The construction industry is one of the most resource-intensive industries and one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and waste production. Building information modelling (BIM) can help architects and engineers design more energy-efficient buildings with less waste, contractors build more efficiently with fewer errors, and facility managers operate buildings more sustainably while reducing maintenance costs. In addition to the well-established benefits of using BIM in construction projects, adopting an openBIM workflow can further streamline the permitting process, making it more efficient and transparent. Digital building permits (DBPs) are intended to further improve process efficiency by digitalizing and automating conformity and code compliance checking processes of obtaining building permits. Further, by integrating sustainability concepts, DBPs have the potential to revolutionize city planning and urban development by enabling more sustainable construction practices and reducing the environmental impact. This study explores the relationship between BIM and DBP in the context of sustainability presenting the current ongoing activities and implementation challenges and proposes a series of solutions.

The architecture, engineering, construction, and operation sectors face significant sustainability challenges. These include high greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, worker safety concerns, and difficulties balancing cost efficiency with sustainable practices. Digital solutions, such as Digital Building Permits (DBP) and Digital Building Logbooks (DBL), are increasingly promoted as enablers of sustainable construction and building management. However, there is limited research on how they contribute to sustainability in practice. This study applied the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an analytical framework to assess the sustainability impacts of DBP and DBL. A four-phase methodology was used: (1) expert elicitation to identify relevant SDGs, (2) mapping of DBP and DBL practices to SDG targets, (3) documentation of supporting practices, and (4) validation through a hybrid stakeholder workshop involving 38 participants from across Europe. The study identifies DBP and DBL practices that contribute to ten SDGs, including Good Health and Well-Being, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry and Innovation, Sustainable Cities, and Climate Action. The automatic code-compliance checking of DBP speeds up approval times, reduces errors, increases transparency, and supports carbon reduction, operational efficiency, and equitable access to permitting. It streamlines housing approvals, aiding affordable housing development. DBL facilitates energy-related data management, including the issuing of Energy Performance Certificates and comparing theoretical versus actual energy use. DBL also supports recyclability assessments and design for disassembly, aligning with the principles of the circular economy. This study provides a structured and replicable framework for evaluating the sustainability contributions of digital building permitting and logbooks. It demonstrates how DBP and DBL can be aligned with global sustainability targets, offering a foundation for future empirical research and policy development. Further work is needed to quantify long-term impacts and extend the analysis beyond the European context.

The architecture, engineering, construction, and operation sectors face significant sustainability challenges. Environmentally, it contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and resource depletion. Socially, it must address issues such as worker safety and community impact. Economically, the sector struggles to balance cost efficiency with sustainable practices. Digital solutions are expected to support sustainable construction. Digital building permits (DBP) and digital building logbooks (DBL) provide examples of digital solutions that support sustainable construction and building management. DBP and DBL are intertwined to enhance the efficiency and transparency of the construction and building management processes. However, research on how DBP and DBL can address sustainability in practice is limited. To address this research gap, this study uses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an analytical framework for the sustainability of DBP and DBL. The research consisted of four phases. First, an expert group identified and selected the SDGs related to DBP and DBL. Then, the experts identified the relevant targets of the selected SDGs. Subsequently, the expert group specified the DBP and DBL practices that supported the relevant targets. Finally, the expert group organised a workshop with external experts in the study area to verify the practices supporting the SDGs. The study identified DBP and DBL practices contributing to achieving 10 SDGs: 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, and 17. The findings suggest that DBL and DBL practices provide opportunities for environmental, social, and economic sustainability; however, further empirical research is needed. The study concluded that DBP and DBL practices can enhance energy management, reduce carbon emissions, improve resource utilisation, and reduce waste. They also support creating a built environment that is user-friendly and remotely accessible, as well as offering financial benefits and improving efficiency and transparency while minimising errors from human interpretation through automation.

Purpose: Digital building permitting (DBP) is increasingly promoted as a key instrument for improving efficiency, transparency and interoperability in public administration. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is cited as a central enabler of this transition. However, existing research offers limited support for systematically benchmarking BIM-based building permitting (BP) systems across different jurisdictions. This study addresses this gap by developing and empirically validating a multi-level Key Performance Indicator (KPI) framework to support comparative benchmarking of BIM-based BP processes. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a mixed-method research design. A structured literature review was combined with qualitative content analysis and thematic synthesis to develop an initial KPI framework spanning four subsystems. The framework was validated through seven semi-structured expert interviews with public authorities involved in municipalities across six countries. Expert feedback was analysed qualitatively, while scaled KPI responses were interpreted quantitatively to support cross-country comparison and benchmarking. Findings: The results reveal substantial variation in BP implementation across jurisdictions. While electronic submission is widely established, deeper BIM integration, interoperability and automated compliance checking remain limited. The benchmarking results suggest the presence of different implementation patterns rather than linear maturity paths, with observed differences being influenced more by factors such as legislative clarity, modelling standards and organisational capacity than by technological availability alone. Experts emphasised that procedural inefficiencies tend to originate from upstream regulatory and institutional constraints. Originality/value: The research responds to the growing need for evidence-based instruments and offers a validated, practice-oriented framework that supports systematic benchmarking of BIM-based BP systems and provides authorities and policymakers with a structured basis for identifying bottlenecks, comparing approaches and guiding evidence-based DBP.

Digital building permitting (DBP) remains constrained by fragmented workflows, document-based exchanges, and the limited ability of existing standards to represent complex spatial and contextual regulatory rules. Although openBIM standards such as IFC, IDS and bSDD provide a foundation for model-based workflows, they are less suited for handling dynamic scene composition and geometry-dependent compliance checks. The paper addresses this gap by proposing a conceptual hybrid framework for DBP that combines openBIM standards with openUSD, a scene-graph-based and AI-ready data environment. The study follows a conceptual design methodology that integrates insights from literature review on automated code-compliance approaches with a case-based analysis of the Romanian Urban Planning Certificate as a representative example of multi-layered building permitting (BP) constraints. The framework distinguishes between property-based rules, which can be encoded and checked via IDS, and spatial or context-dependent rules, which benefit from openUSD’s hierarchical and geometric representation combined with AI-assisted reasoning. The resulting hybrid BP pipeline illustrates how regulatory data, design models and automated checking routines can be federated within a single interoperable environment. While still conceptual, the framework defines a structured pathway for future prototyping, regulatory sandboxing and cross-border harmonization, contributing to the digital transformation of BP processes in Europe.