Digital Twin’s Effort for the Decarbonization Process in the Built Environment

European strategies for decarbonizing the built environment, and their application in sustainable operational practices, involve political, regulatory, and economic aspects, as well as social and behavioural considerations. Despite occupying only 3% of the Earth's surface, architectural heritage is, in fact, responsible for 60–80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions globally, and 36% in the European context. The temporal dimension of the 2030 and 2050 reference scenarios, coupled with novel performance metrics for new and existing buildings, emphasizes the urgency of integrating Life Cycle Thinking approaches into a perspective of climate neutrality and decarbonization. Digital assets and related technologies, due to their enhanced ability to acquire, analyse, interpret, and display real-time information, offer innovative paradigms and opportunities for enhancing resource efficiency and managing resource and energy consumption while reducing/mitigating environmental impacts. In this context, the paper introduces some partial results of the ongoing research activities that highlight an emerging research perspective on the Digital Twin's role in the decarbonization process of the built environment. Interoperability and digitalization are key concepts, along with the Smart Building concept and Digital Twin approaches.