Driving the Green BIM Highway

With the world approaching a Green Revolution it is no surprise that BIM is settling in to be a major contributor to green design. As defined, BIM is not actually a technology but rather a methodology that can incorporate large amounts of information about a building’s design within the Building Information Model. Information that is essential in making prudent decisions about a building’s design with respect to green measures. The core philosophy behind green design is to create a dwelling that has minimal impact on its surrounding environment, while enhancing the building’s functionality and usability by its occupants. Some of the larger aspects of green design include energy efficiency, use of low impact non-hazardous materials, and reduction of waste throughout the construction process. To create and build a green building an incredible amount of planning and analysis must be done. Using traditional computer aided drafting tools this process is extremely time consuming and difficult. With the use of BIM, streamlining the green design process is becoming much easier and more efficient. This efficiency is stemming directly from the information that is created and stored within a BIM model. Using Revit as an example, it is now almost seamless to create an energy analysis of a building using two separate design options to compare energy impacts of each design. You can also instantaneously create material take off’s to analyze the materials being used in the building and also easily track the percentage of recycled verses non recycled materials being used in the project. These are just a few examples of how BIM is settling in to assist and help shape the Green Revolution. I will outline and demonstrate specific examples in the next posts.