Digital Twin (DT) technology, as the evolution of Building Information Modeling (BIM), has emerged to address global concerns regarding the environmental impacts of the construction industry and to meet sustainability indicators. Despite numerous studies targeting the integration of DT and sustainability, there is a noticeable gap in creating a comprehensive overview of the efforts and future directions in this field. Therefore, this research aims to provide both a scientometric analysis and a thematic review of 235 papers extracted from the Scopus database. These papers, all published between 2017 and 2024, focus on previous efforts, current trends, and future directions of using the Digital Twin for construction sustainability. In addition, 34 papers that were cited more than 20 times were classified by the application into four categories: simulation, technology integration, smart systems, and literature review. Furthermore, regarding the application of smart systems in sustainability, the authors discussed applications of BIM-DT in smart construction, smart buildings, smart infrastructures, and smart cities based on the most-cited papers. Subsequently, five research gaps were identified and suggested for future investigation. The research gives a holistic insight into the current trend of DT among researchers, previous achievements, and future directions.

High expectations from employers and complex communication between stakeholders in the construction industry, resulted in fundamental changes during the design and construction process. Excellence in communication and coordination is required between stakeholders and automated interdisciplinary change management to meet needs and expectations in the construction industry. Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers numerous benefits, including reducing construction time, cost, and risk while improving project quality, communication, and coordination. However, there are still significant barriers to BIM implementation. Since Iran is in the early stages of BIM implementation, a roadmap for adopting BIM in Iran's construction industry is designed for the first time to exploit BIM benefits in this paper. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with professionals to structure the roadmap. In addition, online interviews were carried out with 16 experts. Furthermore, a Delphi-based approach was employed to reach consensus. The roadmap consists of six main pillars with 53 activities designed to create a matured BIM plan based on local culture and needs. And the roadmap begins with assigning a strong leadership to lead the process. The industry is expected to be motivated to adopt BIM as it learns the benefits associated with BIM. Then, it continues with developing related best practices, rules and regulations. In the third stage, the roadmap encourages the industry to provide the required education and training. In the next pillar, the roadmap follows the establishment and development by defining a contractual platform. In the fifth pillar, the quality of BIM and its results will be measured and compared with expectations and pre-defined goals. Eventually, the government will provide a continuous BIM implementation. The study is expected to facilitate BIM implementation in the Iran construction industry which will improve the quality of Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) practices. It will help to culminate tangible and intangible project deliverable by reducing time, cost, risks and improving overall quality. Therefore, all stakeholders satisfy the final outcome beside resolving conflicts and interferences.

Building construction and operation consume one-third of the world's total energy, and thermal loads account for 34 percent of the total building energy consumption. Phase change materials (PCMs) emerged as a solution to reduce energy consumption in buildings due to their high energy storage density and the ease with which PCMs can be incorporated into buildings. This study presents a systematic literature review of 32 peer-reviewed journal papers based on relevancy to the topic, published between 2008 and 2024, to identify critical parameters that enhance the energy efficiency of buildings incorporating PCMs in their building envelopes. The findings indicate that PCMs' effectiveness heavily depends on their melting temperatures, layer thicknesses, climatic conditions, and proper ventilation at nighttime to solidify the PCM for the next cycle. A relatively thick PCM layer with a high melting temperature in moderate climate zones, coupled with appropriate night ventilation, offers the most efficient thermal energy savings. Future research should focus on the storage efficiency of PCMs, optimizing PCM use with ventilation, and conducting life cycle cost assessments. The study concludes that a single PCM cannot provide consistent energy efficiency globally, making efficiency analysis essential before integration into building structures.

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, established by the United States Department of Transportation, aims to remove barriers to participation of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) in highway projects, to promote the use of DBEs in federally assisted contracts, and to assist the development of DBEs. A DBE is a small, for-profit business owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals such as women or minorities. DBEs need various supportive services, depending on many factors, such as business area, size, and strategy. State Departments of Transportation often provide or hire third parties to provide supportive services to DBEs that are relatively expensive and inefficient. These services may also support only some and unintentionally exclude other DBEs. Under many challenges, one ultimate goal is to find a framework that covers all valuable DBE supportive services. This study proposes, tests, and validates a framework for providing effective and comprehensive DBE supportive services in the transportation sector. Based on discussions with DBE liaison officers and service providers, we propose the business, engineering, construction, and other (BECO) framework to provide DBE supportive services. We then use a sequential explanatory design in mixed methods, collecting quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate and validate the BECO framework. We analyze quantitative data using confirmatory factor analysis and qualitative data using pattern coding techniques. The results provide insights and reveal useful DBE supportive services using the BECO framework. The framework is useful for assessing DBE needs, informing DBE liaison officers and service providers, and offering the most useful supportive services to DBEs.

Building Energy Modeling (BEM) is crucial for improving energy efficiency, minimizing energy consumption, and ensuring occupant comfort. Accurate BEM offers many benefits and insights for sustainable practices throughout a building's lifecycle. However, continuous BEM is often underutilized for improving energy efficiency and decarbonization of the grid, particularly when combining multiple tools that accurately estimate energy consumption, detect abnormality, and offer sustainable recommendations. This study addresses the gap in continuous BEM throughout a building's lifecycle, emphasizing the role of dynamic schedule adjustments for the HVAC system to optimize energy consumption. The project team conducted a case study of an institutional building in the Pacific Northwest. BEM was completed using Sefaira, assuming the same efforts were made during the design phase, and then an OpenStudio model was created to re-evaluate the energy simulation in comparison to the real energy consumption data during the operational phase. This research examines the benefits of using Sefaira during the design phase and OpenStudio during the operational phase for continuous BEM and simulation in its specific climate and building system schedule. The findings suggest that optimizing the schedule by implementing an optimum morning warm-up can enhance energy consumption, especially through the customization of the schedule in Openstudio. As a result, energy consumption can be reduced over the building’s lifecycle. This study underscores the necessity of integrating continuous energy modeling practices throughout a building's lifecycle to achieve better energy management and sustainability.