The Yantai municipal bureau of housing and urban-rural development and the Building Research Establishment Ltd (BRE), a world leading multi-disciplinary building research center based in Britain, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for strategic cooperation on June 8, in the eastern coastal city of Yantai.

According to the MoU, the two sides will conduct exchanges and cooperation in the fields of urban ecological construction, green building standards, construction design and consultancy that involves the BRE environmental assessment method (BREEAM), China's national standards on green building appraisal, and the green building standards of Yantai, along with research, testing and training for the environmental building sector.

With headquarters in Watford, the BRE is a former UK government company, but is now a private organization that provides a very extensive range of advisory, testing, research, and training services, covering all aspects of the built environment and associated industries.

Among the BRE's areas of interest are participation in the preparation of national and international standards of building codes, including the UK building regulations.

BREEAM, first published by the BRE in 1990, is the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of buildings.