Green Buildings with BIM Part 3: Construction
Traditionally, construction is one of the least environmentally helpful activities that humans can engage in. We use heavy machinery which guzzles oil to remove trees and plants from their natural habitat, disrupt the ecosystem above and below the soil, and create sometimes substantial amounts of waste. These are the old norms in construction, from at least 50 years ago. Now, an awareness of the environmental impact of various tasks, and the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) to minimize these, is rewriting history. Today we are looking at how the construction phase of a project can be made cleaner and greener than ever by utilizing 3D modelling processes to create green buildings.
How does BIM ‘green’ the construction process?
There are several main ways that utilizing BIM technology can help the green credentials of construction project. These include:
- Creating work efficiencies that help minimise the amount of carbon emissions created by machinery
- Disrupting the natural land layout and hydrology as little as possible
- Reducing human error in construction and therefore saving time, materials, and energy
- Making ‘paperless projects’ possible
- Optimising the use of materials available, and
- Therefore minimising (and properly disposing of) waste
Of course, BIM can also have a huge impact on a building’s ongoing green credentials, by helping architects visualise how the finished building will use light and energy, and how it will impact on the surrounding environment. Today, though, we will just look at the actual process of construction.
Minimising carbon emissions
As is the case in so many environmental initiatives, there is an associated long-term cost benefit in other areas to companies that take the time to put their ‘green hat’ on. Minimising carbon emissions also means minimising machine running time, which means minimising labour hours needed to do the job …. which means overhead savings. BIM can help reduce the time that machines are running around by:
- Evaluating different scenarios of earthmoving to decide which is most efficient, balance the acts of cutting and filling, and keep trucking of soil around the site to a minimum.
- If GPS controlled construction equipment is used, design files can be used directly with it to save time, fuel, and emissions.
Minimising disruption to the natural land layout
Obviously, when you can visualise and evaluate different earth movement scenarios using BIM, you can work to preserve the natural layout of the surrounding land as much as possible. This also helps preserve the natural hydrology arrangements.
Reducing human error
Once the systems transition is in place and operators are trained in the processes, BIM has the potential to almost eradicate human error in steel detailing, structural engineering and construction. Since errors almost always mean wastage of some sort – time, materials, and money – the reduction of errors will certainly work toward ‘greening’ the construction phase.
Making paperless projects possible
The day-to-day dependence on paper that characterised so much of the 1900s is very much disappearing from our lives. In the structural engineering industry, the change is being driven by the development of BIM. The computer-based interactions between different parties make it possible to effectively administer a project without the mountains of paper that a big building meant in the past.
Building Information Modelling is truly the way forward in construction, saving time, money, and the planet. The switch can take some time, but is certainly worth the effort.
