# BESS Categories
BESS assesses projects against a benchmark in nine environmental categories.
- Management
- Energy
- Indoor Environment Quality
- Water
- Stormwater
- Urban Ecology
- Transport
- Waste
- Innovation
Within the tool, each category contains a number of credits relating to that environmental issue. Each credit contributes points toward the total score of that category. These categories are consistent with the environmental objectives in the Environmentally Sustainable Development Local Planning Policies.