Cleaning Support for BREEAM-Rated Buildings
Documented, site-specific evidence for facilities and asset managers maintaining a BREEAM rating.
Can Alliance Cleaning Support BREEAM Cleaning?
Yes, Alliance Cleaning supplies the cleaning practices and documented evidence that BREEAM In-Use and BREEAM New Construction rely on, generated as a standard part of every contract.
In practice, that support looks like:
- Chemical, waste and training records that map directly to RSC 05, RSC 06 and HEA 16 under BREEAM In-Use
- Approved cleaning schedules for the Building User Guide at handover, under Man 04
- Cleaning practices, chemical VOC control, HEPA filtration, entrance matting, ventilation hygiene, that support the Hea 04 indoor air quality credit
- Ongoing evidence access through a dedicated client portal
Why Your Cleaning Contractor Is Part of Your BREEAM Evidence
If you manage a BREEAM-rated asset, or you’re working towards one, your cleaning contractor is one of the people supplying the evidence your assessor will ask for. Alliance Cleaning has spent 28 years building the kind of documented, site-level practice that BREEAM In-Use assessment depends on:
- chemical logs
- waste data
- ventilation hygiene records
- training matrices
This page sets out how that work maps to your BREEAM credits, and what changes under the new BREEAM Version 7.
What’s Changing Under BREEAM V7
BRE Global released BREEAM UK New Construction Version 7 in 2025, and Refurbishment and Fit-Out followed in July 2026. BREEAM In-Use remains on Version 6 for now, with BRE yet to confirm a release date for the In-Use update.
When In-Use does move to V7, two changes are already confirmed. The Acceptable rating is being removed, and the Pass boundary will move up to align with New Construction, phased across V7 and V8. BRE has also re-scored previously certified projects under the new methodology and found scores fell, by roughly 3% in the UK against BREEAM 2018 and around 5% against V6.1, with BRE’s own caveat that project-specific factors vary and the figures should be read as directional rather than exact.
The practical effect: the same building now needs more from its supporting evidence to hold the rating it already has.
That makes the documentation your cleaning contractor produces worth more attention than it was under the previous version, not because your current rating is at risk, but because the margin for error at reassessment has narrowed.
What BREEAM Certifies, and What It Doesn’t
There’s currently no such thing as a BREEAM-certified cleaning company.
BREEAM assesses buildings, not the contractors who maintain them, so any cleaning company claiming BREEAM accreditation is describing something that doesn’t exist as a credential.
What does exist is a role, and a fairly specific one.
Under BREEAM In-Use, Parts 2 and 3 assess a building’s ongoing management, and a meaningful share of that evidence is generated by whoever cleans the site:
- chemical certifications
- waste data
- training records
- ventilation hygiene reports
Under New Construction, the Building User Guide produced at handover includes the approved cleaning schedules that protect surfaces and air systems from the day the building is occupied.
Alliance Cleaning’s role is to supply cleaning that supports a building working towards, or maintaining, a BREEAM rating, and to hand over the evidence an assessor needs to see it.
Why choose Alliance Cleaning?
Our decades of experience and expertise means we can deliver a more effective, efficient service that saves your business time and money, reduces employee downtime, and increases productivity and motivation.
Award Winning UK Business
ISO Standard 9001, 14001 & 45001
Established since 1998 and family run
One Hour Client Response Times
Dedicated Account Manager
ESG Enabled
Commercial Cleaning Specialists
Sustainable Office Cleaning
How Cleaning Maps to Your BREEAM Credits
Credit codes and category numbering vary by scheme and version, so each row below states which BREEAM scheme and version applies. It’s worth checking the current technical manual before citing a code in a live tender document, since BRE updates individual schemes on a rolling basis.
| Credit | Scheme and version | What it needs | What Alliance Cleaning supplies |
|---|---|---|---|
| RSC 05 Sustainable procurement | BREEAM In-Use, Version 6 | A procurement policy giving preference to suppliers certified to ISO 14001 or an equivalent standard | Alliance Cleaning’s own ISO 14001:2015 certification, FSC-certified paper products and chain-of-custody consumables |
| RSC 06 Optimising resource use, reuse and recycling | BREEAM In-Use, Version 6 | Recorded waste data for the managing organisation, plus reduction, reuse and recycling targets | Waste segregated at source across multiple streams, with data captured digitally and reported to building management |
| HEA 16 Indoor Air Quality Management | BREEAM In-Use, Version 6 | Documented interior cleaning procedures, including formal written guidance from landlord to tenant | Low-VOC, plant-based cleaning chemistry, HEPA-filtered vacuum equipment, and one standardised protocol across common areas and tenant demises |
| Man 04 Commissioning and Handover | BREEAM New Construction, Version 7 (carried through from V6.1/2018 with minor changes) | A Building User Guide at practical completion, including approved cleaning schedules | Cleaning schedules designed to protect surfaces and air systems from day one of occupation |
| Hea 04 Indoor air quality | BREEAM New Construction, Version 7 (was Hea 02 under 2018/V6.1) | An indoor air quality plan, now worth one credit and a minimum standard for Very Good and above | The cleaning practices an indoor air quality plan specifies: chemical VOC control, HEPA filtration, entrance matting, ventilation hygiene |
ISO certifications tell you Alliance Cleaning’s own systems are sound, but BREEAM In-Use asks for something more specific: evidence from your building, not just ours. That’s where the contract manager model earns its keep. Because each manager covers fewer sites than most in the industry, the evidence above gets captured at your site as a matter of course, rather than chased up when an assessor asks for it.
