Using building information modeling to assess the initial embodied energy of a building

The building information modeling (BIM) is a new tool used by the architecture, engineering and construction industry to design and build new buildings. Similar to manufacturing companies, architects and engineers are using digital prototypes in building design. As the building industry is taking interest in environmental concerns, sustainable design has emerged as a growing field. Keeping sustainability in mind, it is desirable that environmental performance indicators also be involved while finalizing the designs. This could be accomplished by adding additional parameters such as embodied energy, reusability, deconstructability, and recycled content to the material data library. These parameters may be compared for alternative designs to determine which option is more environmentally friendly. At present, most BIM tools provide the data to be exported to other sustainability analysis tools, but are not capable of analyzing the sustainability parameters and comparing the results for various alternative systems. In addition, most of the time the exported data need to be modified to match the input format for sustainability analysis tools. It is also true that most of the sustainability analysis tools available concentrate on sustainability parameters which are useful during operation of building, for example day lighting and energy consumption. This work is an effort to explore the power of building information modeling tools to compare the environmental parameter attributed to materials, initial embodied energy in this case, to support the decision-making process for selection of environmentally friendly design. This work also demonstrates the flexibility of BIM to modify a model and parameters associated with its elements.