Examining the Relationship between Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Green Star

Neither Building Information Modelling (BIM) nor Green Star certification has yet to be widely adopted in the New Zealand construction industry. This paper, therefore, aims to encourage their development by examining the relationship between BIM adoption and Green Star certification. The qualitative approach using 21 semi-structured interviews with the construction professionals was conducted. The results indicate that despite the absence of a direct link, integrating BIM with Green Star has the potential to accelerate the Green Star uptake in New Zealand. However, BIM and Green Star uptake have two separated processes along with the lack of client demand for either BIM or Green Star projects were identified as the significant barriers to the integration. Among eight solutions recommended from the interviewees, providing education and training in both BIM and Green Star for clients and construction practitioners plays a key role.  This research contributes to the current knowledge of BIM and Green Star in New Zealand by providing baseline information to the NZGBC, construction stakeholders, and the government that allows for the formulation of effective strategies to be used to develop both BIM and Green Star.

BIM; Green Star; New Zealand; New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC)

To provide “deep, rich observational data” for the research (Sieber, 1973; Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005), a qualitative approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews, allowing respondents the freedom to actively engage in sharing their views on their own terms (Cohen & Crabtree, 2006; Harrell & Bradley, 2009), were conducted with experts in the New Zealand construction industry. Owing to the shortage of specialists in both BIM and Green Star, a combination of two sampling methods was utilized: purposive sampling and snowball sampling. While the first could ensure the characteristics of the participants, potentially informative interviewees could be located using snowball sampling. LinkedIn, a powerful professional networking tool with a large database of business professionals (Albrecht, 2011; Schneiderman, 2016), was used to find initial interviewees that satisfied two criteria: (1) working in the construction for at least five years; and (2) participating in either BIM projects or Green Star projects (including Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)). The initial group of interviewees then suggested potential participants. In total, 22 interviews were carried out, 19 face-to-face and three by telephone. This sample size is considered appropriate for the qualitative approach by many researchers. For example, Galvin (2015) indicated that 12 interviews are sufficed to achieve saturation, while 20 or 15±10 interviewees are adequate based on Crouch and McKenzie (2006) and Kvale and Brinkmann (2009), respectively. Similar sample sizes were used in previous publications in the construction area such as Hurlimann et al. (2018) and Sacilotto and Loosemore (2018). It is noted that interviews #6, #12, #13, and #20 have two interviewees for each based on the request of the corresponding interviewees.

Before conducting the interviews, approval was sought from the Auckland University of Technology Ethics Committee (2018) “to ensure that the privacy, safety, health, social sensitivities and welfare of human participants are adequately protected.”

The demographics of the participants reveal different levels of experience, various types of companies, and participation in a number of either BIM or Green Star projects (see Table 1). This could enhance transferability of the results to readers for their applications, a characteristic that may promote the validity and reliability of the findings (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Adequate engagement was also planned and carried out to ensure sufficient time spent on the data collection to achieve saturation (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The transcripts were checked to avoid mistakes during the transcribing stage (Creswell, 2014). Finally, multiple sources of data were employed to confirm the findings, known as the triangulation method (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).

Transcript #9 was removed from the analysis stage due to sound issues detected while recording the data, leaving 21 transcripts to analyze. 

This paper examines the relationship between BIM adoption and Green Star certification. The results indicate that despite the absence of a current concrete connection, BIM adoption has the potential to ease Green Star certification. Information on Green Star credits could be linked to the BIM model, requiring only an add-on for the automatic assessment of Green Star certification. However, several challenges remain, including costs, industry capacity, information requirements, lack of knowledge, a lack of client demand, inflexible Green Star submission requirements, and low BIM maturity level or LOD. Solutions, arrived at with the help of the interviewed construction experts, include: (1) integrating BIM process with the Green Star certification process; (2) flexible Green Star submission requirements; (3) executing BIM properly; (4) collaboration among NZGBC and construction stakeholders; (5) providing education and training in both BIM and Green Star for clients and construction practitioners; (6) showcasing benchmark projects that use BIM to enhance Green Star certification; (7) setting up a Green Star materials database for BIM modeling; and (8) mandating BIM. This research contributes to the current knowledge of BIM and Green Star in New Zealand by providing baseline information to the NZGBC, construction stakeholders, and the government that allows for the formulation of effective strategies to be used to develop both BIM and Green Star. Future studies will determine how many Green Star credits that could be achieved by using BIM and how to integrate their processes.

