Application of green BIM enabled tool for developing sustainable building process

Abstract

Within the last decade, the building industry has witnessed an expanding blossom of applying and developing building information modeling (BIM), as an emerging, promising, and innovative technology and process, dramatically transforming the way of constructing environmentally sustainable building from the original conception onwards to demolition. However, research concentrated on showing a clear understanding of utilizing BIM-based tools to achieve environmental sustainability of a building throughout its lifecycle is scarce. This paper aims to provide a systematic review of existing papers in the field of green BIM and identify major directions for future research agenda. It is supposed that green BIM perceived as a solution to numerous inefficiencies of managing environmental impacts and sustainable analysis of a building should not only be limited to the design and construction stages, but extend to the operation, maintenance and demolition stages over its entire lifecycle. Based on a comprehensive review of green BIM related issues, five main stages of a building’s lifecycle are identified. The limitations of green BIM adoption are discussed and future research directions are proposed. It is supposed that future application of BIM should resort to reduce, reuse and recycle strategies for sustainable purposes. Developing a more comprehensive and inclusive green building certification systems worldwide is demanding. The system should streamline the process of integrating BIM into energy analysis software for more efficient management of low energy consumption and minimal carbon emissions. More efforts should be exploited to develop a real-time monitoring and tracking technique for managing carbon emissions from construction activities in different stages. This research may establish a preliminary framework of enhancing environmental sustainability over building life cycles through green BIM. Beneficial outcomes can be a stimulating factor facilitating building construction practitioners implementing green BIM tools for sustainable purposes.