Services

BREEAM

BREEAM assessment methods and tools are all designed to help construction professionals understand and mitigate the environmental impacts of the developments they design and build.  We have accredited assessors for the following BREEAM elements:

• Industrial
• Offices
• Multi-residential

We are one of the first regeneration bodies in South West England to have this capability, and can offer these services to a wide range of businesses and organisations including property developers, development agencies, construction and surveying businesses, estate agencies, local authorities, banks, accountants and many more.

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Code For Sustainable Homes

We have accredited assessors for the Code for Sustainable Homes, which is the national standard in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for the sustainable design and construction of new homes.

It is aimed at reducing carbon emissions and creating sustainable homes, and goes beyond building regulations, covering nine categories of sustainable design, and rating the 'whole home' as a complete package:

• Energy/CO2
• Water
• Materials
• Surface Water Runoff (flooding and flood prevention)
• Waste
• Pollution
• Health and Well-being
• Management
• Ecology

This is a subsidised, low cost service

If you would like straightforward advice on how your business can save money and help protect the environment, we have expert advisors on hand to help you.  One of our advisors will visit your business and offer practical advice on simple actions that could help you to:

Are you a farmer, forester, farming contractor, woodland owner or horticultural business?

If so, there are grants available to help you meet one or more of the following objectives:

• Improving animal health and welfare
• Reducing energy usage
• Improving the management of manures / farm nutrients
• Improving soil quality
• Improving water resource management
• Improving the use of forestry resources

Funding is available for slurry separators, slurry application equipment, GPS equipment, heat recovery systems, electricity efficiency devices, rainwater harvesting systems including storage ponds, roofing of silage clamps and slurry stores, horticultural water recycling, sheep weigh crates, EID readers, cattle foot trimming facilities, computer software for monitoring animal health, grooving of concrete floors, rubber matting, slatted floors for indoor lambing, interventions for poultry and pig welfare, forestry grabs, trailers, chippers, saw benches, firewood processors and many other items.

At DR, we can help you to access the grants during an entirely free site visit.  We can work with you to devise an Action Plan looking at what is appropriate for your business and help you with the application process.

A green travel plan can help your business not only to co-ordinate transport options for your staff, customers and suppliers, but also to link this into your business practices. Having an effective strategy will directly reduce the impact of travel on the environment, and can also save money and make life easier for employees, improving attendance levels.

Our expert advisors will review your current practices, look at transport options and identify any actions you can take to encourage sustainable transport use.  You will receive a tailored report detailing how you can make a difference.

An environmental policy makes a clear statement about your ethics and will help your business have a more positive impact on the environment.  It could also affect your chances of winning contracts with large organisations, may win you customers, and is a pre-requisite for some funders.

Our expert environmental officers can help you to review how you run your business, identify simple tweaks that you can make, and set out a written policy that outlines your approach to environmental issues and how you put that into practice.