BIM-Based Carbon Emission Measurement for Building Whole Life Cycle: Model Construction, Stage Analysis and Case Verification

Against the backdrop of global climate change, the construction industry accounts for ~40–50% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making low-carbon development an urgent priority. This study focuses on whole-life-cycle (WLC) carbon emission measurement of buildings and innovatively integrates BIM technology to address challenges such as inaccurate material quantification and fragmented data across stages. Taking a sports venue project in Xiqing District, Tianjin (total construction area 84,000 m², prefabrication rate 70.2%) as a case, a multi-disciplinary BIM model with LOD400 precision was constructed using Revit. For each WLC stage, targeted carbon emission measurement methods were developed: Materialization stage: BIM visualization tools were used for prefabricated component design, BIM4D simulation optimized construction management, and a measurement model was built by linking BIM-derived material quantities to a carbon emission factor database (labor, materials, machinery).Operation and maintenance (O&M) stage: The BIM model (supplemented with component thermal/physical properties) was exported as a gbXML file to Green Building Studio, enabling quantitative calculation of annual energy consumption and carbon emissions.Demolition and renovation stage: “Waste” and “recyclable” attributes were assigned to BIM components to quantify waste/recyclables, and carbon emissions from demolition, transportation, and recycling were measured. Case results show: (1) Total embodied carbon emissions of main building materials reached 25,470.5 tCO₂e, with steel structures (components + accessories) accounting for 62.6% (the largest share). (2) Among three O&M schemes, Scheme 3 (water chillers + geothermal energy + LED lighting) achieved the lowest carbon emission intensity (57.26 kgCO₂e/m²ꞏa), a 16.7 kgCO₂e/m²ꞏa reduction compared to Scheme 1 (water chillers + gas-fired boilers). (3) The O&M stage contributed over 80% of WLC carbon emissions, remaining the core for emission reduction. This study’s innovation lies in integrating BIM with stage-specific carbon measurement methods: LOD400 models ensure accurate material quantification, gbXML-Green Building Studio realizes O&M data visualization, and component attribute assignment enables demolition-stage quantification. The findings provide a replicable technical framework for low-carbon building practices, empowering the construction industry’s green transformation.