Balancing decarbonisation and climate resilience through lean and digital twins

The construction sector is a major contributor to global carbon emissions and is also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Balancing decarbonisation with climate resilience has emerged as an important industrial goal. However, both these objectives are usually addressed independently in current practices and research, with limited attention to integrated strategies. The synergy between Lean methodology and Digital Twin technology has been explored in this study that can help balance decarbonisation and climate resilience in construction projects.

A qualitative research design was adopted, including a systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews with five industry experts. The findings suggested that Lean and Digital Twins can complement to balance decarbonisation and climate resilience, but their adoption is influenced by organisational and cultural hurdles, stakeholder influence, and strategic integration for long-term benefit. They also indicated that climate resilience is frequently considered as a secondary objective, underlining the importance of a framework that combines Lean and Digital Twins to successfully balance decarbonisation and climate resilience. The findings of this study facilitated the establishment of a proposed framework that presented Lean and Digital Twins as equal promoters for balancing decarbonisation and climate resilience, rather than focusing solely on efficiency improvements.