Scottish Building Regulations Section 7
The Scottish Building Standards Division has recently released details of the new Section 7 Sustainability for Building Regulations which came into force on 1st May 2011.  This section is applicable to new domestic and non-domestic buildings although at present only the lowest level, bronze, has been defined for non-domestic buildings.

Compliance with Section 7 will result in the award of a sustainability label for the building ranging from Bronze to Platinum. 

As long as a building has complied with all other aspects of Building Regulations Sections 1 - 6 a Bronze certificate will be awarded.  This can be improved upon by compliance with additional measures for silver and gold levels. 

The silver and gold levels have target CO2 emission reduction levels, target space energy use limits and a number of other sustainability factors such as security, water use efficiency, materials and adaptability.

The CO2 and energy requirements for domestic buildings and the CO2 standards for non-domestic buildings are shown below.

 

 Domestic CO2 Requirement

 Domestic Space Energy Requirement

 Non Domestic CO2 Requirement
Bronze

 Compliance with 2010 Section 6 (30% improvement on 2007 Standards)

 None

 Compliance with 2010 Section 6 (30% improvement on 2007 Standards)
Silver

 45% improvement on 2007 Standards (21.4% improvement on 2010 Standards)

 40kWh/m² for houses or 30kWh/m² for flats/maisonettes

 50% improvement on 2007 Standards (28.6% improvement on 2010 Standards)
Gold

 60% improvement on 2007 Standards (42.8% improvement on 2010 Standards)

 30kWh/m² for houses or 20kWh/m² for flats/maisonettes

 75% improvement on 2007 Standards (64.3% improvement on 2010 Standards)
Platinum

 100% improvement on 2007 Standards (DER not to exceed zero)

 Not yet defined

 100% improvement on 2007 Standards (DER not to exceed zero)
 

Scope remains to add further levels in the future as standards improve.  At present a Platinum level has been identified but only the CO2 emissions have been defined.  Further requirements for this level will be added in the future.

For more information on Section 7 please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , tel: 0131 333 8000