Is digitization effective in making buildings less energy consuming?

As energy restrictions threaten and heat waves become widespread, the implementation of RE2020 environmental regulations is more imperative than ever. However, players in the construction industry are facing major challenges.

While financing remains the sinews of war, another issue is at the heart of the transition: the availability of data to assess and improve the energy performance of buildings.

Representing nearly 45% of energy consumption and nearly 25% of carbon emissions, the French building sector is a key issue in the fight against climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions. The latest regulation, the RE2020 (whose implementation began on January 1, 2021), has defined ambitious objectives in terms of design, comfort and energy performance, with the aim of making buildings carbon neutral by 2050.

To achieve its objectives, the RE2020 includes several deadlines – the next is in 2025 – which require buildings to meet progressive levels of energy efficiency, calculated according to “Bbio indices” (bioclimatic needs of the building).

New constructions and renovation of the old: a costly transition

While RE2020 primarily concerns new buildings, it also aims to encourage thermal renovation of old buildings. There is a huge job of bringing the old building into conformity, but this renovation work has a cost that can be prohibitive for landlords.

In addition, certain complexities of the old force the use of materials or technologies that are certainly very effective, but also very expensive. In Paris, for example, it is not possible to isolate from the outside the many Haussmann buildings whose facades are protected. Alternative solutions exist, such as smart glasses, but they are very expensive.

Whether it's insulation work, heating and air conditioning equipment, or even biosourced materials, the ability to invest remains and will remain the central issue of the objective of carbon neutrality for buildings.

However, this is not the only issue. Because even if we define the most ambitious carbon footprint, energy performance and circular economy objectives, they will remain pious hopes if we do not have the data necessary to measure and achieve them.

Is the BIM process an effective response?

Is the digital transition of the building sector also synonymous with environmental transition? Insofar as the concept of "intelligent building" is intimately linked to the improvement of energy performance, the answer is yes. But to make buildings and structures intelligent, information must be available and shared throughout their life cycle.

BIM, which is the subject of a government plan (Plan BIM 2022), is precisely supposed to cover all these phases: design, construction and maintenance. In fact, it is mainly used for design. Production remains traditional and will no doubt remain so for a long time to come, due to the very large number of players of all sizes (98% being companies with less than 50 employees). Maintenance – which encompasses the renovation and reuse and/or recycling of materials from end-of-life buildings – is a decisive part (especially for old buildings) which still requires a lot of progress in terms of digitization.

What matters in the BIM process is the “I” (the information) and not the “M” (the modeling). This information is all the more important as it relates not only to the generic data of building materials and products (characteristics, quality criteria to which they meet), but also to actual data (carbon footprint, actual performance, etc.). Because it is the latter that will ultimately make it possible to measure – and not simulate – the overall performance of the structures.

To enable players in the sector to work better together and meet environmental challenges, it is therefore essential to be able to collect all of this data, and to do so in a structured and standardized way with a common model, such as the Define data dictionary. The BIM provides the generic data, while the real data will rather be provided by the digital twin. The latter relies in particular on the IoT to trace real data and complete the basic information of the BIM process.

Is the BIM process an effective response to achieve the ambitious goals set by RE2020 and beyond? Yes, provided you have the most important thing: data.

Tribune by Roland Dominici, Managing Director of CoBuilder France (LinkedIn).