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Tate Raised Access Floors: Helping You Meet New BREEAM V7 Standards for Low Carbon Design
The recently published BREEAM New Construction Version 7 is another major step forwards towards a sustainable, low-carbon, built environment in the UK. The new standard places strong emphasis on lowering embodied carbon, responsible materials sourcing, promoting the circular economy, reducing waste, and resource reuse. These principles align closely with Tate’s industry-leading approach to our raised access flooring products and services. From our Reuse Panels to our RMG600+ lower embodied carbon system, we’re helping architects and specifiers meet BREEAM targets while reducing waste and driving the reuse economy across commercial spaces.
The renowned Building Research Establishment (BRE) has recently published BREEAM V7, the latest version of its world-leading sustainability rating for the built environment.
BREEAM V7 is designed to provide investors, developers/owners, and specifiers with assurance around how to achieve net zero targets, and meet sustainability goals, while supporting sales and rental values within the commercial sector through prioritising user health and well-being.
There is also a recognition within the rating that during their lifetime, buildings must adapt to be resilient to economic, physical, or social changes, such as the more extreme weather-related incidents caused by climate change.
The updated rating aligns with both UK and European environmental legislation, helping projects meet the latest regulatory requirements, from waste management to energy efficiency and resource use/material sourcing.
Some of the key updates that relate to commercial flooring sector include the focus on decarbonisation, the desire to minimise impact on the natural environment, and a determination to further support the circular economy – all of which align neatly with the sustainability ethos and principles we promote and champion at Tate.
Better Management of Carbon Footprints
BREEAM V7 pays close attention to better reporting and management of carbon emissions in order to lower embodied carbon throughout a building’s lifecycle.
Embodied carbon has become one of the defining metrics for calculating a building’s sustainability rating, as opposed to operational carbon (which refers to greenhouse gas emissions that are generated by the day-to-day running of a building).
The UK’s Green Building Council estimates that by 2035, more than half of all built environment emissions will come from embodied carbon in materials and construction. So, material choices made at design and procurement stages are going to play a bigger role in terms of measuring a building’s carbon performance than operational energy over its lifetime.
BREEAM V7 encourages the use of designs that incorporate lifecycle carbon assessments to reduce embodied carbon ie. carbon associated with construction materials and manufacturing; a major contributor to a building’s carbon footprint.
The assessment covers both choice of materials and construction processes, and offers advice on how to run an assessment. This is critical to accurately measure the longer-term performance of buildings, which is a requirement under the assessment’s ‘Excellent’ or ‘Outstanding’ ratings.
How BREEAM V7 Aligns with Tate’s Approach
This latest revision underpins our approach to raised access flooring and is clearly aligned with our product portfolio, notably in the Tate RMG600+ panel, and our Reuse Panel.
Our low embodied carbon (LEC) RMG 600+ has a chipboard core and steel encapsulated panel which contains a minimum of 91% recycled material. Across a 10,000m2 floor, the RMG600+ delivers a reduction of 45% GWP (global warming potential), A1–A3 per m2 at product stage, over the standard RMG600 panel, not including the pedestal substructure.
Meanwhile, our Reuse Panels have either been salvaged from a refurbishment project or have been taken up prior to the demolition of a building. The panels undergo a rigorous inspection process by our expert team before they are considered for reuse as flooring in another project.
You’ll also see our determination to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill through our Take Back scheme and our wider emphasis on using recycled materials in our flooring.
Beyond carbon management, BREEAM V7 also includes updated water conservation standards, promoting techniques such as rainwater harvesting.
At Tate, we have reduced our dependency on mains water through the installation of rainwater harvesting tanks at our Hull manufacturing facility (and is encouraged as part of our wider Planet Passionate Group initiative). In 2024, we captured 2.9 million litres of rainwater to help service our 22 toilets on-site; a threefold increase in our on-site storage capacity since 2021.
The aim is to reduce our mains water footprint of buildings, lower indirect carbon emissions, and minimise our impact on a key resource for the local community, while also lowering water bills.
Conclusion
BREEAM V7 is another welcome step forward for sustainable building standards, with its greater focus on embodied carbon ratings and the circular economy.
We have invested heavily in industry-leading solutions that position us among the UK’s leading flooring manufacturers and we are determined to support the building industry as it transitions towards a lower carbon future, putting in place the groundwork for a more sustainable, resilient built environment for generations to come.
