How BIM can tackle climate change

The benefits of using BIM go further than just saving time and money.

It can also provide an opportunity for the construction industry to tackle the challenges relating to the climate crisis including the waste, energy consumption and resilience of the built environment. 

Reducing waste 

Reducing the amount of waste produced in the construction industry is high on the agenda. Utilising BIM can ensure we cut down on the carbon associated with raw materials, manufacture, transportation and disposal. 

BIM provides an accurate visualisation for project members to minimise the waste that exists early in the design phase through its ability to detect future conflicts. 

Transparency and reporting 

The development of digital databases outlining the environmental impacts of building materials can be incorporated into BIM and whole life modelling. This enables designers to gather and analyse data from many buildings whilst reducing risk, life cycle costs and whole life carbon. 

Building obsolescence 

The mission to make the built environment as sustainable as possible means that obsolescence in buildings must be addressed. BIM is more commonly used for creating new buildings and less so for the refurbishment of existing ones. This is because there is greater complexity in applying BIM retrospectively, however, the opportunity exists for BIM to be used during renovation and retrofits. 

Retrofitting and renovation 

Significant improvements can be made to our existing building stock by using BIM. Retrofitting and renovating can vastly improve the quality of our buildings and their energy efficiency. 

Facilities management 

BIM enables end-users to manage information throughout an assets entire life cycle as data is available to the user at any given time on a project. BIM is underpinned by the creation, collation and exchange of three-dimensional models and the intelligent data structure attached to them. 

bimstore is recommended by 9 out of 10 manufacturers after seeing an increase in specification, views and downloads of their BIM objects.

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