Improving the Sustainability of the Built Environment by Training its Workforce in More Efficient and Greener Ways of Designing and Constructing Through the Horizon2020 BIMcert Project

The construction industry consumes up to 50% of mineral resources excavated from nature, generates about 33% of CO2 present in the atmosphere and is responsible for 40% of total global energy through both construction and operation of buildings. The realisation that current pervasive construction practices now face globalization, sustainability, and environmental concerns, as well as ever-changing legislation requirements and new skills needed for the information age has resulted in technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) becoming a key enabler in navigating these barriers. To assist in overcoming these barriers, a number of funding initiatives have been put in place through Horizon 2020 with a focus on BIM, due to it having the potential to rapidly produce energy outputs that enable design teams to analyse and compare the most costeffective, energy-efficient options. One of these initiatives, the BIMcert project, aims to educate all areas of the supply chain in the use of BIM, to achieve better energy efficiency during the design, construction and ongoing maintenance of an asset. The goal is to develop more efficient and relevant training programme materials that integrate concepts of sustainability and renewables with practical application and integration with technology. The first stage of this project involved a detailed and exhaustive process that was used to establish the proposed curriculum, methodologies, concepts, and pilot training material. This paper will explore stage 2 of the BIMcert Project were a series of workshops across the consortium’s jurisdictions were used for the rigorous evaluation of pilot training material. The paper will also discuss how the developed training material has assisted in improving the sustainability of the built environment by training its workforce in more efficient and greener ways of designing and constructing through the use of BIM processes.