BREEAM In Use Portfolio Management

Envision benchmarked 40 care home buildings using BREEAM In Use (BIU) on behalf of Octopus Real Estate. The analysis and formal certification has helped Octopus to understand the sustainability performance of its care home portfolio and has supported ESG disclosure to investors regarding the fund’s assets.

Since 2019, Envision have undertaken BREEAM In Use assessments on over 100 care homes across the whole of Octopus Healthcare Fund’s (OHF) growing portfolio. The analysis and formal certification has helped the Fund to understand the sustainability performance of its care home portfolio and has supported ESG disclosure to investors regarding the Fund’s assets.

The BREEAM In Use Part 1 assessment method provides a comprehensive system for appraising asset performance. Unlike other methodologies, such as BREEAM New Construction and Home Quality Mark, BREEAM In Use requires certificates to be maintained and kept up to date, needing to be re-certified every three years. This approach keeps asset owners and occupiers engaged with the sustainability performance of the asset, encouraging year on year improvements to be made to increase scoring with re-assessment.

Embarking on a programme of benchmarking asset performance across a large UK wide portfolio requires that a systematic approach is adopted to ensure consistent application of standards and meaningful results. Envision developed approaches to ensure that care homes could be surveyed quickly and efficiently, benchmarking the assets originally against Version 2015, before upgrading to V6 once released.

After assessment, each asset is provided with a report summarising the BIU performance, and including recommendations of potential measures to increase the BREEAM In Use score for future re-assessment, based on ease, cost, and alignment with the Fund’s priorities.  

Achieving high BIU ratings for a significant proportion of the portfolio is one of Octopus Healthcare Fund’s core ESG targets, and the work Envision has undertaken in this area has led to 99% of assets achieving a rating of Very Good or Better, with 28% achieving an Excellent rating.

The programme of BIU assessments and certifications have also strengthened the Fund’s annual GRESB submission (See here for more), achieving full points in the relevant indicator for the last four reporting years, demonstrating an improved performance against their peer group.

Beyond the Fund’s reporting needs, the data collated during the BIU site visits assessments has been fed into a Heat Map that Envision have developed with Octopus, with metrics on the attributes and performance of the home, including physical climate risks, all given weighted scores, to provide an overall ‘OHF Environmental Heat Score’. This has been used to identify priority assets at risk of non-compliance and asset stranding, and to drive change. 

Envision are continuing to support the Fund with their BREEAM In Use assessments, including certifying new assets coming into the portfolio, and re-certifying expired assets, working towards their 2027 and 2030 targets.