Contractor insists on IES TaP for certifications
Contractor Bouygues UK is using the TaP online project-management tool developed by Integrated Environmental Solutions as its official standard for managing assessments for BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes. The requirement to use the tool is part of the scope of works for all Bouygues UK BREEAM and CSH assessors to ensure they reach their contractual obligations on time.
To reduce the cost of achieving a high sustainability rating for clients and the need for costly amendments later on, IES TaP is now deployed at the start of every project.
Aleksandra Njagulj, senior sustainability design co-ordinator at Bouygues UK, explains, ‘Without the right management processes, achieving a BREEAM or CSH certification can be a long, arduous process.
‘With up to 120 credits required for an “Outstanding” certification and each credit requiring manifold documentation as evidence, a particular problem was keeping track of which team member was responsible for each of the thousands of pieces of evidence required and pulling the documents together.
‘The transparent way TaP shows us where we are against target has helped us to eliminate the risk of a project failing to achieve the desired sustainability rating. In the past, sometimes none of a BREEAM or CSH assessment had been completed prior to construction. With TaP, all our projects have achieved at least 40 to 50% of the total credits available before the project enters RIBA stage E.’
She further explains that as only 70% of the total credits available are needed to get a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, design-stage BREEAM assessments are two-thirds complete before starting on detail design.
