An evaluation of digital capabilities to enable a sustainable built asset industry: Developing a Consolidated Sustainability Matrix to inform digital use cases and practices

Current digital capabilities supporting the achievement of sustainability goals in the built asset industry tend to focus on isolated aspects such as energy simulation or emissions tracking. This limits the broader application of digital tools and workflows, namely Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Digital Twins (DT), to support achievement of a comprehensive set of sustainability goals across environmental, social, and economic dimensions. One of the many issues hindering this broader perspective is the lack of holistic understanding of how digitalization can enable sustainability in the built asset industry. The research presented in this paper introduces the Consolidated Sustainability Matrix (CSM), a unified framework that synthesizes 189 indicators from 25 certification schemes and 26 standards into 15 categories. Using a four-phase methodology, BIM and DT capabilities were mapped against these indicators. To enhance methodological rigor, two complementary metrics were proposed: a Cumulative Weighted Score (CWS) that accounts for respondent expertise levels, and a Weighted Agreement Score (WAS) that quantifies consensus among participants. The findings reveal that advanced digitalization, particularly sensor-enabled federated models and comprehensive digital twins, can support a considerable number of environmental indicators, especially energy, emissions, and indoor environmental quality management. However, current digital tools show limited support for social and economic sustainability indicators, revealing significant gaps in these areas. The study makes three key contributions: first, the CSM provides a harmonized framework linking sustainability indicators with digital capabilities; second, the CWS and WAS metrics offer robust methods for evaluating digital tool applicability and expert consensus; third, the research presents the first systematic assessment of how BIM and DT can transcend isolated applications to enable integrated sustainability management. These findings provide actionable guidance for industry practitioners and policymakers while identifying critical research and innovation priorities needed to advance digitalization toward more balanced and comprehensive sustainability outcomes in the built asset industry. • The study characterizes sustainability and its operationalization in the built asset industry in a systemic manner through the Consolidated Sustainability Matrix (CSM). • The CSM articulates 189 sustainability indicators across 15 categories, which were identified, extracted and rationalized from 25 globally recognized certification schemes and 26 sustainability standards. • The potential of digitalization to operationalize these indicators through BIM and Digital Twin capabilities is evaluated following a structured and systematic approach. • The study contributes to a more systemic understanding of sustainability and its operationalization in the built asset industry as a departure from studies addressing sustainability from a narrower perspective. • It provides a comprehensive approach to targeting digital capabilities to enable a broader operationalization of sustainability indicators by project stakeholders through the application of existing and emerging processes and technologies. • This study is novel due to the breadth of standards and schemes considered in developing the CSM and the scope of their potential digitalization.