Service Overview
An Ecohomes Assessment is an environmental rating for homes and is designed to help reduce the overall environmental impact of every home and development built. The Assessment is a certification scheme accredited by the BRE and is often required by funding bodies.
There are 4 scoring ratings from ‘pass’, ‘good’, ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’. Currently local authorities require all public funded housing projects achieve a minimum of a ‘very good’ rating under Ecohomes. An assessment is carried out and gives the whole development a single environmental rating (From one house to multiple units).
Ecohomes assessment criteria are loosely assembled under eight headings, each of which is ascribed a percentage weighting in the scoring process:
- Energy – 22%
- Transport – 8%
- Pollution – 10%
- Materials – 14%
- Water – 10%
- Ecology – 12%
- Health – 14%
- Management – 10%|
EcoHomes is being phased out in favour of The Code For Sustainable Homes and can only be registered if there is an existing pre-contractual agreement.
It is possible for you and your assessor to cherry pick the areas which are most relevant to you and your scheme making the Assessment as appropriate and cost effective as possible.
We would recommend that a Pre-assessment is carried out at the early design stages. This allows the environmental considerations to be developed with the design and is generally the minimum information needed in order to gain funding approval from your Local Authority.
What we can do?
We can carry out the initial appraisal of the development at concept stage, give advice and carry out a Pre-assessment to allow you to gain funding if necessary
Once you have an indicative score from the Pre-assessment we can advise you on what further options are available to help you reach and possibly surpass your desired rating
We will offer guidance and advice throughout the Assessment and the project design process.
EcoHomes Assessments
EcoHomes assessments were created by the BRE to determine a sustainability level for new residential developments. Councils and local planning policies across the country set a minimum standard measured in four levels for proposed developments to achieve: Fair, Good, Very Good or Excellent. Although EcoHomes is being phased out by the Code for Sustainable Homes, many local authorities continue to require EcoHomes assessments. Complimentary EcoHomes Assessment Services.
We provide additional services to help you gain EcoHomes credits efficiently and smoothly. Additionally, we can perform Daylighting Calculations , Homes User guides, LZC feasibility reports and ecology reports.
The Syntegra Group have a number of experienced and qualified Eco Homes Assessors that are able to offer our Eco Homes Assessment throughout the UK. For more information as to how we can assist as Eco Homes Assessors on your project please contact us.