With global climate change being an ever-present reality, real progress is needed in the construction industry embracing sustainable construction practices.
A call to sustainable architecture with BIM (Building Information Modeling) is an answer.
According to research, a pilot project based on an office building showed that utilizing BIM through building design was associated with a decrease in energy use intensity (EUI) for the building by 21% and reduced life cycle costs by 8.5%.
In this blog, we will explore how BIM supports sustainable building practices.
Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
BIM Supports Sustainable Building Practices: 7 ways
Optimizing Building Design
BIM shines in its ability to optimize sustainable building design through detailed 3D models. These models foster a comprehensive building performance analysis, allowing architects to simulate various sustainability scenarios. BIM also enhances the evaluation of various impacts, such as daylighting and energy-efficient HVAC systems, as well as the ability to penetrate the BEM and determine its thermal performance. The California Academy of Sciences is a very good example in this regard, where BIM plays a key role in energy use optimization and the incorporation of sustainable materials.
Moreover, design changes made during the project definition stage become less cumbersome with BIM. Real-time updates ensure that all disciplines—architects, engineers, and contractors—are on the same page, significantly reducing the risk of costly and time-consuming revisions. This coordinated effort ensures that sustainable features are incorporated seamlessly, thereby promoting energy-efficient design and material efficiency.
Enhancement in Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency remains a focal point in sustainable design, and BIM proves indispensable in this regard. By enabling energy performance simulations, BIM assists in pinpointing areas where improvements can be made. For instance, the orientation of the building, the materials used for the facade, and the integration of renewable energy resources can be optimized for maximum efficiency.
Reducing Construction Waste
Construction waste is a colossal issue, contributing to nearly 40% of global waste production. BIM’s coordinated workflow and meticulous planning significantly mitigate this problem. By ensuring accurate material ordering, BIM minimizes the chances of over-ordering and wastage.
Water Conservation Strategies
In regions with limited water resources, water conservation in sustainable building design is critical. BIM enables architects and engineers to model and simulate water systems, identifying opportunities for conservation and efficiency. Advanced BIM tools for eco-friendly design help streamline water-saving technologies within buildings, ensuring sustainable water management practices are in place from the get-go.
Lowering Carbon Footprint
BIM isn’t just about reducing immediate resource use; it’s about creating a future-proof design that minimizes environmental impacts over the building’s lifecycle. Through life cycle assessment (LCA) and the use of renewable materials, BIM contributes to a carbon footprint reduction and resource optimization
Facilitating Green Building Certifications with BIM
Securing certifications such as BEAM Plus and LEED certification is often a rigorous process filled with compliance and documentation hurdles. BIM simplifies this by automating up to 50-80% of the calculations required for certification prerequisites, streamlining the entire process. The enhanced capability of BIM to provide accurate, real-time updates and reports significantly accelerates documentation efforts.
Efficient Lifecycle Management
BIM for sustainability doesn’t end with construction; it extends throughout the building’s operational life. BIM creates a “digital twin” of the building, allowing for sophisticated lifecycle management. This digital twin enables predictive maintenance, energy optimization, and future sustainability upgrades. By continually analyzing building performance, BIM contributes to operational efficiencies that extend a building’s usability while minimizing its environmental impact. Notably, incorporating future sustainability upgrades becomes simpler and more cost-effective with comprehensive BIM systems in place.
Overcoming Challenges with Interoperability
While BIM offers a plethora of advantages, it is not without its challenges. Interoperability issues remain a hurdle, stymieing comprehensive sustainability evaluations. The absence of standardized modeling protocols can hinder the seamless integration of various tools and platforms. However, ongoing developments in BIM technology and increasing industry collaboration are gradually mitigating these issues, pushing the building envelope towards more harmonized and efficient systems.
Conclusion
To sum up, sustainable building practices are inextricably tied to BIM, as the latter provides an unprecedented array of sustainable construction technologies and functionalities that greatly improve energy efficiency, waste minimization, water conservation, and the reduction of a construction project’s overall carbon footprint. Thus, it can be concluded that BIM has catalyzed monumental change in integrating sustainable building strategies in architectural design, notwithstanding the problems that the project has encountered in terms of interoperability.
BIM contributes to the accomplishment of sustainable building and eco-friendly construction projects by improving design, accelerating green certification, and increasing the building’s performance throughout its life. BIM will be central for the construction industry in both the preparation for and realization of a sustainable future.
Did You Know?
Project rework caused by an inexperienced BIM team can increase project costs by up to 30%.
Worry not! Eracore is here to help.
Our skilled, and scalable BIM team carefully analyse your requirements and develop standards tailored to your project needs. Our internal teams verify your designs through three rigorous internal checks to ensure quality before delivering them ahead of the deadline.
