BIM Execution Planning in Green Building Projects: LEED as a Use Case

Companies that embrace both building information modeling (BIM) and green building are making conscientious efforts to pursue the synergies between the two, namely the green BIM practice. When done right, project teams find that green BIM can improve project outcomes, and facilitate the accomplishment of established sustainability goals. Nevertheless, green BIM remains an emerging trend to the majority of the industry, and its full potential is yet to be explored according to recent market research reports. The hypothesis of this research is that for companies to succeed in practicing green BIM, a holistic approach that strategically plans for BIM execution in green building projects is needed. The BIM project execution planning guidelines (PEPG) is widely adopted today to offer general guidance and standardized workflow of strategic BIM implementation. PEPG is not meant to and lacks the specificity to address green building projects in particular. However, the popularity of PEPG is conceived as an opportunity for this research to inherit its framework and create a special case of its implementation in green building projects. Considering the prevalence of leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) green building rating system in global green building industry, this research is further refined to focus on LEED projects as an exemplary use case. Two major activities conducted include: (1)a comprehensive literature review of existing green BIM strategies and best practices; and (2)the proposition of an integrated green BIM process map (IGBPM), which is essentially adapting and further developing relevant process maps from PEPG and initiatives such as the architecture, engineering, construction, owner and operator, phase 1 (AECOO-1) joint testbed to address unique business processes of implementing BIM in LEED projects. The deliverables of this research include level 1 IGBPM and examples of level 2 IGBPM process maps, discussed along with case studies for verification and validation. The goal of this research is to create a prototype that facilitates holistic and systematic green BIM practices based upon clearly defined business processes and execution planning. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.