BIM as a tool for Green Building Certifications: an evaluation of the energy category of LEED, BREEAM and DGNB

Abstract

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry faces essential challenges related to the three sustainable pillars (social, economic and environmental). For instance, to decrease the carbon emissions, the consumption of energy and raw materials, to design sustainable cities and to improve the methodologies and technologies used to minimize cost and environmental problems. One alternative to overcome these challenges is the Green Building Certifications (GBCs), as for example Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM), and German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), and the new tools to support their process of implementation, for instance Building Information Modelling (BIM). The main objective of this paper is to study the viability of using BIM in the process of certification of energy category of LEED, BREEAM and DGNB for new projects using as a case study the building EUREF HAUS 12 – 13 located in Berlin - Germany. The methodology established is descriptive-exploratory and considers four research techniques, bibliography review, semi-structured interviews, BIM case study analysis, and work meetings with a BIM expert. The results illustrate that BIM can support all the energy requirements of LEED, BREEAM and DGNB and that despite the challenges that represent the implementation of BIM in GBCs, the advantages of it increases the efficiency of this process significantly.