Some large projects will have hundreds of documents and sometimes it can be difficult to know what a reviewer needs to conduct a proper review. As a reviewer, we also don’t really want to spend hours searching for the correct document to confirm our queries as well. So here are some tips and suggestions for what kind of supporting documents are required to conduct a review of your study for certification.
Please be sure to upload any documents that support your study assumptions and methodology to the design that is being submitted for certification. Navigate to the ‘Docs’ tab in the design you are about to submit for certification and click on ‘+ New Upload’ add documents.
Please ensure that the documents you provide are in commonly accessible formats such as PDFs, common image files, .XLS and/or .CSV wherever possible. We encourage marking up documents as additional explanation of your assessment methodology & assumptions. Zipped files can also be uploaded to save uploading time.
Bear in mind that the main purpose of all supporting documents provided is for the reviewer to gain confidence that your modelling methodology is robust, reliable and sensible. If your documents are inconsistent with the design, vague and unorganised, it would be challenging for the reviewer to check that your assumptions are sound and to feel confident that what you’ve modelled is an accurate reflection of the project.
Please note the following list of most useful documents to provide in order to facilitate the review process. :
- Floor plans, elevations/cross sections of general layouts, 3D view of the building (PDF format only)
- If possible, preferably the original itemised cost plan/bill of quantities that show material quantities & units (PDF format only unless original format is already in .xls format in which case any edits/additions made by you should be clearly distinguished)
- Material (i.e. concrete, reinforcement, steel etc) schedules exported from Revit or other 3D software for material quantities (PDF or spreadsheets only)
- Structural drawings, although the above docs would be preferable (PDF format only)
- Spreadsheet demonstrating your own calculations/assumptions with clear references/notes to official sources/docs
- ideally the spreadsheet should also list the original eTool names of templates used with clear reference to the new template name (if applicable) in the design
- List of changes/edits made to the templates if any (a pop-up dialog box will ask if you wish to ‘unlock’ the template when you try to make changes to a template that should be noted) and any custom templates that you’ve created;
- Please take care to add informative filenames/labels/titles to the data/sheets/documents (we can’t read your mind!)
- Energy/thermal performance simulation reports that demonstrate the energy use of the building (HVAC, hot water system, elevators, lighting, appliances, office workstations, base building loads, tenancy loads etc) if available
- Services specifications (mechanical & electrical)
- Emails from engineers/architects that provide specification details (PDF format only)
- For BREEAM projects, in addition to the above, please upload the Mat01 IMPACT form that is usually filled out by the BREEAM assessor for the submission.
- For users in non-English speaking countries, although we wish there was an easier way, it would be SUPER helpful if your documents were translated or at least have markups/annotations in English. In worse case scenario, we are able to use Google Translate, however nuances of the language do get lost in the conversion especially when it comes to construction terminology & abbreviations.
