# A Systematic Review of the Role of BIM in Building Sustainability Assessment Methods
## 1 Introduction  
The scientific community has already proved the relationship between the built environment and environmental problems [1]. Different actions have been taken to reduce buildings' negative impact and fight against environmental issues. Among them are the Building Sustainability Assessment (BSA) methods, which aim at implementing and spreading sustainable principles, evaluating building performance and gathering information to support decision-making [2]. They are usually characterised by assessing several building features and aggregate the results into a sustainability score. Several methods have been developed all over the world by private and public organisations, according to their needs, characteristics and culture [2]. Despite the existence of different BSA methods, the following three are recognised as the basis of all the other approaches [3, 4]: Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREAM), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool). These will be used in this research and are presented in the next section. The application of BSA methods requires the knowledge of a large amount of data, and it is a time-consuming and complicated process. Although they are intended to be used during the project phase to support decision-making, buildings are often assessed during the final construction stages. At these stages, making changes to improve building sustainability has higher costs and most times is unfeasible. This happens due to the lack of time and other resources from design teams during the project phase. Additionally, when a project change is introduced, all the assessment process must be repeated [5]. Thus, the application of BSA methods is usually unbearable given the deadlines of the projects, and this situation does not encourage designers to use it. To overcome this constraint, there is a need to reduce the assessment time and complexity, by automating and simplifying the sustainability assessment procedures. As a result, designers will be encouraged to improve the sustainability of their projects effectively. With the recent deployment of Building Information Modelling (BIM), emerges the opportunity for BSA methods to benefit from its capabilities. BIM can be described as a working methodology, which makes it possible to manage the project's 3D-model and data in a digital format during the building's lifecycle [6]. All societies will benefit from it, with better and more efficient constructions that require fewer resources [7]. BIM and sustainability look for practical proposals for new architecture and engineering procedures, preserving the natural environment and ecosystems. Both concepts intend to achieve a new lifestyle, a modern environmental education and an updated perspective of the impact of human development on the planet. The BIM methodology has already been applied in different sustainable fields, as for energy modelling, acoustic analysis, water-use reduction, lifecycle analysis, construction waste management and even in supporting managers during the building's operation [8]. Nevertheless, BIM's main advantage lies in the collaborative process, where stakeholders can work on a central model and continuously share information about their project discipline. As a result, errors, incompatibilities and interferences between project disciplines are often identified in preliminary project stages, facilitating decision-making, as well as optimising costs and time. By allowing multi-disciplinary information to be overlaid and grouped into a single model, BIM creates an excellent opportunity to incorporate sustainable measures in a project [9]. Furthermore, [PERSON] et al. [10] have identified that the pre-construction and project phases are the ones where decisions to improve building sustainability are supposed to be made. As this is also when projects can most benefit from BIM, the influence that it can have on building sustainability becomes clear.