Keywords

1 Introduction

Circular economy (CE) is the global challenge that requires a cross value chain transition from linear economy (raw material extraction, production, use, land fill) to regenerative economy (extraction, production, use, reuse/recycling), as illustrated in Fig. 1. CE underpins the regenerative solution to resolve the climate issues by reducing raw material extraction, eliminating/minimising wastes, and then cutting down carbon footprints from raw material extractions and associated environmental impacts. The EU has introduced Circular Economy Action Plan [1], which embraces both the CE action and CE monitoring framework against science-based targets across circular value and supply chains [2]. It is very important to note that CE challenges cannot be resolved in isolation without the cooperation of every sector in every country around the world [3]. The new CE action plan announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of components and assets. It addresses how they are designed, promotes CE practices, encourages sustainable consumption, and aims to ensure that waste is minimised and the resources used are regenerative within the economy for as long as possible [1]. To scale up a widespread transition from linear to circular economy, value and supply chain actors must realise and closely collaborate across sectors for harmonized actions to enhance influence, promote inter-relationship, and overcome the barriers towards circular economy implementation [4]. Consequently, this study investigates the added value and capabilities of building information modelling (BIM) to improve and transform cross-functional stakeholder engagements across circular value chain within built environment sector.

Fig. 1.
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Circular value chain and lifecycle management practices towards net zero. Stakeholders’ interaction across value chain requires visualization and valorisation of data and information.

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2 Digitisation Tools and Their Added Values

2.1 Building Information Modelling (BIM)

BIM is a digital platform to collect, create, archive, share and manage inventive data and information that can form 3D architectural model with full-scale dimensions. It can replicate and simulate digital information that is essential for construction, project management, monitoring and operation of a specific asset during the whole lifecycle [5, 6]. BIM embraces a coordinated digital dataset where relevant parties can access, visualize and share the information with respect to manufacturing, design, construction and operation as well as any necessary documents or contracts about the project. The modification or change within BIM environment will be immediately shared among stakeholders in the project or across value and supply chains [7, 8]. BIM (which can evolve to be a digital twin) emphasises the role and influence of all stakeholders within a project or a built environment boundary. It can analyse the capabilities of issues in construction, design, operation and maintenance at the early stages, which provides benchmarking targets for economical, environmental and social values of the assets. BIM is not simply a 3D architectural model but its adoption can make significant changes in resources workflow and project delivery process [9]. Currently, BIM adoption in the UK has been steadily increasing. However, recent requirements for British asset owners/investors to maintain and update building information has raised the importance of BIM and its associated skill training.

Fig. 2.
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Evolution of BIM metrics, outputs and maturity across circular value chain stakeholders, modified from [5].

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BIM integration across value chain spans throughout the entire life cycle of a project or an asset. As shown in Fig. 2, digitisation evolution can be associated with stakeholders and life cycle stages of an asset (from design, production, construction, maintenance, and operation to deconstruction (or end of life management). Life cycle assessment (LCA) is then an integral part of BIM automation where several well-defined key performance indicators (KPIs) are regularly assessed and monitored in order to justify and benchmark a system’s environmental, economic and social impacts (in accordance with EU CE Action Plan [1, 10]). On this ground, BIM can be evolved and improved to enrich the capacity and capabilities to determine various KPIs and enable several stakeholders and cross-functional parties to work collaboratively together and to exchange information in accordance with the BS Standard 19650-1 [8]. Table 1 illustrates the levels of BIM maturity and the classification at each level, which describes the types of collaborative work, tools and technology used to understand the process at each level (adopted from [5]). This displays the capabilities and added values of BIM across scales in practice.

Table 1. Level of BIM maturity and dimensions [5].
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2.2 Demonstration I: 6D-BIM for Carbon Credit Assessment

Demonstration I, as illustrated in Fig. 3, highlights a specific BIM application within the context of railway station buildings using a Revit-based simulation of construction work for King’s Cross station in London UK [11]. The 3D architectural BIM further adopts and transforms the King’s Cross station building information into a 6D BIM. The 6D model contains a time and cost schedule with carbon emissions calculation, and renovation assumptions using Revit. The economic and environmental impacts can be determined in real time using Application Programming Interface (API). The project’s outcome has already been exploited by re-construction stakeholders and asset owners. The carbon estimations in repair and maintenance stage can be reported for carbon offsetting. The BIM also allows future carbon credit calculations by assessing potential replacement options using low-carbon components and materials.

Fig. 3.
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A digital twin for sustainability evaluation of railway station buildings, adopted from [11]. King’s Cross station in London UK has been used to demonstrate the real-time capability of 6D-BIM to determine lifecycle cost, carbon footprint.

