{"id":115454,"date":"2026-11-11T16:29:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/industry-science.com\/?post_type=article&p=115454"},"modified":"2026-11-11T16:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T15:32:19","slug":"risks-and-opportunities-of-industry-4-0-for-corporate-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/industry-science.com\/en\/articles\/risks-and-opportunities-of-industry-4-0-for-corporate-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Risks and Opportunities of Industry 4.0 for Corporate\u00a0Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry 4.0: digital technologies are changing the way industrial \u00a0production works. This digital informatization of industrial production opens up \u00a0opportunities for business informatics to develop sociotechnical solutions that \u00a0support companies in their transformation towards more sustainability. The main contribution of this paper is the presentation, contextualization and \u00a0controversial discussion of approaches identified in the literature, where digital \u00a0technologies might offer an opportunity to support corporate sustainability. As a \u00a0result the paper presents approaches where Industry 4.0 technologies support \u00a0corporate sustainability management on a general level, and more specifically \u00a0improve resource efficiency or enable Big Data approaches in order support \u00a0corporate environmental management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, digitalization has become ubiquitous in all areas of the economy and  society. Currently information and communication technology (ICT) networks  globally consume 1.2% of the total electricity grid supply [1] and digital technologies  emit around 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions \u2013 with an ascending trend [2].  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the context of industrial production, digitalization is often associated with the term \u00a0Industry 4.0, which has gained wide recognition since its establishment in 2011, both \u00a0nationally and internationally. According to [3\u20136] the Industry 4.0 concept is based on processes in which both the manufacturing systems and the objects to be \u00a0manufactured are interconnected with each other through ICT and continuously \u00a0exchange data. The interacting manufacturing systems can be organized in a \u00a0decentralized manner and are enabled to flexibly organize and optimize themselves through digital technologies and so-called cyber-physical systems [3\u20136]. Industry 4.0 \u00a0thus stands for a fundamental transformation of the manufacturing industry, which is \u00a0also taken up in countries such as China, USA, India and Japan indicating its global \u00a0impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, industry has a significant impact on key sustainability parameters: \u00a0according to the International Energy Agency, the sector accounted for 41.6% of \u00a0global electricity and even 79.8% of final coal consumption in 2016. As actors with \u00a0social responsibility, companies are also important for the transformation process \u00a0towards sustainable development. But companies also have an intrinsic motivation to \u00a0adapt their business operations towards more sustainability. Some of them are already forced to regularly report openly on their sustainability performance (e.g. big \u00a0companies through the Directive 2014\/95\/EU of the European Union on Non-financial and Diversity Information). Their sustainability performance is also \u00a0becoming a reputational factor in the decision making processes of on the one hand \u00a0potential customers [7] (whose decisions directly affect the economic success) but on \u00a0the other hand also of potential employees, who seek to give a meaning to their work \u00a0[8]. In summary it can be said, that society as a whole but also the companies \u00a0themselves are likely to benefit from their improved sustainability performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is unclear whether and to what extent the emerging digitalization of \u00a0industrial production promotes – or even hinders – the transition towards \u00a0sustainability. Can digital technologies and the availability of huge amounts of data \u00a0also enable companies and their employees to operate more sustainable e. g. by \u00a0helping to design more environmentally friendly sociotechnical systems for corporate environments? \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This paper seeks to provide an overview on the question how Industry 4.0 can help to \u00a0harness currently untapped transformative potentials of sustainability management in \u00a0companies and thereby contribute to a sustainable way of doing business through \u00a0data-driven sociotechnical systems. The main contribution of this paper is the \u00a0presentation, contextualization and controversial discussion of approaches identified \u00a0in the literature, where Industry 4.0 technologies might offer an opportunity to support corporate sustainability. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Your downloads<\/h2>