A major reason why many developing nations have not made significant advancement in sustainable development (SD) agenda is the neglect of existing building stock which forms the bulk of built assets. Although sustainable development is a universal challenge, it cannot be approached in the same way for all nations, but rather practical response can be defined nationally or locally. This paper reviewed literature into the possibility of using an improvement strategy model to eliminate waste and inefficient facilities in existing buildings from occupants and property managers’ view points for sustainability in developing nations using Nigeria as an example while emphasis is placed on the multi-stakeholder/interdisciplinary approach in which each professional in the built environment add discipline-specific data to a single shared model. Many writers have criticized the ignorance of end-user requirements during the construction briefing, highlighting the communications gap between the end-users, designers and owners, and that little had since improved. This paper suggests a way forward in which “bottom-up” improvement policy formulation and subsequent implementation would stem from occupants and property managers rather than “top-down” governance approach in most developing countries. The concepts of lean thinking, zero emission and green building were incorporated into the Building Information Modeling to develop an improvement strategy model for existing buildings with the condition that the use is retained. It is envisaged that improvement would be cheaper financial-wise than to demolish and rebuild; environmental friendly; and bring about an appreciably reduced maintenance cost.
