Sunand Prasad has “grounds for optimism”

Hopes are rising that education secretary Michael Gove will pull plans to scrap or streamline environmental assessments for new school buildings.

It is feared that Breeam could be a casualty when the Department for Education publishes its response to the James Review of investment in education in the next few weeks.

Last week in a pre-emptive move, a number of prominent education architects co-signed a letter to Gove urging him to keep Breeam assessments, following similar pleas from the UK Green Building Council, RIBA and Design Council Cabe.

One of the signatories, former RIBA president Sunand Prasad, told BD: “I have some grounds for optimism because there has been such as amazing upsurge against the proposals.

“Schools are the future and if we can’t show good practice for sustainability in schools, we might as well give up.”

The letter, sent on behalf of cross-industry group the Edge, said: “While many of us are seeking improvements to the Breeam system it remains the only broad measure of sustainability including energy consumption used across the industry and is highly effective at delivering high performing buildings at little additional cost.”

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