Translating building design information into embodied carbon information: gaps, constraints, and recommendations

Over the years, different software has been developed to design and analyze building information. With an increased understanding of the importance of embodied carbon as a driver of climate change, there is increasing demand to easily quantify building embodied carbon. This major research project examines how materials are defined in Revit, a building information model and how it aligns with carbon accounting material definitions required as illustrated by Athena. This research is done in order to support more accurate and detailed embodied carbon analysis during the design phase. Constraints and information gaps are identified and used to develop a better understanding of whether a case study model with a level of development of 300 has materials sufficiently defined to map to Athena. This method is tested on the Toronto Metropolitan University Smart Campus Integration and Testing Hub (SCITHub), using inputs provided by the design team and vendors, to evaluate its effectiveness. Although the necessary Athena properties may be established using a BIM, it is discovered that Revit does not provide key Athena required input in an easily readable format that can be effectively incorporated into carbon accounting software.