BIM for BREEAM-NL assessments

Abstract

As climate change concerns increase, more and more clients are aiming for higher sustainability ratings for their properties. Green building assessments are of great importance to stimulate the sustainable paradigm shift within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. However, the current working process for green building assessments, such as for BREEAM-NL certification, still requires tedious manual work. The application of Building Information Modeling provides an opportunity for automated assessments and real-time feedback. Despite the significant amount of research on technological possibilities of BIM-based sustainability compliance verification, this is not a commonly adopted BIM application. This thesis project aims to address this research gap, by taking a closer look into practice to identify the barriers that are hindering the adoption of BIM for BREEAM-NL assessments and proposing a strategy to further the utilization of BIM for this purpose. The primary contributions of this research lie in the following areas: 1) Investigating the actual status of BIM use for BREEAM-NL assessments in practice and discussing the needs of the industry 2) Integrating the topics of process and policy along with technology in the discussion of BIM-based Green Building Assessments and lastly, 3) Providing a practical strategy to initiate the implementation of BIM-based BREEAM-NL assessments.