BIM and Australian Green Star Building Certification

Nearly 80% of green certified structures in Australia are commercial office buildings. Attaining the highest certification often requires the application of design modelling and analysis tools, demanding greater levels of design coordination and management. Whilst the opportunities for green building certification to benefit from building information modelling (BIM) may be obvious, in Australia, the relationship is yet to be validated. This research seeks to address this gap by evaluating the application of BIM for green building certification. The authors present a case study of an Australian commercial office building. Project participants were interviewed and the as-built BIM model audited to analyse data against certification criteria. The results identify gaps in design management and modelling practices, as well as a lack of alignment between design activities and green building certification criteria. Gaps in internal project coordination were more pronounced than with external certification tasks. The study suggests the development of dedicated BIM execution and coordination plans for green building design and certification is required, and discusses the mapping of BIM management requirements with certification standards, criteria and processes.