The climate change issue has been striking and bringing pressure on all countries and industries. The responsibility of the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Facility Management (AEC/FM) industry is heavy because it accounts for over one-third of global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the development of digital technology brings the opportunity to mitigate environmental issues. Therefore, this study intended to examine the state-of-the-art of digital development and transformation in the AEC/FM industry by collecting and reviewing the developed digital carbon footprint analysis tools in infrastructure, building, and city scopes. Specifically, this study (1) generated a review methodology for carbon footprint analysis results; (2) demonstrated the review results from the infrastructure, building, and city scopes, analysed and compared the results crossing the scopes from four aspects: carbon footprint analysis strategy, standards and protocols, rating systems, and general development level of digital tools; and (3) discussed the potential directions in the industry to address the environmental issues. This study indicated that the digitalisation level regarding carbon-related areas is still at an early stage, and efforts should be taken both academically and practically to drive the digital development confronting the harsh climate change issue.

Urban green space accessibility is an essential consideration in determining environmental liveability and the well-being of individuals, and the spatial inequity of urban green space supply and demand has become a research focus. However, few studies have conducted a multidimensional and comprehensive assessment of the influences on accessibility from the different perspectives of supply and demand. To address this, our study centred on the mountainous Chongqing region and established a comprehensive research framework examining the spatial pattern of accessibility of urban green spaces and its correlation with physical geographical elements and socioeconomic factors. We reveal the spatial distribution characteristics of urban green space accessibility by using Gaussian-based two-step floating catchment area and network analysis methods and further observe the spatial clustering features utilising hotspot analysis. The ordinary least squares (OLS) model and the spatial lag model were used to evaluate the physical geographical and socioeconomic disparities. Our findings reveal explicit blind spots in urban green space accessibility, primarily within the 30 min travel threshold in the city’s marginal area. A discernible supply–demand imbalance existed in the urban core, constituted by implicit blind spots. Furthermore, we identified that the relationship between urban green space accessibility and elevation under different methods is not always consistently significant over space because spatial heterogeneity may exist. Most concerningly, the study found inequities in urban green space accessibility, particularly impacting vulnerable demographics such as the elderly and lower-income groups. These results can inform urban planners and policymakers about the blind spots of urban green space accessibility and sufficiently consider the physical and socioeconomic heterogeneity of the space to determine where and how to implement inclusive urban greening policies or planning schemes. It is also of great significance in increasing awareness of vulnerable groups and preventing environmental inequality.

Many cities have encountered challenges associated with rapid urban development, population growth and aging, in which urban renewal has become a promising option. Different renewal strategies, such as redevelopment, refurbishment and conservation, not only contributes to quality improvement and energy consumption reduction of dilapidated urban area, but also to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation. Such integrated benefits are often termed as co-benefits. However, choosing the most co-benefits strategy to adopt requires a holistic understanding of social-economic and environmental aspects, which has been less reported in the existing literature. Under such circumstance, this article aims to shed light on the co-benefits of different renewal strategies by adopting the Emergy-Life cycle assessment method. Then, the method is applied to one case study of the refurbishment of an educational building located in Chongqing, China. Resource allocation, CO₂ emissions and emergy-based indicators are calculated to assess the co-benefits during a 60-year research period, to compare the impacts of the complete demolition followed by a new one (rebuilding strategy) and the refurbishing of the existing building (refurbishment strategy). The case study shows that the annual emergy in the O&M phase of rebuilding strategy and refurbishment strategy were lower than existing building. Rebuilding and refurbishment strategies released approximately 59.1% and 80.6%, respectively, of the total CO₂ emissions that would be produced by the existing building. The results reveal that substantial environmental benefits can be obtained in both the refurbishment and rebuilding strategies. On the other hand, it can be concluded that the emergy yield ratio (EYR) for the rebuilding strategy is higher than refurbishment strategy, which demonstrate the better performance of refurbishment considering that less resources are required to generate greater benefits. In addition, the value of environmental loading ratio (ELR) and emergy sustainability index (ESI) also suggests that the refurbishment strategy performs better from the perspective of the environment. Thereby, the refurbishment strategy is more suitable than the rebuilding strategy. Findings from this study can be useful to urban planners and decision-makers in choosing the most suitable strategy to improve the quality of existing buildings.

As prefabricated buildings play a significant role in the global fight against the new coronavirus “COVID‐19,” they attract more global attention than other types of buildings. Lean construction helps to improve the benefits of enterprises and the working environment of workers. However, prefabricated buildings are encountering various challenges in implementing on‐site lean construction. According to a cause‐and‐effect relationship, it will be more meaningful to explore the critical causes hindering on‐site lean construction, namely, the critical barriers. Hence, this paper establishes a research methodology framework based on multimethod collaboration, including the exploratory factor analysis model regarding critical barriers, the exploratory factor evaluation model regarding organizational capabilities, and the important findings and suggestions. Thirty‐one critical barriers of on‐site lean construction for prefabricated buildings are identified via literature analysis, field survey, and semistructured interview. After pre‐exploratory factor analysis, thirty critical barriers are finally retained and prioritized, and six common components are extracted and nominated. A large‐scale project using the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) mode is selected as a case study to evaluate its construction organizational capability to deal with the six common components. The important findings indicate that the inadequate professional management capability of managers is the most critical barrier, and the construction organization from the project case is fully capable of dealing with the common components during on‐site lean construction. Six corresponding substantive suggestions are also proposed according to domain experts, and the most prioritized one of them is that an internal training or external recruitment is suggested to solve the inadequate professional management capability of managers. The internal training should take the form of seminars and training courses that invite senior prefabricated project management experts to participate. The external recruitment needs to focus on the management experience, lean skills, and leadership of managers in prefabricated projects. The established methodology framework proposes a new idea for the barrier analysis and corresponding organizational capability evaluation of on‐site lean construction from the perspective of the specific prefabricated construction industry rather than the entire construction industry. Due to the special construction mode of prefabricated buildings, it further expands the current boundary of lean construction methodology. The findings and suggestions will provide a valuable reference and guidance for the prefabricated construction industry to solve the barriers regarding on‐site lean construction.