a sustainability and environmental perspective. Such ratings aim to improve the overall quality of buildings and infrastructures, integrate a life cycle approach in its design and construction, and promote the fulfillment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by the construction industry. Buildings that have been assessed and are deemed to meet a certain level of performance and quality, receive a certificate proving this achievement.
The United Kingdom cladding crisis, also known as the cladding scandal, is an ongoing social crisis that followed the Grenfell Tower fire of 14 June 2017 and the Bolton Cube fire of 15 November 2019. The fires revealed that large numbers of buildings had been clad in dangerously combustible materials, comprising a combination of flammable cladding and/or flammable insulation.
The GlaxoSmithKline Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry is a chemistry laboratory in Nottingham, England. It is located on the Jubilee Campus of the University of Nottingham, and is part of the university's School of Chemistry. The school carries out research at the carbon neutral laboratory, which is the first of its kind in the UK. The construction was majority funded by GlaxoSmithKline, as part of their commitment to green chemistry first announced in 2010, and saw a grant of £12 million provided to the project.