SKA Rating

SKA Rating is an assessment built for interior fit-outs and refurbishments. A project is scored only on the measures that apply to its scope, and the rating belongs to the project, not the building or your company.

It started in 2005 as a project commissioned by Skansen, the fit-out contractor that gave it its name, and RICS. RICS ran it from December 2008. Since December 2023 it has been independent, owned by SKA Rating Ltd, a not-for-profit governed by a board of industry professionals who serve voluntarily. Changes to the measures go out to public consultation before they're adopted.

If you report to GRESB, SKA Rating is on GRESB's list of recognised interior certifications for 2026 and 2027. GRESB is re-checking every scheme for 2028, and SKA is currently listed as under review.

Not sure SKA fits your project? Tell me about it.

There are three live schemes: Offices Environmental 2.0; Retail 1.0, which also covers restaurants and cafes; and Higher Education 1.0, which covers universities, colleges and labs. You pick the one that covers most of your works. For anything else, such as schools, healthcare or student accommodation, or a project outside the UK, SKA has a Pilot route. Pilots are assessed pass or fail, with no Bronze, Silver or Gold.

Only the measures that apply to your works count, so a light refurbishment isn't marked down for work it never included. The rating is the share of in-scope measures you achieve: 25% for Bronze, 50% for Silver and 75% for Gold. SKA says Silver and Gold are harder to achieve under Offices 2.0, so set the target with that in mind.

Offices 2.0 has 83 measures across nine categories. If a project achieves the Energy Use Intensity and Embodied Carbon Intensity measures, it can also apply for a separate Net Zero aligned certificate. That's SKA's own certificate, not a UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard one.

Send me your scope and I'll tell you which scheme fits.

In my experience a design-stage assessment takes 4 to 8 weeks, depending on how complete the design information is. On a lot of projects it carries on until the tender package is fixed.

Certification comes after the handover assessment. SKA lets the Assessor start the certification process once that's done, and puts the process itself at a couple of days to a few weeks. In my experience the certificate is usually issued around a month after practical completion.

Projects that build the measures in early tend to certify faster.

Tell me your programme and I'll map the SKA stages onto it.

The SKA online tool is free. Anyone can register a project, scope it and track the measures without paying anything. You can't claim a SKA rating at the end, though, unless an accredited Assessor has done the assessment and issued the certificate.

Formal certification has two costs: the Assessor's fee, which each Assessor sets and which varies with project size, duration, target rating and scheme; and a one-off certification fee paid to SKA to issue the certificate, at the rate shown in the online tool when you pay.

My fee depends on the scope, the scheme and how much support the team needs.

Want a fee for your project? Send me the scope.

Yes, and plenty of fit-outs do. Decide at the start which scheme covers what, so the evidence is gathered once and does double duty.

One thing has changed on offices. Offices Environmental 2.0 dropped its wellbeing category, because SKA is moving those measures into separate Social and Wellbeing schemes, due in 2027. It now covers environmental impact only, so if wellbeing matters on an office fit-out, that's where Fitwel or WELL come in.

With BREEAM, check the scope first. SKA's own advice is to choose the scheme that covers most of the project, and to use other schemes where the works are outside the building or are limited to the external envelope.

I work on BREEAM, Fitwel and WELL as well as SKA, so one person can coordinate the lot.

Running more than one scheme? Let's plan the evidence once.

It's optional. SKA allows a further assessment from 12 months after handover, up to two years, and it can earn a further certificate.

Most of it is a check on what has changed since handover. If products have been swapped or added, they're assessed again. A few Offices 2.0 measures can only be scored in use: lighting and small power energy, which compare meter readings with the ones taken at handover, and zero carbon energy contracts.

It's worth doing if you want evidence of how the space performs, not just how it was built. If you want it, plan the metering at design stage so there are handover readings to compare against.

A certificate doesn't expire, but later interior works make it invalid unless they're part of the occupancy assessment.

Want occupancy planned in from day one? Ask me.

If that's what the project needs, yes. I work in your systems, to your templates and within your reporting lines. You keep the client relationship throughout and your project lead still leads.

One thing doesn't change. Where I'm the appointed SKA Assessor, the assessment sits under my own SKA accreditation, and SKA's audits are of my work.

Need a SKA Assessor inside your team? Let's talk.

Depends on the engagement. A fixed fee works well for a defined scope on a single project. Day rate or retained capacity tends to suit teams with recurring workload or a framework agreement.

SKA's own certification fee is separate and paid to SKA.

Either way you'll get a clear scope and a fee before anything starts, and I'll tell you if I think the work doesn't need me.

Send me the scope and I'll come back with a figure.