The construction industry is a major consumer of raw materials and a significant contributor to environmental emissions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) using digital models is a valuable tool for conducting a science-based analysis to reduce these impacts. However, transferring data from environmental product declarations (EPDs) to BIM for the purpose of sustainability assessment requires significant resources for its interpretation and integration. This study is founded on a comprehensive review of the scientific literature and standards, an analysis of published digital EPDs, and a thorough evaluation of IFC (industry foundation classes), identifying twenty gaps for the automated incorporation of LCA data from construction products into BIM. The identified limitations were assessed using the digital model of a building pilot, applying simplifications to incorporate actual EPD data. This paper presents the identified barriers to the automated incorporation of digital EPDs into BIM, and proposes eleven concrete actions to improve IFC 4.3. While prior studies have analyzed the environmental data in IFC, this research is significant in two key areas. Firstly, it focuses on the direct machine interpretation of environmental information without human intervention. Secondly, it is intended to be directly applicable to a revision of the IFC standards.

Ambitious European building sector’s decarbonization goals require significant increase in renovation rates, yet the success of these initiatives relies on aligning technical goals with stakeholder priorities. This study offers a novel perspective by quantitatively comparing how building owners and experts prioritize renovation outcomes using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) to shed a light on the potential disagreements and barriers in renovation processes. The work carried out includes an assessment of building owners and experts’ perception using pairwise comparisons through the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine the relative significance of each criterion to evaluate renovation scenarios via Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) and Multiplicative Exponential Weighting (MEW) methods. Five key criteria (i) improvement lifespan, (ii) payback period, (iii) operational energy demand, (iv) energy saved, and (v) global warming potential (embodied carbon), were defined to capture a holistic performance of renovation alternatives. The results showed a strong disagreement between building owners and experts in prioritising renovation criteria. However, application of MCDM methods allowed to assess and select alternative which provides a matching point for stakeholders. These findings contribute to the field of sustainable architecture and civil engineering by highlighting the importance of stakeholder-inclusive MCDM approaches, thereby enhancing the adoption of deep energy retrofits in line with European Green Deal targets.