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Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "C: Energy Economics and Policy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (11 September 2023) | Viewed by 13757

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Anetta Barska

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Guest Editor

University of Zielona Góra, Faculty of Economics and Management, Podgórna 50, 65-246 Zielona Góra, Poland
Interests: marketing; consumer behaviour, sustainable consumption; sustainable development; Industry 4.0; economic development

Dr. Joanna Wyrwa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

University of Zielona Góra, Faculty of Economics and Management, Zielona Góra, Poland
Interests: general economics; economic methodology; economic development; sustainable development; labor economics; innovations; social innovations; social capital; human resources

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Guest Editors are inviting submissions to a Special Issue of Energies on the subject area of “Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries".

Modern economies are confronted with the need to rise to the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, which itself has prompted the emergence of the Industry 4.0 paradigm. The changes resulting from the implementation of this concept apply not only to industry and relevant businesses but also have an impact on the overall dynamic of socio-economic processes. Pairing these efforts with those towards sustainable development is one recurring challenge, which assumes the possibility of transforming society and altering areas of its functioning so as to secure resources and enable future generations to build on their predecessors’ achievements. It is therefore important to cast a multi-faceted, scholarly look at the problems of Industry 4.0 development from various perspectives: those of organizations, countries, and regions.

This Special Issue encourages discussion on the assessment of the degree of readiness of individual EU countries' economies for the fourth industrial revolution in the context of sustainable development.

Topics of interest for the publication include but are not limited to:

Industry 4.0 and Economy 4.0;
Industry 4.0 and the circular economy;
The fourth industrial revolution and international economic cooperation;
Industry 4.0 and its impact on the job market;
Social and economic aspects of Industry 4.0 from the perspective of the experiences of EU countries;
Employee knowledge and skills in the Industry 4.0 environment;
Whether Industry 4.0 is an opportunity or a threat to the implementation of the concept of sustainable development;
Human and social capital as preconditions for the development of Industry 4.0 in the European Union countries;
Megatrends and socio-economic trends in the context of Industry 4.0;
Industry 4.0 and its impact on achieving a higher level of sustainable consumption;
Implementation of the concept of a "recycling society" in the EC countries;
The impact of Industry 4.0 on reducing the use of non-renewable resource;
Industry 4.0 in the face of threats: air pollution, water pollution, noise, hazardous waste, and solid waste;
Ecological innovations and Industry 4.0;
The impact of eco-innovations on the development of EU cities and regions
Industrial symbiosis and cleaner production (CP) as a way of sustainable development of EC countries

Prof. Dr. Anetta Barska
Dr. Joanna Wyrwa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

social and economic development
Industry 4.0
sustainable development
circular economy
Economy 4.0
ecological innovations

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 302 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Energy Development and Sustainable Social Development in EU Countries

by Joanna Wyrwa, Janina Jędrzejczak-Gas, Anetta Barska and Julia Wojciechowska-Solis

Energies 2023, 16(18), 6556; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en16186556 - 12 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 850

Abstract

Sustainable development has been the focus of many analyses in economics. Nevertheless, only a few attempts have so far been made to identify the underlying relationship between sustainable energy development and sustainable social development. This article fills this research gap and enables a better understanding of the essence of sustainable development to help draw applicable conclusions. The aim is to assess sustainable energy and social development in EU countries and to examine their shared relationship in this area. To this end, this study uses a taxonomic method and correlation analysis. The analysis period covers the years 2014–2020. The research builds directly on the assumptions of the concept of sustainable development, with particular emphasis on energy and social aspects. The article is composed of two parts. The first, based on a literature review, discusses the essence of sustainable energy development and social sustainability. The second outlines the research methodology, including the underpinnings of synthetic measures and the results of the conducted empirical research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries)

19 pages, 1258 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identifying Improvement Opportunities in Product Design for Reducing Energy Consumption

by Marcin Relich, Arkadiusz Gola and Małgorzata Jasiulewicz-Kaczmarek

Energies 2022, 15(24), 9611; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15249611 - 18 Dec 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 995

