Opportunities and limitations for integration of the Green Building Certification System in the BIM environment

With the increasing interest of the construction sector in the evaluation of existing and newly designed buildings using the principles of Green Building Certification Systems (GBCS), the scientific community is faced with the task of devising methods for their integration with Building Information Modeling (BIM) as an already established environment for managing the design process. Due to complex and comprehensive set of requirements of GBCS, covering all design stages, there are opportunities and limitations regarding integration with BIM, which represent the focus of this research. This paper examines GBCS (LEED and BREEAM) from the aspect of estimating the number and scope of issues and criteria susceptible to automation. Sections of the manual whose formulation and requirements allow parameterization can be translated into the BIM environment using visual programming language. In this paper, two methodologies for automating GBCS requirements have been proposed: the first can be applied to 28.6% of categories, and the second to 71.4%. Through the automation of GBCS requirements in practice, the time required to assess building design and prepare documentation will be reduced. Additionally, facilitating evaluation in this manner will result in using the GBCS manual not as a limitation, but as guidelines that can be quickly and seamlessly implemented. Designing new buildings or planning the reconstruction of existing ones can become more flexible, as it allows exploration of changes in order to define the best design options, ultimately aiming to improve overall building performance through the integration of GBCS in the BIM design process.