Lack of digital twin policy as a barrier to sustainability, carbon targets, and sdg achievement

Watts, G, Munir, M, Underwood, J, Hales, D, Sadabad, MM, Balogun, T, Coates, P and Lim, L (2025) Lack of digital twin policy as a barrier to sustainability, carbon targets, and sdg achievement. Carbon Footprints, 4 (27).

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Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a comprehensive set of targets aimed at improving global conditions, including a focus on reducing carbon footprints. Adopting Digital Twin (DT) technology will aid the achievement of the SDGs. However, there is an inconsistent procurement and policy environment around the development of DTs that can be problematic for those striving to achieve the SDGs. There exists a paucity of research around the interconnections of national policy, DTs, and SDG achievement. This paper addresses this gap by ascertaining how procurement and policy environments impact DT adoption, and in turn how DT adoption can serve to help or hinder SDG achievement. Adopting an interpretivist ontological methodology, this inductive research explores the perceptions of DTs and SDGs as independent concepts (stage one and two), before further interviews are conducted (stage three) which focusses on how DTs and SDGs interact with one another. In total, twenty-five semi-structured interviews with leading professionals are conducted, with narrative analysis utilised as a means of interview structure and analysis. Analysis of the results found there is an inconsistent global policy and procurement environment. In the UK this is hindering DT adoption. Whilst numerous SDG strategies exist, these strategies are often undermined by wider government policy limitations and contractor practices. This original paper calls for an immediate re-think of national policies on DT development, without which, SDG achievement strategies will ultimately be doomed to fail.