Evidence You Can See: The Client Portal
Rather than assembling a folder of evidence at reassessment time, Alliance Cleaning clients have ongoing access to a dedicated client portal covering the documentation described in the table above.
It turns a document request into something you can check whenever you need it, rather than a scramble in the weeks before an assessor visit.
Ask your contract manager what’s available for your contract and how to get access.
Indoor Air Quality and BREEAM Version 7 (Hea 04)
Under New Construction V7, the indoor air quality plan has moved from a prerequisite to a scored credit, and it’s now a minimum standard for a Very Good rating or above. That’s a meaningful change, because indoor air quality is the category where cleaning has the most direct, physical influence on a BREEAM assessment.
Four things your cleaning contractor controls affect it directly.
Chemical VOC load
Low- or zero-VOC, plant-based cleaning products avoid the solvents and synthetic fragrances that degrade indoor air quality.
Filtration
HEPA-filtered vacuum equipment, rated to capture 99.97% of particles at 0.3 microns, stops fine dust and allergens recirculating through the building.
Entrance matting
Soil extraction at building entrances stops most tracked-in dust before it reaches interior air systems.
Ventilation hygiene
Regular cleaning of air handling units, ductwork and filtration banks, in line with BS EN 15780, keeps the systems that circulate air from becoming a pollutant source themselves.
Landlord and Tenant Responsibility in Multi-Let Buildings
Under BREEAM In-Use HEA 16, a landlord in a multi-tenanted building must give tenants formal written guidance on interior cleaning procedures, even though the landlord isn’t required to monitor or enforce tenant compliance with it.
In practice, that guidance is often inconsistent between a landlord’s own common-area cleaning specification and whatever each tenant arranges independently.
Alliance Cleaning can apply one standardised cleaning protocol, covering chemical standards, HEPA vacuuming and waste segregation, across landlord common areas and tenant demises, with evidence recorded in one place rather than several.
That consistency simplifies the picture an assessor sees at reassessment, and it’s a straightforward conversation to have with your contract manager if your building has this split.
Evidence for Your Next Reassessment
Alliance Cleaning already produces most of what a BREEAM In-Use assessor looks for as a normal part of the service: dated cleaning logs, safety data sheets, VOC product certifications, HEPA equipment specifications, ductwork hygiene records, training matrices, and consumable purchase logs with chain-of-custody detail.
If you’re preparing for reassessment, start with your contract manager, who’ll raise the request with Head Office. Because this documentation is held and maintained centrally, it’s usually a case of retrieving records that already exist rather than reconstructing anything from scratch.
"Alliance Cleaning doesn't simply clean buildings, we help clients create 'Cleaner, Greener, Workplaces.' By combining sustainable cleaning methods, innovative technology, environmental reporting and continuous improvement, we support our clients in maintaining high-performing workplaces that align with BREEAM, ESG and Net Zero ambitions."
Danny Bishop, CEO
For Procurement and Tender Teams
If BREEAM compliance appears in your cleaning tender specification, Alliance Cleaning can supply the credit-mapped evidence set out above as part of your tender response, referenced against the correct scheme and version for your project.
For a conversation about a specific tender, contact the sales team on 01992 700073 or [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a cleaning company be BREEAM certified?
No. BREEAM certifies buildings, not the companies that maintain them, so there’s no accreditation a cleaning contractor can hold and call “BREEAM certified.” What a contractor can do is support the evidence a BREEAM assessment depends on, which is the role Alliance Cleaning plays.
What evidence does a BREEAM assessor expect from a cleaning contractor?
Assessors generally look for dated cleaning logs, safety data sheets, VOC product certifications, HEPA equipment specifications, ductwork hygiene records, training matrices, and consumable purchase logs with chain-of-custody detail. Alliance Cleaning produces all of this as a normal part of the service, not as a one-off exercise before an assessor visit.
Does a cleaning contractor affect a building's BREEAM rating?
Yes, particularly under BREEAM In-Use. Parts 2 and 3 assess the building’s ongoing management, and a cleaning contractor generates a meaningful share of that evidence: waste data, chemical records, training logs and more. A building’s rating depends partly on how well that evidence is documented.
Is BREEAM support included as standard, or is it an add-on service?
It’s built into how we already work rather than sold as a separate line item. The evidence a BREEAM assessment needs comes from the cleaning practices, chemical standards and documentation we apply on every contract, so there’s no additional service to add on.
What's the difference between BREEAM New Construction and BREEAM In-Use?
New Construction assesses a building at design and construction stage, before occupation. BREEAM In-Use assesses a building once it’s occupied, using real operational data. Cleaning contractors are most relevant to In-Use, since Parts 2 and 3 assess the building management evidence generated during day-to-day operation.
Does Alliance Cleaning's ISO 14001 certification help with BREEAM?
Yes, specifically through RSC 05 Sustainable procurement, part of BREEAM In-Use. That credit awards extra weight where a supplier’s procurement policy favours suppliers certified to ISO 14001 or an equivalent environmental management standard, which is exactly what Alliance Cleaning holds. It’s one of the few places where a contractor’s own certification feeds directly into your building’s score.
Can’t find what you’re looking for?
Call 01992 700073 or email [email protected]
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