China’s construction industry is facing significant challenges in achieving sustainable development and digital operations. Integrating building information modeling (BIM) and sustainable construction is a good method for achieving these goals. However, barriers impact the applications of BIM technology to sustainable buildings, resulting in significant cost loss and time. As such, it is important to identify the constraints, hindering the application of BIM technology in sustainable buildings. This study used the factor analysis method, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the key constraints and conducted a questionnaire survey with 389 respondents to investigate the applications of BIM technology in sustainable building projects. The results showed that there were four main constraining factors: “Public participation”, “technology application”, “economic cost”, and “application management”; “public participation” was particularly important. The study offers practical and managerial implications based on the findings for local government and the private sector and thus can improve the implementation of BIM technology in sustainable buildings and contribute to the accomplishment of China’s sustainable development goals.

In China, the demand for public infrastructure projects is high due to the acceleration of urbanization and the rapid growth of the economy in recent years. Infrastructures are mainly large scale, so local governments have difficulty in independently completing financing work. In this context, public sectors often seek cooperation from private sectors, in which public–private partnership (PPP) is increasingly common. Although numerous studies have concentrated on sustainable development, the unsustainability performances of infrastructures are often reported on various media. Furthermore, studies on the sustainability performances of PPP-type infrastructure (PTI) projects are few from the perspective of private sectors’ behaviors. In this study, we adopted the modified theory of planned behavior and the structure equation model and conducted a questionnaire survey with 258 respondents for analyzing the sustainable behaviors of private sectors. Results indicated that behavioral attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm interact significantly. They have direct positive effects on behavioral intention and then indirectly influence actual behavior through this intention. Actual sustainable behaviors of private sectors have significantly positive effects on the sustainable development of cities. We offer theoretical and managerial implications for public and private sectors on the basis of the findings to ensure and promote the sustainability performances of PTI projects.