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2.3 Demonstration II: 6D-BIM for Net Zero Energy Building Improvement

Demonstration II, as displayed in Fig. 4, addresses the capabilities of 6D-BIM for determining technical and financial viability of Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) for ‘existing’ buildings [12]. A number of suitable options for NZEB solutions can be tested and validated in BIM environments suitable for a specific geographical area. The 6D-BIM has been exploited by the developers to visualize NZEB options, promote collaboration among stakeholders, and accurately estimate associated costs and associated technical issues encountered with producing an NZEB in a pre-determined location. This demonstration also unlocks 6D-BIM capabilities to assess benefit/cost and apply renewable technologies to the existing building to improve energy efficacy.

Fig. 4.
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6D-BIM of an existing residential building in the UK to implement deep renovation options towards NZEB status, adopted from [12].

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3 Methodology

To ensure an integrated approach toward circularity, representative stakeholders of all value chain elements will be invited to participate in closing the loop of supply and demand. Academic and industrial actors’ involvement will enable the detection of specific Circular Business Models (CBMs) and related benefits in CE practices. For this purpose, this research adopts a quantitative survey approach using online questionnaires to investigate the effectiveness of BIM in the transfer of information between partners more efficiently, allowing them to develop new insights and make better-informed design choices. Accommodated by the real-world demonstration cases above, the questions have been designed to assess the quality of BIM’s digital environment to enrich stakeholder engagement enabling participatory conversations on different aspects and interests necessary to develop viable business model developments focusing on value proposition, customer involvement and supply chain management. The outcome can facilitate an actionable and scalable BIM application and provide stakeholders with a digital monitoring tool for the benefits deriving from CE, as well as tracking CE performance indicators of Circular Business models. The investigation by online surveys will be conducted internationally across all value chain stakeholders. The non-personal data was collected anonymously without withholding personal information. All respondents had given consent for data collection. The data requested in this study was collected and processed by the researchers in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR) and all other applicable EU and UK privacy and data protection legislation. This study is GDPR compliant and has been approved by the University of Birmingham’s IRB. In this study, 41 respondents in total have been collected from across the globe. The role of stakeholders will be used to classify and rank the responses derived from the online survey. Clear guidance has been provided to respondents, assuring anonymity to all to create a safe, fair, and inclusive environment.

4 Results and Discussion

4.1 Stakeholders and Their Understanding into BIM

BIM has been adopted in construction and architecture for nearly 2 decades in order to collect, create, archive, share and manage inventive data and information with an agreeable level of details (LOD). Accordingly, the public survey has been designed to embrace the BIM capabilities across value chain and lifecycle stakeholders. Figure 5 displays the role of respondents across all value chains. Most of them are in academia (27%), architecture, design and construction (22%), and asset ownership & investment (20%).

Fig. 5.
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Classification of respondents within the organisations across value chains.

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Our survey results shown in Fig. 6 demonstrate that, in reality, BIM(s) may have been predominantly used in design and construction, but it does not effectively translate its application to engage with other stakeholders across value chains. Clearly, the role of technology enablers (e.g. BIM) in stakeholder engagement is significantly limited (i.e., >20% of response intensity).

Fig. 6.
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Role of digitalisation technologies in stakeholder engagement across value chains.

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Fig. 7.
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Effectiveness and quality of digitalisation in stakeholder engagement (ranked out of 5.0).

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4.2 Quality of BIM for Stakeholder Engagement

Figure 7 demonstrates the perceived quality and effectiveness of technology enablers in stakeholder engagement. Despite fewer BIM adoptions in practice, the respondents believe that BIM technologies (3D to 6D) can significantly improve the quality of stakeholder engagement. Surprisingly, smart contracts and blockchain do not seem to create added value to stakeholders across value chains. In Fig. 8, the actual BIM applications to enrich circular value chain is still ineffective, especially at the operations and end-of-life stages of lifecycle. This implies that it is necessary for every stakeholder to support and promote research and innovation that improves circular economy practices in sustainable asset management during both operations and end of life phases of lifecycle. The lack of circular economy innovation for existing building stocks is one of the key observed trends derived from the respondents’ perception.

Fig. 8.
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Perceptions on added value potentials of digitalisation through use-case demonstrations.

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5 Conclusion

BIM has been widely adopted in the construction industry, predominantly in architectural design and construction stage. Our study has carefully reviewed the state-of-the-art knowledge related to the application of BIM for stakeholder engagement. It shows a clear gap in the understanding into the quality of BIM to enrich circular value chains and stakeholder engagement. This study has thus conducted the stakeholder survey to identify challenges, benefits, and effectiveness of technology enablers (e.g., 3D to 6D BIMs) for stakeholder engagements. 41 experts worldwide have kindly provided new insights into the digital valorisation for stakeholder engagement. In contrast to market-wide perceptions, our results exhibit that the scale and scope of technology enablers is relatively limited when considering real-life application to enrich stakeholder engagement across circular value chain. This can severely pose the inability to meet net zero targets by built environment sector. All stakeholders must be united altogether to assure that circular economy is being implemented at every stage of lifecycle.