Society 5.0 and Lean Construction Unified Framework to Drive Sustainable Development Goals

ABSTRACT The achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in construction is essential for promoting global sustainability. Despite the potential to drive the SDGs, Lean Construction (LC) faces implementation barriers that can potentially be addressed through Society 5.0 (S5.0), a transformative paradigm integrating advanced technologies with human‐centric values. Hence, this study aims to develop a S5.0 and LC unified framework to drive SDGs. Following a pragmatist stance, the study employs a mixed‐method choice comprising two‐rounds of semi‐structured interviews and a questionnaire survey. The data were analysed using code‐based content analysis and Random‐Forest Regression (RFR). The findings reveal five highly impacted SDGs, twenty significant barriers to using LC for achieving SDGs and twenty‐two significant S5.0 technologies to overcome these barriers. This study establishes a unified framework by integrating the three concepts and offers practical value by optimising LC and digitalisation to achieve the SDGs.