Integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is regarded as useful for making design decisions regarding the environmental and health impacts of building products and materials. This research aimed at studying the process of BIM-LCA integration to assist designers in making sustainable material and product selection decisions in Ghana. A guidance framework for implementation of BIM-LCA supported by energy analysis has been developed to aid optimisation of sustainable design solutions based on simulations using Autodesk Revit as a BIM authoring tool, Green Building Studio and Tally to perform energy and LCA simulations on a hypothetical two-bedroom single-family house. The research considers both operational and embodied carbon effects of the design solution. The framework aligns with the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 Stages 0–2 (i.e. Strategic definition, Preparation and briefing, and Concept design) and presents a systematic approach for BIM-based LCA estimation for the early design stages using the Business Process Modelling Notation. The paper proposes a generic approach which has the potential to incorporate LCA as an integral part to the BIM-enabled design development process. This assists designers in decision-making that consider environmental impacts of materials and energy consumption as part of sustainable building design considerations.

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Purpose This paper aims to present a review of research developments relating to the application of building information modeling (BIM) to facilities management (FM). It sheds light on major technical and organizational issues with the view of identifying how existing BIM for FM knowledge applies to large capital projects. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a literature search approach to retrieve relevant articles which were subjected to keyword analysis to enable categorization of extant BIM for FM research into appropriate sub-domains. A qualitative analysis of 94 BIM for FM-related literature was carried out in addition to a review of 9 capital project-related articles, leading to the establishment of research trends, gaps and future directions. Findings The review found that research in the BIM-FM integration field is predominantly technology and process-oriented, with less attention paid to people or organizational aspects. Therefore, there is a need for expanding the knowledge base in this direction. Several future research directions were identified to lay the foundations for research on BIM application to FM in large capital projects and other application areas for interested researchers. These future directions were categorized under the identified sub-domains of the field and mapped onto two generic activities, i.e. technical integration and business integration, involved in technology adoption by organizations. Originality/value The main contribution of this study is the categorization of existing research on BIM for FM, leading to the identification of research gaps concerning the initiation and implementation of BIM for FM in large capital projects. As a secondary benefit, this study has validated some sub-domains of the BIM for the FM research field identified in previous review papers using an empirical approach. This validation of defined sub-domains is useful for an emerging research field as it provides a common understanding of trends and specific application areas.

Facilities Management (FM) at airports involves the use of systems such as Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). Currently, the integration of BIM with CMMS is yet to reach maturity, resulting in the inability to reuse BIM data produced prior to the operations and maintenance phase. The lack of accurate and untimely handover of equipment data contributes to failed CMMS programs. The studied airport had a low CMMS utilization resulting from a lack of equipment data from recent and old construction projects and lacked an efficient process for acquiring, storing, and exchanging asset data from construction into its CMMS. To address this, the airport sought for solutions to reuse BIM data in the CMMS. Utilizing a Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, this research proposed and tested a solution technology innovation comprising a BIM-FM integration framework and structured workflow based on BIM and COBie for FM data delivery into a CMMS. The proposed solution was tested on a real-world project at the airport: showing efficacy to provide the required equipment data in a timely and accurate manner as compared to the existing practice. The study provides practical evidence of application of BIM and COBie in FM data delivery from a handover perspective.