Found in Translation: Industry Alignment of Practices to Translate BIM to Carbon

The global movement of decarbonization in buildings is growing. Yet the industry is characterized by a multitude of standards and diverse BIM and carbon accounting processes used for assessing embodied carbon. Under the guidance of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Autodesk and six leading architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) companies—AECOM, Arcadis, Arup, Foster + Partners, Ramboll, and SOM—collaborated to demonstrate these discrepancies on a case study that revealed a 34% variation in the firms' approaches to embodied carbon assessment using the same Revit model. Join our panel discussion to unpack the reasons behind this disparity, explore the complexities of translating BIM data into carbon insights, and propose guidelines to consider when undertaking an embodied carbon assessment. This technical discourse will identify opportunities for alignment and transparency within the industry, promoting actionable carbon assessments driven by BIM to support decarbonization efforts.

Expertise will be shared from our contributors: Andrea Colombo (Foster + Partners), Dana Far (Foster + Partners), Eric Stimmel (SOM), Javier Sanchez Hernandez (AECOM), Jordan Woodson (Arup), Laura Gomez Hernandez (AECOM), Leandro Reati (Foster + Partners), Margarida Goncalves (Arcadis), Monica Lucas (Ramboll), Retha Swanepoel (Foster + Partners), Rob Cairns (Ramboll), and Sandra Petkute (Arcadis)