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Vision

A global environment where all participants can readily and transparently share, apply and maintain information about facilities and infrastructure to enhance quality and economy of design, construction, operation and maintenance.

Mission

Improve all aspects of the facility and infrastructure lifecycle by promoting collaboration, technology, integrated practices and open standards.

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About the buildingSMART alliance

The buildingSMART alliance was created to spearhead technical, political, and financial support for use of advanced digital technology in the real property industry—from concept, design and construction through operations and management. By leading the development and promotion of open data standards, the Alliance helps facilitate the most effective capture and ongoing management of information for facilities and infrastructure, from inception to demolition.

The Alliance is a public/private initiative that operates within the independent nonprofit National Institute of Building Sciences. bSa promotes the use of Building Information Models (BIMs), the digital tools that are increasingly helping building industry stakeholders to share highly accurate information throughout a facility or project's life cycle. Effective use of BIMs has the potential to eliminate enormous waste in the industry resulting from the recollection and recreation of project information and data. The Alliance has a goal of helping the building sector eliminate 31 percent of current waste, or almost $400 million, by 2020.

In contrast with centuries-old ways of documenting facilities with two-dimensional drawings new digital technology brings together project stakeholders around a single Building Information Model (BIM), a unified tool that offers unprecedented accuracy, speed and economy.

The Alliance has four strategic goals:

  • Create a strong industry presence and recognition for the buildingSMART alliance vision and mission and the programs to support and achieve them.
  • Connect major participants of the building industry in a stakeholder activity model that promotes improved information exchange processes.
  • Implement and support coordination of candidate open standards and guidance to ensure information flows throughout the lifecycle of the building to all stakeholders.
  • Develop a consensus infrastructure to advance open industry standards for interoperability and collaboration between practitioners.

The Alliance builds on such preexisting National Institute of Building Sciences programs as:

  • North American Chapter of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI-NA),
  • The National Building Information Model Standard (NBIMS) Project Committee,
  • The U.S. National CAD Standard Project Committee,
  • The Facility Maintenance and Operations Committee's Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBIE) initiative, and
  • AGCxml, a cooperative project with the Associated General Contractors of America.