The built asset industry’s notorious productivity gap is being targeted through digitalization, operationalized through Building Information Modelling (BIM), and the application of Lean philosophy to the planning, design, delivery, maintenance, and management of the built environment. While both approaches grow in popularity, their development has remained largely on parallel tracks. Both approaches have existed, for the most part, as two independent initiatives aimed at improving performance and productivity. An increasing amount of work however is pointing to the significant potential that can be achieved through the integration of both approaches. This paper investigates the mutual relations and synergies between BIM and Lean from an information management perspective. The paper also presents the key similarities, differences, synergies, and interactions between these two main drivers of built asset industry reform, while providing an investigation into the principles guiding the application of both within the construction industry.

Whole-Building Lifecycle Assessment (wbLCA) is an essential tool for evaluating the environmental impacts of buildings, including the benefits of material reuse. wbLCA can help the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operation (AECO) industry reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the effectiveness of wbLCA depends on the availability, quality, and exchange of data, leading to significant inconsistencies in LCA assessments and analyses. To address the issue of data consistency and reliability in wbLCA, this paper proposes a framework that uses the openBIM approach to standardize the required data. By using BIM to procure data for LCA, the framework ensures data accuracy and consistency, facilitates data transfer into wbLCA, and improves assessment reliability by minimizing redundancy and modeling errors. OpenBIM standards and tools are adopted to validate Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) submittals, and the models are checked for both geometric and non-geometric data needed for LCA. This comprehensive approach ensures that the model includes all necessary information for LCA analysis, assessment, comparison, and benchmarking. This openBIM-integrated approach is considered a key contribution to aid standardization of wbLCA practice and to add records to the bill-of-work database, which could host records for hundreds or even thousands of buildings. This sophisticated, flexible, and dynamic approach enables self-updating peer model identification, in contrast to static, generic ‘archetype’ baseline buildings. As the database grows, regional and building-type specificity will increase. The study provides practical recommendations for industry stakeholders and authorities.