DEGES received the BIM Champion 2025 award by buildingSMART Deutschland in the Sustainability category by leveraging the ORIS platform to conduct life cycle assessments (LCA) and integrate sustainability and environmental considerations into their project planning.
ORIS is proud to have supported DEGES in bringing LCA, BIM, and environmental intelligence into the heart of digital infrastructure design. This support symbolises recognition of the groundbreaking integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in one of Germany’s most ambitious infrastructure projects
Digital innovation at the core
The award-winning project, “Innovative system network of BIM, GIS, and life cycle analysis: sustainable logistics strategy using the example of a major tunnel construction site,” demonstrates how BIM acts as the digital backbone for linear infrastructure projects.
More than a 3D model, BIM serves as a Common Data Environment (CDE) that unifies technical design, geospatial data, and sustainability analysis in real-time.
Optimising carbon before breaking ground
DEGES is planning a 6.5 km bored tunnel under the Elbe as part of the 8.6 km Section 8 of the A20 motorway, a crucial corridor connecting Northern and Northeastern Europe.
Long before construction begins, BIM enables the creation of a digital twin of the tunnel that brings together every technical detail, from geometry to materials, for advanced planning and coordination. In this project, DEGES complemented the BIM model with ORIS for environmental analysis and DEGES GeO for logistics and commercial aspects, ensuring holistic optimisation across technical, environmental, and operational dimensions.
This integration allowed DEGES to simulate design variants, assess their environmental impact with ORIS’s LCA tools, and refine logistics strategies accordingly, all within a shared, data-rich environment powered by BIM.
.png?width=1000&height=487&name=unnamed%20(14).png)
Why BIM matters for sustainable infrastructure
In this project, BIM did more than coordinate technical designs. It unlocked:
- Full integration between BIM, GIS (via DEGES-GeO), and LCA (via ORIS)
- Cross-disciplinary collaboration across stakeholders
- Data-driven decision-making from early planning through to execution
- Transparent carbon accounting to guide sustainable material choices
This is what digital transformation looks like in infrastructure: BIM as a method for collaboration, transparency, and measurable climate action.
