January the 31st of this very year saw the implementation of a new partnership between BREAM and WELL that would enable companies wanting to gain accreditation from both organizing bodies in an easier and more effective way. The new paper itself, titled “Assessing Health and Wellbeing in Buildings,” was released recently in order to facilitate the processes that varies building and construction companies would have to take in order to gain a credit rating from the two risk reduction bodies. Inside the paper is included an extremely useful breakdown of the differences between the BREEAM and WELL certification standards, as well as the ways in which they are similar so that enterprises can use the credit approval ratings of one of the organizations in order to prove its capabilities and thus earn more credits from the other. Indeed, the joint collaboration of BREEAM and WELL in this enterprise will save building and construction organizations time and confusion by integrating the two certified standards together. What this will mean is that companies wishing to be deemed certifiable by BREEAM will not need to gather different forms of evidence in order to be deemed certifiable by WELL: the evidence can be integrated and used in an application for both organizations. As the Technical Director of BREEAM, Alan Yates, explains, there are numerous parallels between BREEAM and WELL and around 35 per cent of credits from one of the standards can match into the other. What this indicates is that building and construction companies will not have to fill out as many bureaucratic forms or gather evidence for the same skills and assessments: by collaborating with each other, BREEAM and WELL will make it easier and more encouraging for companies in the construction sector to think about how they can improve their health and safety measures in the workplace in order to achieve accreditation from both organizations.

A new life safety system based around Kentec’s Syncro XT+ addressable extinguishing control panel technology is being installed in the new 4 billion Kroner (Euro 407m) terminal at Norway’s Bergen Flesland International Airport Development. Bergen Flesland’s new terminal development will treble the airport’s capacity and will include a new dedicated train line connecting Flesland to Bergen city centre. The terminal building itself will be scalable, featuring all core functions, including check-in, baggage, storage systems, security control, and departure and arrival halls on two separate levels. Norwegian Brannslokkesystemer AS was commissioned to design and install a Novec 1230 extinguishing system, controlled by a Kentec Syncro XT+ network comprising 11 multi-area addressable extinguishant control panels with loop powered status indicator units and using Apollo communications protocol. Brannslokkesystemer AS imports, designs and assembles automatic gas extinguishing systems for the marine and land-based market throughout Norway. Kentec’s Syncro XT+ control panels are the leading multi-area addressable extinguishant control panel solution, fully approved to EN12094-1, EN54-2 and EN54-4. Syncro XT+ provides addressable detection over 1 or 2 loops with 16 Zone LED Indicators and is available with up to four extinguishant release control units built in.