# Profiling Questions
Profiling questions are not credits – they are used for calculations that feed into credits. For example, the Energy category includes a number of profiling questions that are used to determine if the project has met a number of credits below (including GHG emissions, electricity use, hot water energy consumption etc).
# Scoping Out
You can 'scope out' questions or credits that do not apply to their your development.
# Example
A development that doesn't have any exterior lighting can respond "Scope Out" to the question in Energy 3.3 "Is the operation of the external lighting controlled by either a daylight sensor?"
When you select "Scope Out", you must provide an explanation why the credit is not applicable to your project. Once a credit is scoped out, these points are removed from the available points for that category.
It’s important to note that the total number of points available across the tool will also reduce when selecting "Scope Out", which can serve to reduce the options available for a development to demonstrate best practice and pass the tool overall.
# Annotate
This is an optional field that can be utilised for any credit. The annotate field can be used to add any additional information or notes. These will appear in the final report.
# Scoring
BESS assesses projects against a benchmark in 9 environmental categories. Within each category, points are available for various design strategies relevant to that category. Available points vary depending on the type of development. Different development types will require different information inputs, suitable to the scale and typology of the development.
The overall BESS score is shown as a percentage figure. This figure represents a percentage improvement over a benchmark project. The benchmark project is created from the project information inputted into BESS by the user, and is based on minimum National Construction Code and Minimum Energy Performance Standards.
The final BESS overall score is determined by the category scores, factoring in the weighting of each category.
- ‘Best practice’ is defined within BESS as an overall score of 50% or above.
- ‘Excellence’ is defined within BESS as an overall score of 70% or above.
In addition to the overall scoring, there are four mandatory categories with minimum pass rates:
- Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
- Energy
- Water
- Stormwater
The minimum scores in the mandatory categories were developed with careful consideration to existing industry based standards. These minimum scores are intended to demonstrate best practice and complement the current ESD Policy Amendment and the SDAPP Fact Sheets. The rationale behind this is to maintain the flexibility within the tool while also driving users toward an improved outcome in these traditionally ‘core’ sustainability categories. Also, the other categories (Transport, Waste, Urban Ecology & Management) within the tool have a limited number of credits available, and are more likely to contain credits that are not universally applicable.
For mixed-use developments, BESS applies an area weighting to determine the relative contribution of each building class to the overall project score.
# Category Weightings
In the current version of BESS, the category weightings are as follows:
| Management | 4.5% |
|---|---|
| Water | 9.0% |
| Energy | 27.5% |
| Stormwater | 13.5% |
| IEQ | 16.5% |
| Transport | 9.0% |
| Waste | 5.5% |
| Urban Ecology | 5.5% |
| Innovation | 9.0% |
These category weightings are based on a review of other built environment assessment tools, such as Green Star, consideration of potential environmental impact (including longevity), opportunities for improving the standard of the environmental impacts and overall ESD performance standard.
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