Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides an opportunity to reduce manual labour in acquiring data for building life cycle assessment (LCA). The amount of research in the area has been increasing, especially since 2007, when the first attempts to use digital tools and solutions for the whole-life optimisation of buildings were conducted. Since then, lots of R&D has been put into developing BIM practices and technologies, digitalisation of product data and their use in environmental calculation,.
This report describes the current operating environments of Nordic countries and Estonia regarding building LCA and BIM. It reports the findings on current building LCA and BIM practices, constraints and enablers for harmonising building LCA. The report also explains the current enablers and hindrances for BIM-based building LCA in the Nordic countries and Estonia.
The results have been produced by the expert group, i.e., the authors of this report. The group has systematically collected and analysed national information on BIM utilisation and LCA methods to define the needs and constraints for the BIM-based building LCA process. The national information has been retrieved from existing national reports and by conducting expert interviews in each Nordic country and Estonia. The Nordic partners identified the best experts in either BIM, building LCA or their combination. The interviewees encompass a wide range of perspectives, including representatives from government authorities, non-profit associations, architectural firms, and engineering companies. The structured interview data collection (August–September 2023) focused on the national BIM utilisation and LCA methods.
After the interview data collection and desktop research, a workshop was organized in early October 2023 with the Nordic project partners to analyse the data, understand the differences and similarities between the countries, and define the needs and constraints for a harmonised BIM-based building LCA process. The interviewees were provided with a privacy notice following the GDPR. The interviews were conducted in the native language of the interviewee, and the interview data was translated into English by the interviewers.