The new construction standard assesses a newly developed building through design and construction. It is used in the United Kingdom and, through the international standards, on projects elsewhere including the UAE.
BREEAM, a registered trade mark of BRE, includes a New Construction standard for assessing the sustainability performance of newly developed buildings through design and construction. The scheme provides a structured framework for setting objectives, gathering evidence and evaluating a completed project against defined environmental categories. It is used in the United Kingdom and through international standards for projects outside the United Kingdom, including projects in the United Arab Emirates.
The New Construction standard is intended for projects creating a new building or a substantial new-build development within the scope defined by the applicable technical method. It assesses how sustainability is addressed as the project moves from early decisions through detailed design, procurement, construction, commissioning and handover.
Its purpose is broader than checking whether a completed building contains a selection of efficient products. The assessment considers how design choices, management processes, technical systems, materials, site conditions and delivery evidence contribute to whole-building performance. It brings those subjects into one controlled method so that the final rating reflects more than one isolated feature.
A new building remains subject to all applicable legal and authority requirements. The voluntary assessment sits alongside planning, building control, fire safety, utility, environmental and other mandatory processes. In Dubai, Al Sa'fat remains a separate local sustainability instrument, while in Abu Dhabi the Estidama Pearl system remains a separate local instrument. Neither should be treated as a substitute name for the international assessment.
The design stage allows a project to forecast and demonstrate intended performance before construction is complete. Evidence may include design information, calculations, specifications, strategies, commitments and other records required by the selected standard and version. The licensed assessor reviews whether the available evidence supports the credits being claimed at that stage.
A design-stage result is valuable because it can identify gaps while decisions are still capable of change. Sustainability outcomes often depend on site planning, massing, facade design, services strategy, water systems, transport arrangements, material selection and commissioning provisions. Waiting until completion can make some opportunities difficult or impossible to recover.
The design-stage outcome is not the final statement about the completed building. It reflects the assessed design and the evidence available at that point. Changes during value engineering, procurement, construction or commissioning can alter whether credits remain achievable. The project therefore needs a controlled process for carrying commitments from the design assessment into delivery.
The construction-stage assessment considers the completed project and the evidence showing what was actually delivered. It confirms whether design commitments survived procurement and construction and whether the required records, testing, commissioning and handover information support the final claims.
This stage is not a repetition of the design review. It deals with the difference between intention and completion. A specification may describe a proposed material or system, but the final assessment must consider the installed or procured outcome where the technical method requires it. Site records and completion evidence can therefore be decisive.
The final certification follows assessment validation and quality assurance. BRE presents the formal process as finding a licensed assessor, registering the project, undertaking the assessment, undergoing a quality assurance check and receiving certification. The quality audit is carried out by BRE Global Ltd, while qualified licensed assessors validate the assessment evidence.
The New Construction framework has UK and international applications. A UK project uses the relevant UK standard and version. A project outside the United Kingdom uses the applicable international route unless a licensed National Scheme Operator provides an adapted country-specific version.
BRE lists National Scheme Operators in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. No Gulf or UAE National Scheme Operator is listed. UAE projects therefore use the international standards directly rather than an adapted UAE national version operating under licence.
International use does not mean that country context is ignored. BRE publishes pre-populated country sheets for countries where most assessments have taken place and provides a weightings form for new countries. The country basis helps determine how environmental priorities are represented in the weighting method, while the project remains responsible for meeting local law and authority requirements separately.
The New Construction assessment considers a broad set of environmental subjects. BRE describes the framework through Management, Water, Energy, Transport, Health and wellbeing, Resources, Resilience, Land use and ecology, Pollution, Materials, Waste and Innovation, although the exact category set differs between standards and versions.
Within each category, individual assessment issues define the outcomes that can earn credits. Credits achieved against credits available produce a category percentage, and the relevant category weighting determines the contribution to the overall percentage. The weighted contributions are added together, then the applicable rating benchmarks and minimum standards are considered.
This breadth means that a new building cannot be understood through an energy score alone. Operational energy remains important, but water, materials, transport, ecology, management, resilience and occupant-related conditions also contribute. A strong result in one category can coexist with weakness in another, subject to the separate gate created by minimum standards.
New Construction Version 7 was launched by BRE on 30 September 2025. Registrations opened in September 2025, followed by a three-month transition during which Version 6 and the 2018 version could still be registered. The registered version determines the technical framework used for the project.
The launch represented more than a change of document number. BRE described new minimum standards intended to define what Outstanding and Excellent should look like, together with stronger treatment of whole-life carbon, climate resilience and biodiversity. These changes altered the expectations attached to higher performance.
A project registered under an earlier version remains assessed under that version unless its registration is moved forward in accordance with the scheme process. Results from different versions can each be valid, but they should not be assumed to represent identical requirements. The rating name, standard and version belong together.
