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.