Global warming is driving the need to reduce energy consumption in buildings. Energy for the construction sector accounts for over 40% of Europe’s energy and CO2 emissions. A game-changing strategy is required to support the transition to cleaner and more cost-efficient practices.
BIM is already demonstrating effective collaborations across disciplines with a focus on total life cycle and supply chain integration. BIM also facilitates the collection and storage of information in an industry-compliant data store to benefit users. Informed implementation of BIM has the potential to pave the way to energy savings through: better supervision of energy flows and use in a building, and a new value proposition across the energy value chain during the operational stage.
This book explores ways in which:
- BIM data can be shared across supply chains and life cycle, taking into account a wide range of organisational, technical and legal aspects, including information sensitivity
- BIM can assist in the operations management of buildings and, in particular, help to address the endemic energy performance gap experienced in existing and new buildings, using artificial intelligence
- BIM can be used to enforce regulatory compliance with a focus on energy-related regulations
- BIM for energy efficiency can be scaled up to district and city level.

1 Introduction
1.1 The built environment as a big emitter of carbon
1.2 The challenge of regulating buildings and reducing
their environmental impact
1.3 The digitalisation revolution in the construction industry
1.4 BIM and energy efficiency
1.5 BIM adoption in industry: the case for training
1.6 Structure of this book
2 BIM and energy efficiency
2.1 A process dimension for BIM
2.2 BIM tools
2.3 BIM and its underpinning standards
2.3.1 Industry Foundation Classes
2.3.2 XML for IFCs
2.3.3 gbXML
2.4 BIM-related process models: the RIBA Plan of Work
2.5 Environmental assessment methods
2.6 Energy assessment in buildings
2.6.1 Simplified Building Energy Model (SBEM)
2.6.2 Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP)
2.6.3 Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH)
2.6.4 Dynamic simulation tools
3 Best practice and gaps in the use of BIM
for energy efficiency in industry
3.1 General methodology
3.2 Determining relevant indicators of variables in BIM project
case studies
3.2.1 Objective-based analysis
3.2.2 Case study type
3.2.3 Building type
3.2.4 Project type
3.2.5 Target discipline
3.2.6 Life-cycle stage
3.2.7 Impact
3.3 Determining relevant relationships between variables
and impacts
3.4 BIM for energy efficiency requirements
3.4.1 General BIM requirements
3.4.2 Specific BIM requirements
4 Coordinating BIM energy-related data across
the supply chain and life cycle
4.1 Construction market dynamics
4.2 C4C framework
4.3 Implementation of BIM in an energy scenario
4.4 Trial case study
4.5 Conclusions
5 BIM-based energy performance management of buildings
5.1 BIM for energy efficiency
5.1.1 Barriers to adopting energy efficiency techniques
5.1.2 Energy efficiency initiatives
5.1.3 Conclusions
5.2 Applying BIM to an energy efficiency best practice case study
5.2.1 FIDIA pilot
5.2.2 Energy consumption: BIM optimisation versus
traditional optimisation
5.3 Conclusions and discussion
6 BIM as a means to streamlining access to
sustainability-related information and knowledge
6.1 The energy-bim.com platform
6.2 The search services
6.3 The professional networking service
6.4 BIM data harvesting for energy efficiency training
6.4.1 Automated BIM case studies analysis
6.4.2 BIM platform to support automated analysis by case study type
6.4.3 BIM community engagement and services
7 BIM for energy regulatory compliance checking
7.1 Background to regulatory compliance checking
7.2 Related work in regulatory compliance checking
7.3 Role of BIM in delivering regulatory compliance
– the RegBIM approach
7.4 Semantic framework
7.5 Extracting rules from regulatory documents
7.6 Semantic mapping of rules to an OWL-enhanced
industry standard data format
7.7 Generating semantic rules for regulatory compliance
7.8 Delivering a BIM-ready model for regulatory compliance checking
7.9 BIM-based regulatory checking as a means of promoting
low-carbon design
8 Scaling up BIM for energy efficiency to district level
8.1 Background to energy management in district environments
8.2 Introduction to semantics in energy management
8.3 Towards semantic interoperability in energy systems
8.4 Methodology for the design of the semantic e-district ontology
8.5 Conclusion
9 Conclusions
9.1 BIM for optimising energy performance in buildings
9.2 BIM as a means to minimising life-cycle impacts of buildings
9.3 BIM for energy retrofitting
9.4 Towards promoting a circular economy
References