Sustainability Outcomes of Green Processes in Relation to Industry 4.0 in Manufacturing: Systematic Review

Jaroslav Vrchota, Martin Pech, Ladislav Rolínek and Jiří Bednář
Additional contact information
Jaroslav Vrchota: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Studentska 13, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Ladislav Rolínek: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Studentska 13, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
Jiří Bednář: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Studentska 13, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 15, 1-47

Abstract: Green processes are very important for the implementation of green technologies in production to achieve positive sustainability outcomes in the Industry 4.0 era. The scope of the paper is to review how conventional green processes as a part of Industry 4.0 provide sustainability outcomes in manufacturing. The paper is based on the methodology of systematic literature review through the content analysis of literary resources. Twenty-nine studies were included in our content analysis. The results show the main focus of current literature related to Industry 4.0, sustainability outcomes and green processes. The authors present a conceptual Sustainability Green Industry 4.0 (SGI 4.0) framework that helps to structure and evaluate conventional green processes in relation to Industry 4.0 and sustainability. The study summarizes which technologies (big data, cyber-physical systems, Industrial Internet of Things and smart systems) and green processes (logistics, manufacturing and product design) are important for achieving a higher level of sustainability. The authors found that the most often common sustainability outcomes are energy saving, emission reduction, resource optimalization, cost reduction, productivity and efficiency and higher economic performance, human resources development, social welfare and workplace safety. The study suggests implications for practice, knowledge and future research.

Keywords: green processes; green technologies; green manufacturing; sustainability; Industry 4.0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/15/5968/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/15/5968/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:15:p:5968-:d:389065

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().