Everyone agrees that a building should have good air. It should be safe to breathe in, comfortable to work in, and healthy to occupy. That is exactly what HEA 02 in BREEAM is about – ensuring documented good indoor air quality.

The requirements are clear: Ventilation must be properly designed and dimensioned. Pollution must be controlled during construction. Materials with potential emissions – such as paints, adhesives, flooring and ceilings – must comply with defined VOC requirements (Volatile Organic Compounds that can release chemicals into indoor air). Before the building is put into use, indoor air quality must be verified through measurements or a controlled flush-out process.

The requirements must not only be met. They must be verifiable.

At the start, everything is clear: The building will be BREEAM certified. HEA 02 will be secured. The requirements are defined.

Then execution begins. Products are replaced. Deliveries are adjusted. Subcontractors make purchases. Questions start to surface: Does the product have the correct emissions documentation? Does it comply with VOC requirements? Where is the documentation – and who has oversight?

What was meant to be about indoor climate quickly turns into a puzzle of PDFs, emails and manual clarifications. Not because there is a lack of intention, but because the flow of information is not structured.

When requirements are not clearly defined from the start, follow-up becomes reactive. When documentation is collected late, it becomes difficult to verify. When information is scattered, oversight disappears.

The result is stress before audits, risk of lost credits, and unnecessary time spent for both contractors and byggherrer. The project ends up playing catch-up instead of moving forward in control.

Imagine the opposite: When emission requirements are defined early in procurement, suppliers know what is expected. Product data is delivered in a structured way – not randomly. Documentation is traceable down to product level.

Then HEA 02 is no longer a race at the end, but a predictable and controlled process.

Cobuilder is not a “BREEAM tool.” It is a tool for structure.

With Cobuilder Collaborate, documentation is systematically collected from suppliers and contractors – structured, traceable and available when needed. It reduces manual checks, minimizes risk and provides a more robust audit trail.

Most importantly: HEA 02 is handled continuously – not in panic mode.