European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles

Throughout the life cycle of buildings, data are created, collected, processed, exchanged and used to support decision-making and operations. However, the construction and real estate actors often struggle with managing data successfully, mainly because existing data resources are scattered across a large number of changing building owners and stakeholders. The goal of adopting and using building information management tools (BIMTs) that store, exchange and manage building-related data is to overcome information silos and bring together data about a particular building. BIMTs, such as a building passport (BP), an electronic building file or a digital building logbook (DBL), follow a holistic approach by serving as data repositories. Although the underlying idea is not new, the topic recently gained wider attention at the interface of politics, academia and real estate industry. The current state of BIMTs, and in particular the role of BPs, is analysed to help understand the main driving forces, challenges and opportunities in BP development. Policy relevance Mandatory introduction of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) in Europe can be seen as a role model for BPs. The aims were to improve transparency in the real estate market to encourage owners to modernise their buildings and to inform market participants about hidden characteristics. These tasks are now transferred to more complex BIMTs. The European Commission has introduced DBLs in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) in 2021 as a data repository that is supposed to be linked to national databases on the energy performance of buildings. In addition, the European Commission is working on a European framework for DBLs and has the vision of establishing a network of national DBL databases. No legal obligation to use BPs/DBLs exists yet, but further proposals in European and national regulation are expected in the future.