Thank you for your support in BEAM for the past years!

We keep evolving the BEAM standards with local and international best practices. With the previous two BEAM standards introduced since 2005, the BEAM Society employed the Chinese University of Hong Kong this year to review the standards for New Building Developments (version 4/04) and Existing Buildings (version 5/04).

Working groups with experts from private companies, academic institutions, utility companies and government departments have been organized to review each environmental aspect.

Now, the review process has been completed and we are glad to present you the updated BEAM standards for new buildings and existing buildings.

 The improved versions are called "BEAM Plus" and the standards:

• Retain the overall structure of the current BEAM standards, i.e. six aspect categories (site, materials, energy, water, indoor environment, enhancements and innovations) and performance ratings (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and unclassified);
• Recommend new criteria and assessment methods in line with similar assessment methods overseas and local updated best practices and government programmes;
• Assign relevant credits as "pre-requisites"; and
• Devise minimum percentage scores in most of the aspects for a particular overall BEAM rating, and reassign the weightings of different categories

BEAM Plus standards have been launched date 20^th November 2009 coexisting with the current standards and allowed roughly 4 months periods for the market to design which standards they would apply. After 31^st March 2010, all new BEAM projects applied for certification will be assessed under the BEAM Plus standards.

BEAM Plus can be downloaded from HERE  for free: