# Categories and Credits
# Categories
BESS assesses projects against established benchmarks in nine environmental categories. These categories are consistent with the environmental objectives in the Environmentally Sustainable Development Local Planning Policies:
- Management
- Water
- Energy
- Stormwater
- Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
- Transport
- Waste
- Urban Ecology
- Innovation
# Credits
Each category contains a number of credits relating to that environmental issue. Each credit contributes points toward the total score of that category. Category scores are weighted to calculate the overall BESS score.
Credits may be as simple as a Yes/No question, may require simple numerical input, or may be calculated based on a number of inputs (profiling questions).
For mixed use developments, credits may apply to the whole project, or to one or more building classes within the project.