BREEAM V7 was released in July 2025, with project registrations opening on 30 September 2025, and new construction projects are now starting to be assessed under it, with registrations for Version 6 having closed. BREEAM V7 represents a substantial overhaul with major changes in most sections, introducing new credits and updates to methodology. BREEAM gets more rigorous with each release to keep up with building regulations and good practice.
BREEAM V7 responds to investor expectations and evolving market demands, and as such places a stronger focus on decarbonisation efforts to mitigate risks from climate change, as well as biodiversity, health and wellbeing, and alignment with ESG and sustainable finance requirements. It is designed to help developers, investors and occupiers create more future-proof, sustainable assets.
Despite V7 becoming more challenging than the prior scheme, there are a range of new opportunities for project teams and buildings, including:
1. Stronger focus on Whole-Life Carbon
- Expanded requirements for both operational carbon and embodied carbon assessment.
- Benchmarking and reporting requirements help projects align with net-zero strategies. The criteria aligns with the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment Standard 2nd Edition, and completion of the BREEAM Mat01 would contribute towards the achievement of the UK Net Zero Building Standard (UKNZCBS). For clients with an existing whole life carbon strategy it is likely that only minor changes to their approach are required, but for those who do not, a step change is necessary.
- BREEAM has always encouraged design decisions that reduce carbon emissions throughout a building's lifecycle. V7 adds a post construction Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the option to add outcomes to a public database to utilise the LCA data across a range of development.
2. Energy: opportunities to close the performance gap
- There is a greater emphasis on measurable outcomes and building performance, reducing the performance gap.
- Scoping a development against the updated energy criteria can be daunting at first due to the significant number of credits available and increased complexity of the criteria. The updated criteria focusses more on performance outcomes and reporting outputs as opposed to demonstrating compliance with design-stage metrics.
- Although enhanced energy modelling will be required at an early stage of design this presents an opportunity to gain insights into the likely operational efficiency of a building and highlights routes to increasing efficiency. To achieve the higher ratings a CIBSE TM54 will likely be required (note this is a minimum requirement for ‘Outstanding’).
- This encourages project teams to understand how buildings are expected to perform in practice and provides better information for post-occupancy evaluation and in-use asset management.
- Other new Energy credits introduced include ‘Flexible Demand Response,’ which looks at the opportunity for building systems to shift electricity use during peak grid times, supporting grid stabilisation, renewable integration and energy efficiency. ‘Installed Controls’ encourages energy efficient operation of HVAC systems in use.
- From our experience 'Ene04 - Low and Zero Carbon Energy Systems' will be challenging to achieve, as the requirements include PV Panels covering 50% of the ground floor area or account for 60% or above of the building's annual electricity consumption (Regulated and Unregulated).
3. Increased focus on biodiversity and health and wellbeing
- V7 has more robust biodiversity criteria, as it aligns with the DEFRA methodology to reflect statutory BNG. This does mean that it is more challenging to score highly under this issue. Previously, four credits were available for 10% net gain, however, now just one credit will be available in V7.
- Off-site enhancement will now count towards the calculations which allows more flexibility for projects with limited opportunities on site.
- The health and wellbeing section has introduced a new issue ‘Non-visual effects of light’, which focuses on positive impacts on building occupants through supporting a healthy circadian rhythm.
4. Simplified sustainability reporting
- Better alignment with external reporting requirements, this reduces duplication of effort for organisations with ESG and sustainability disclosure obligations. The frameworks that align with BREEAM V7 include the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities and GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark).
- This simplification facilitates communication with the project team, investors, regulators and stakeholders.
- More generally V7 signals a move away from some of the more 'tick-box' exercises that formed a component of BREEAM which results in better alignment with industry standards to reducing isolated reports.
With BREEAM requirements embedded in the planning policies of a significant proportion of UK local authorities, there is an opportunity for V7 to contribute to low carbon, highly sustainable new developments.
Achieving higher ratings such as Excellent and Outstanding are likely to become more challenging under the new version due to the enhanced criteria and new minimum standards being introduced, including an Indoor Air Quality Plan for Very Good and above, and the completion of a MAT 01 LCA for Excellent.
From a Sustainability and ESG perspective, BREEAM V7 is valuable because it strengthens the connection between asset-level sustainability performance and corporate ESG objectives, this makes it a strong tool for demonstrating progress against corporate sustainability targets and investor expectations. Ultimately, we see BREEAM V7 as a positive step forward and look forward to working with our clients to navigate the changes.
For more information on BREEAM Version 7 please contact Debbie Harvey or Melissa Hughes.
16 September 2026
