Company:  Ramboll is a global architecture, engineering and consultancy firm with 18,000+ experts. In transport infrastructure, Ramboll designs, engineers and manages roads, bridges, tunnels and rail projects across multiple regions, with a firm-wide commitment to sustainable infrastructure delivery.

Industry : Architecture & Engineering / Transport Infrastructure & Consultancy

Country: Denmark with global impact.

Applying a careful approach, they observe that 47% carbon reduction is achievable. With ORIS, they are building the workflow to make this method lightweight and systematic.

The shift

Ramboll had carbon under control. But control isn't the same as impact

• 5–10× faster carbon assessments
• Up to 47% carbon reduction potential
• BIM-to-carbon workflow deployed on live projects

Ramboll wanted to push further and faster; what started as a pilot is now becoming a scalable engineering standard.

"The LCA was always sidelined. Nobody heard anything.
There was no connection to the rest of the project."

The approach

Build a method that scales, not a one-off result

Ramboll partnered with ORIS to transform carbon into a live engineering parameter. The objective was clear: create a repeatable BIM-to-carbon workflow that could scale across all disciplines and geographies. Not produce a perfect carbon number. Build a method that works every time.

The shift also revealed a critical accuracy gap: quantity data extracted directly from BIM models is substantially more accurate than manual takeoffs. The previous approach was not just slow. It was producing numbers that were harder to stand behind.

What changed

Carbon moved from reporting to decision-making

The most significant outcome is not a carbon number. It is a confirmed methodology and the organisational confidence to use it at scale. Thanks to ORIS team engagement, Ramboll now knows what works, what to improve, and how to set up future projects for success from day one.

5–10× faster assessments

Removing the most friction-intensive stages of data collection and translation, freeing sustainability specialists to focus on optimisation rather than data processing. Carbon now fits within design timelines.

47% carbon reduction potential

Demonstrated on past Ramboll projects through design optimisation. The BIM-to-carbon workflow combined with Ramboll expertise now creates the conditions to achieve this systematically, at scale, across every project.

Real-time design feedback loops

When carbon is a live parameter, engineers can ask questions that were previously out of reach. What happens to this bridge’s footprint if I adjust its geometry? What is the trade-off between a conservative structure and lifecycle emissions? These are the conversations that move a firm from compliance to genuine leadership.

"The LCA gets a new role as a design parameter. We take it from this sidelined area and integrate it directly into the design work. That changes everything."

The initiative also confirmed that this transformation is as much about people and organisation as it is about technology. Getting carbon integrated into design requires the right people in the right roles, data prepared from project inception, and every discipline brought into a shared workflow.

The partnership

Building the standard together

Ramboll operates at the frontier of BIM-to-carbon integration, pushing beyond the mainstream use cases most platforms are built for. ORIS’s role has been that of a genuine co-development partner: not just on the technical side, where platform features were integrated rapidly and complex IFC issues were diagnosed collaboratively, but on the transformation itself, supporting teams through new ways of working, helping embed carbon into project routines, and ensuring the methodology lands across disciplines, not just with specialists.

• Rapid platform evolution based on real project needs, with features requested during the pilot integrated within days, not quarters.
• Joint resolution of complex BIM and IFC challenges, diagnosing problems collaboratively rather than passing tickets back and forth.
• Support beyond software: methodology, workflow design, and change management across disciplines.

"Working with ORIS is like adding new members to our own team. Their approach and collaboration are fully aligned with how we drive decarbonisation at Ramboll."

Ramboll brings the real-world complexity of large-scale, multi-disciplinary infrastructure across multiple geographies.

ORIS brings the platform, the methodology, and the people to make integration land.

Together, something neither could develop alone is taking shape, setting a new benchmark for sustainable infrastructure engineering.

Conclusion

This is where the industry is going

The BIM-to-carbon workflow is now live on Ramboll’s next transport project. The next step: scale across geographies, disciplines, and portfolios.

• Regulatory pressure is accelerating across every major market, with mandatory carbon reporting moving from an exception to a baseline expectation.
• Clients increasingly demand measurable impact, not just commitment. The ability to show carbon data at the design stage is becoming a differentiator in bids.
• Competitive advantage is shifting toward firms that can embed carbon intelligence into their engineering process, not just their sustainability reports.

"My ambition is to roll out this cultural revolution, so that it becomes an integral part of how we work across all our key areas of activity. That is the goal."