The authors are grateful to all the interviewees who participated in this study. This research is supported by the Vice Chancellor Doctoral Scholarship from Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.

Albrecht, W.D., 2011. LinkedIn for Accounting and Business Students. American Journal of Business Education, Volume 4(10), p. 39-42

Auckland University of Technology, 2018. Applying for Ethics Approval: Guidelines and Procedures. Available Online at https://www.aut.ac.nz/research/researchethics/guidelines-and-procedures. Accessed on June 15, 2018

Bergonzoni, G., Capelli, M., Drudi, G., Viani, S., Conserva, F., 2017. Building Information Modeling (BIM) for LEED® IEQ Category Prerequisites and Credits Calculations. In: Proceedings of the 11^th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling (ECPPM 2016), Limassol, Cyprus, September 7-9, 2016

Bryde, D., Broquetas, M., Volm, J.M., 2013. The Project Benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM). International Journal of Project Management, Volume 31(7), pp. 971-980

Chen, P.-H., Nguyen, T.C., 2017. Integrating Web Map Service and Building Information Modeling for Location and Transportation Analysis in Green Building Certification Process.  Automation in Construction, Volume 77, pp. 52-66

Cohen, D., Crabtree, B., 2006. Qualitative Research Guidelines Project. Available Online at http://www.qualres.org/HomeEval-3664.html

Creswell, J.W., 2014. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. USA: Sage

Crouch, M., McKenzie, H., 2006. The Logic of Small Samples in Interview-based Qualitative Research.  Social Science Information, Volume 45(4), pp. 483-499

Doan, D.T., Ghaffarianhoseini, A., Naismith, N., Zhang, T., Ghaffarianhoseini, A., Tookey, J., 2017. A Critical Comparison of Green Building Rating Systems. Building and Environment, Volume 123, pp. 243-260

Galvin, R., 2015. How Many Interviews are Enough? Do Qualitative Interviews in Building Energy Consumption Research Produce Reliable Knowledge? Journal of Building Engineering, Volume 1, pp. 2-12

Gandhi, S., Jupp, J., 2014. BIM and Australian Green Star Building Certification. Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, ©ASCE 2014, pp. 275-282

Ghaffarianhoseini, A., Doan, D. T., Naismith, N., Tookey, J., Ghaffarianhoseini, A., 2017. Amplifying the Practicality of Contemporary Building Information Modelling (BIM) Implementations for New Zealand Green Building Certification (Green Star). Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Volume 24(4), pp. 696-714

Harrell, M.C., Bradley, M.A., 2009. Data Collection Methods: Semi-structured Interviews and Focus Groups. Santa Monica, CA: Rand National Defense Research Institute 

Hurlimann, A.C., Browne, G.R., Warren-Myers, G., Francis, V., 2018. Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation in the Australian Construction Industry–impetus for Regulatory Reform. Building and Environment, Volume 137, pp. 235-245

Kvale, S., Brinkmann, S., 2009. InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing. SAGE Publications, Inc; 2^nd edition

Lu, Y., Wu, Z., Chang, R., Li, Y., 2017. Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Green Buildings: A Critical Review and Future Directions. Automation in Construction, Volume 83, pp. 134-148

Merriam, S.B., Tisdell, E.J., 2016. Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation.  4^th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Onwuegbuzie, A.J., Leech, N.L., 2005. On Becoming a Pragmatic Researcher: The Importance of Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methodologies. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Volume 8(5), pp. 375-387

Sacilotto, J., Loosemore, M., 2018. Chinese Investment in the Australian Construction Industry: The Social Amplification of Risk. Construction Management and Economics, Volume 36(9), pp. 1-14

Schneiderman, K., 2016. Using Linkedin to Connect. Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, Volume 32(3), p. 32

Siddiqui, M.Z., Pearce, A.R., Ku, K., Langar, S., Ahn, Y.H., Jacocks, K., 2009. Green BIM Approaches to Architectural Design for Increased Sustainability. In: Symposium of the International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management, ICCEM-ICCPM

Sieber, S.D., 1973. The Integration of Fieldwork and Survey Methods. American Journal of Sociology, Volume 78(6), pp. 1335-1359