Research indicates that the operational energy and the embodied energy caused by production of building materials off-site (i.e., "cradle-to-gate" embodied energy) contribute to the major part of a building's total energy use, with roughly equal proportions. In addition, it has been reported that there is a trade-off between embodied-and operational energy which is mainly due to the use of additional materials with higher embodied energy and utilization of new appliances for construction of the building (or building of interest). Hence, application of sustainable strategies in early stages of the design phase, which enables evaluation of different design scenarios in terms of materials and systems, can provide a great scope to launch an optimization in the trade-off between embodied-versus operational energy. With respect to early stages of the design phase, Building information modeling (BIM) has become an applicable platform where its recent developments can provide interoperability with energy performance simulation (EPS) tools that enable assessment of the operational energy. However, existing BIM software generally lacks interoperability with conventional life cycle assessment (LCA) tools that are the main means for assessment of the embodied energy. Consequently, embodied energy assessment is often performed when the design has either been accomplished or developed to a relatively detailed level where there is less scope to investigate different design decisions for analyzing the trade-off between embodied-and operational energy. To overcome this obstacle, this paper presents a BIM-based method which strives to reduce the building's life cycle energy (LCE) use by accounting the trade-off between embodied-and operational energy at early stages of the design phase. The method is then exemplified by using an energy-efficient building case, demonstrating the applicability of the method in reducing the building's total energy use and also highlighting the areas where further development is required to address in future research