BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
BREEAM and an approach to valuing the building resilience benefits of fire protection Dr Debbie Smith OBE Managing Director, BRE Global Ltd
Part of the BRE Trust
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Presentation – Background to BREEAM – Issues surrounding the modern built environment – Valuing resilience in fire protection – Brief overview of research related to sprinklers in warehouses – Conclusions and next steps
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
– 1980’s, concerns about the quality of the built environment and a desire to make better environments in buildings for people to live and work in. – BRE’s Environmental Assessment Method BREEAM was launched in1990 following extensive research and consultations.
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
• Today BREEAM is a family of products linked to life cycle stages of buildings – Residential and Commercial • • • • •
Planning – BREEAM Communities Design – BREEAM New build During occupation – BREEAM in Use* Refurbishment – BREEAM Refurbishment BREEAM Infrastructure and CEEQUAL
*Includes fire safety management, maintenance credits
1
BRE Global
Regulatory minimum
Number of buildings
Outstanding
Excellent
Very Good
Good
Pass
Protecting People, Property and the Planet
BREEAM
Minimal
Environmental Standards
Aspirational
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Our world is changing – Most significant changes in building technology have been occurring over the last 20 years – Moved from traditional construction (e.g. masonry, heavy) to more lightweight, easier and faster to construct – Driven by needs to; – Reduce energy consumption during use – Reduce waste during construction and use – Reduce end of building life environmental impact by consideration and focus reduction of hazardous materials, recycling and re-use
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Modern Built Environment
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems – easy to contaminate water table with fire fighting water run off – bunding is not the answer!
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
New construction technologies
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Some issues we face – No historical database available to assess performance of new systems, construction methods – Possibility of systematic faults/poor quality of installation – Use of new materials (in particular increasing use of highly insulating combustible materials to reduce energy demand) – New methods for testing and benchmarking fire performance of products and systems – New requirements for air tightness in buildings – Levels of safety and property protection unknown – Possibility of disproportionate damage
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
External fire spread – a growing issue? – External fire spread – control of insulation materials and performance of cladding systems for use above 18m – Can’t regulate and control/manage fire performance based on material test performance – Must make sure that we understand and control system performance
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
LPS 1501 - Standard for fire performance assessment of MMC – Assessment for fire performance against LPS 1501
C o m p a r tm e n t w a ll C o m p a r tm e n t f lo o r F ir e c o m p a r tm e n t
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Sustainability – The impact of fires – – – – – –
Generation of carbon dioxide, toxic species Pollution of water courses Business interruption Property damage Societal - local community Economic benefits/costs
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Background to a “new” project – Project is response to the many requests from fire protection manufacturers and specialists for recognition/credits in BREEAM – BREEAM family of schemes – All approaches are not equal when consideration is given to the broader consequences of fires and fire protection measures in terms of their sustainability impacts – No currently available methodology – Need a balanced approach – No current data/information related to passive fire protection – BRE Trust has agreed on part funding the Phase 1 of a research project
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Work programme Phase 1 Task 1 – Establishment of industry stakeholder group Task 2 – Literature review Task 3 – Data gathering Phase 2 Task 4 – Collation, review, validation and analysis of data Task 5 – Environmental assessment of residential and commercial buildings Task 6 – Trade-offs between different fire protection measures Task 7 – Cost benefit analysis and sensitivity analysis
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Phase 1 – Working with the ASFP in the UK to collect and collate data
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Sprinklers in warehouses
– The first part of the project was a “cradle to site” assessment of an ‘average’ warehouse fire, considering both the environmental impacts and the monetary costs. – The second, larger phase of our research, which was the primary focus of the study, looked at a whole-life cost benefit analysis for the installation of sprinklers, for three ranges of warehouse sizes.
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Results – Average whole life costs (warehouse buildings) (Values quoted in 2010 prices, and based on best estimates of fire and smoke damage costs) Quantity
“Small” warehouse
“Medium” warehouse
“Large” warehouse
(< 2,000 m2)
(2000-10,000 m2)
(> 10,000 m2)
No sprinkler
Sprinkler
No sprinkler
Sprinkler
No sprinkler
Total cost of fire
£21,895
£16,059
£845,065
£22,093 £3,824,157
Cost of insurance over lifetime
£32,630
£16,315
£139,604
£69,804
Total cost of sprinklers
Total Whole Life Costs
£66,349
£54,525
£98,722
£184,551
£984,669
£723,504
Sprinkler £14,695 £361,731 £848,029
£276,448 £4,547,661 £1,224,454
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Further analysis â&#x20AC;&#x201C; UK Fire Statistics â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Compartmentation failure leads to larger fire
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
What next ? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Currently working to secure funding for phase 2 of the project to develop a balanced scorecard type methodology to benchmarking the resilience of the fire protection features within the design of a building â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The methodology will then be piloted with key Stakeholders prior to launch
BRE Global Protecting People, Property and the Planet
Thank you for listening â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Any questions ?