Striding towards Sustainability: A Framework to Overcome Challenges and Explore Opportunities through Industry 4.0

Abstract

Sustainability 4.0 (S4.0) enables sustainable development through intelligent technologies to meet economic, environmental and social demands. The main objective of this article is to propose a framework for developing S4.0 in sectors of Triple Helix (TH) (Government, Organizations and Academy). The framework consists of benchmarking of policies and initiatives from the Science-Technology Scenario in S4.0 (STS-S4.0) and the author's experience. The STS-4.0 is a snapshot of relevant initiatives from the countries that performed best in science and technology in S4.0. This work uses the methods of bibliometric studies and content analysis of scientific articles from the Scopus database and patents publications from the Orbit database. This research resulted in a total of 19 propositions for developing sustainability through I4.0. Of these, eight are for Government, six for Organizations and five for Academy. The main scientific contribution of this work is to expand and deepen the recent block of knowledge on S4.0. As for the applied contribution, this work contributes to the conscious and sustainable development of humanity through the technological elements of I4.0, contributing to the achievement of the following SDGs proposed by the UN: 9 (Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 13 (Climate Action). The main novelty of this article is the creation of paths for Government, Organizations and Academy to interactively lead the development of global sustainability through the smart technologies of I4.0.

A framework of digital technologies for the circular economy: Digital functions and mechanisms

“…Unsupervised machine operation can reduce human labour, especially for simple and repetitive tasks, and increase energy efficiency (Alcayaga et al, 2019; Yang, Raghavendra M. R., et al, 2018). Its application for CE includes automated waste separation, smart agriculture, and smart energy control (Laskurain‐Iturbe et al, 2021; Reis et al, 2021; World Economic Forum, 2016).…”

“…IoT collects real‐time data for automated decision making and operations (Basso et al, 2021). Auto‐control function can adjust the air and light conditioning, turn on and off machines, and even operate intelligent machinery (Laskurain‐Iturbe et al, 2021; Reis et al, 2021). On the other hand, intelligent robotics can increase process efficiency and accuracy.…”

“…Increasing production efficiency is another well‐discussed topic. In the short term, real‐time monitoring can support quick and interactive equipment management with greater energy efficiency (Reis et al, 2021). Self‐control robotics and systems are deployed to increase efficiency and reduce human conduct failings (Laskurain‐Iturbe et al, 2021).…”

Toward a cleaner and more sustainable world: A framework to develop and improve waste management through organizations, governments and academia

“…This logic considers the balance between the H-index and patent publication and has already been validated and successfully used by Nunhes et al. (2021) and Reis et al. (2021) .…”

Pollution Credit Certificates Theory: An Analysis on the Quality of Solid Waste Management in Brazil

“…The generation of waste in households, commercial and industrial sphere has been considered a major concern for political, socio-economic and environmental purposes. However, routinely can be seen that many initiatives have been taken as the improvement, expansion and innovation of services and techniques of collection for the disposal of these wastes (IPT, 2016;Deus, Battistelle and Silva, 2017;Ribeiro et al, 2017;Reis et al, 2021).…”