Version 7 increased attention to whole-life carbon. This extends the assessment beyond energy used during occupation and considers carbon associated with materials and building systems over the asset life. BRE specifically included the embodied carbon of mechanical, electrical and public-health systems within this direction.
The inclusion of those systems matters because services can represent a significant part of a modern building's material and replacement profile. Cooling, ventilation, electrical distribution, public-health services, controls and related equipment do not disappear from the carbon picture simply because they are installed inside the building rather than forming part of its visible structure.
For UAE projects, this can require closer coordination between architectural, structural and building-services information. Operational cooling demand remains a major consideration, but whole-life assessment also asks how systems are manufactured, selected, replaced and managed over time. The technical manual controls the exact evidence route, and the detailed criteria should not be reconstructed from summaries.
Version 7 also placed greater emphasis on climate resilience. Resilience asks whether the building and its systems are prepared for future conditions and stresses, rather than only whether they satisfy assumptions made at the time of design.
In the UAE, relevant project considerations can include external heat, water constraints, dust, reliance on mechanical cooling and the consequences of system interruption. The assessment framework does not replace engineering risk analysis, emergency planning or authority requirements. It provides a structured route for recognising defined resilience outcomes within the whole-building rating.
Resilience also connects with durability, maintenance, controls and operational planning. A design response can fail if it depends on unrealistic management or if systems cannot be maintained under the expected operating conditions. The project team therefore needs to treat resilience as a coordinated design and operational subject rather than a single calculation.
Biodiversity received increased emphasis in Version 7. New construction changes land, surfaces, drainage patterns and the relationship between a site and its ecological context. The category framework considers how the project understands existing conditions and addresses opportunities for protection, enhancement and long-term management.
The significance of biodiversity varies by site. A dense urban plot, previously developed land and a site near sensitive habitat present different circumstances. The assessment method provides applicability rules and evidence requirements rather than assuming that every project begins with the same ecological value.
In the UAE, ecological considerations must be understood in the local environmental context rather than copied from a temperate European project. Country conditions, species, habitats, water use and long-term maintenance all matter. The international standard provides the assessment route, while appropriate local expertise is needed to interpret the site.
A registration has a five-year validity. This makes the registration date and project programme important, particularly for developments with long design or construction periods. The selected version cannot be treated as an informal preference that remains open indefinitely.
Evidence planning should begin once the scope and version are established. Each targeted issue needs a responsible party, a delivery stage and an evidence route. Design teams, contractors, specialists and the client may each hold part of the required information, and gaps become harder to correct once work has progressed.
The assessment should also distinguish a provisional target from a certified outcome. Early score forecasts are management tools, not certificates. The final rating depends on the evidence accepted by the licensed assessor, the applicable minimum standards, the weighted score and the quality assurance process.
A New Construction rating is a point-in-time statement about a defined project, boundary, stage, standard and version. It indicates the outcome of a structured whole-building assessment through the scheme's controlled process. It does not guarantee that every category is equally strong or that future operational performance will remain unchanged.
The completed building still depends on commissioning, facilities management, maintenance, controls and occupant use. A strong construction-stage result provides valuable evidence about delivery, but it cannot replace continued performance management after occupation.
For a UAE project, the New Construction standard is most useful when integrated early, aligned with local mandatory systems and carried through to final evidence. Its value lies in coordinating broad sustainability outcomes across design and construction while preserving a clear distinction between the voluntary international rating and the legal requirements governing the building.
Forecasts and demonstrates intended performance before construction is complete, using design information, calculations, specifications and commitments required by the selected standard and version.
Considers the completed project and the evidence of what was actually delivered, confirming whether design commitments survived procurement and construction.
Registration fixes the standard and version, and a registration has a five-year validity, making programme planning a material project decision.
The scheme is voluntary everywhere it is used, and in the UAE it is a secondary instrument. New buildings in Dubai are governed by Al Sa'fat, Dubai Municipality's green building system, whose Silver tier is the mandatory baseline, and buildings in Abu Dhabi are governed by the Estidama Pearl Building Rating System. Those are the local instruments and a voluntary international assessment does not replace either of them or discharge any obligation under them. A separate resource covers the local requirements in detail.
No. It reflects the assessed design and the evidence available at that point. Changes during value engineering, procurement, construction or commissioning can alter whether credits remain achievable, so commitments must be carried through into delivery.
BRE lists National Scheme Operators in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway, and no Gulf or UAE operator is listed. UAE projects therefore use the international standards directly.
BRE described new minimum standards intended to define what Outstanding and Excellent should look like, together with stronger treatment of whole-life carbon including the embodied carbon of mechanical, electrical and public-health systems, climate resilience and biodiversity.
This is an independent information resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to BRE. BREEAM and BRE are the trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to identify the scheme described.