Abstract

The paper is concerned with predicting energy consumption in the production and product usage stages and searching for possible changes in product design to reduce energy consumption. The prediction of energy consumption uses parametric models based on regression analysis and artificial neural networks. In turn, simulations related to the identification of improvement opportunities for reducing energy consumption are performed using a constraint programming technique. The results indicate that the use of artificial neural networks improves the quality of an estimation model. Moreover, constraint programming enables the identification of all possible solutions to a constraint satisfaction problem, if there are any. These solutions support R&D specialists in identifying possibilities for reducing energy consumption through changes in product specifications. The proposed approach is dedicated to products related to high-cost energy use, which can be manufactured, for example, by companies belonging to the household appliance industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries)

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20 pages, 2474 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Employees’ Competencies in the Context of Industry 4.0

by Barbara Kowal, Daria Włodarz, Edyta Brzychczy and Andrzej Klepka

Energies 2022, 15(19), 7142; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15197142 - 28 Sep 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2396

Abstract

The implementation of Industry 4.0 technology and meeting the expectations of employers, the labour market, and, in fact, sustainable development are new challenges for industry employees, especially for their knowledge and skills. The changes introduced during industrial revolutions have always affected the job market and employees’ required competencies. The same can be said for the latest industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, in which the human factor plays an important role, mainly because new challenges are posed by human beings’ role in digitised reality. Our research aimed to identify the employee competencies that are required in the context of Industry 4.0. We investigated two groups of respondents (employees and students). These groups were subjected to a comparative analysis of their digital, technical, social and personal competencies. As a result of the analysis, we identified the highest-ranked competencies in defined groups. Our results show that technical and soft skills are equally important in this highly technically based industrial revolution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries)

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21 pages, 635 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Conditions Driving Eco-Innovation in a Catching-Up Country—ICT vs. Industry in Poland

by Arkadiusz Świadek, Jadwiga Gorączkowska and Karolina Godzisz

Energies 2022, 15(15), 5318; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15155318 - 22 Jul 2022

Viewed by 1614

Abstract

There is a necessity to combine the development of the European Union with a model of a sustainable economy, which is important to stimulate eco-innovation. The government of each member state is obliged to create support mechanisms that will encourage entrepreneurs to implement pro-environmental solutions. This requires the identification of determinants for eco-innovation. This paper identifies and compares conditions of eco-innovation in two sectors in Poland: ICT (information and communication technologies) and industry. Putting together many different types of conditions into one model (including government, science, industry, and ICT) allows us to explain what is more important when making a decision about implementing new eco-solutions. The study covered over 3000 enterprises. Stepwise logit regression was used to examine all relationships of interest. We discovered two separate (independent) paths of approach to eco-innovation for ICT and industry. This means that another condition should be fulfilled to reach any eco-innovation in each of the sectors. There are just a few factors supporting new environmental solutions in ICT with strong impact—cooperation with suppliers, journals as a source of new knowledge, or financial support by credit institutions with high materials and energy efficiency at the end of the process. Industry could be described more like a horizontal approach—a wide number of conditions with low impact on eco-innovation. Therefore, innovation policies in the catching-up country should be more sophisticated and take care of more relevant tools for both sectors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries)

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17 pages, 1772 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Knowledge and Skills Development in the Context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies: Interviews of Experts from Pennsylvania State of the USA

by Sebastian Saniuk, Sandra Grabowska and Wieslaw Grebski

Energies 2022, 15(7), 2677; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15072677 - 06 Apr 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2920

Abstract

Fourth industrial revolution is the introduction of ICT (mostly IoT) in industry and elsewhere, which enables the creation of cyber-physical systems, i.e., digital twins of reality. The application of widespread digitization of processes brings changes in terms of increased efficiency of processes, increased flexibility of production, and the possibility of realizing prosocial and pro-ecological goals, such as sustainable development, sustainable production and consumption, and reducing the consumption of increasingly expensive energy. Nowadays, the high autonomy of cyber-physical systems and benefits to society are expected by including human factors within the Industry 5.0 concept. Implementing the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and meeting the expectations of sustainable development also means new challenges for the knowledge and skills of industry employees, mainly engineers implementing modern solutions. Hence, the article’s aim is to identify the critical knowledge and skills of engineers responsible for implementing the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. The achievements and results presented in the article were obtained based on research conducted among experts from the University of Pennsylvania (USA). The study considers aspects connected to the problems of implementing the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and identifies the benefits and risks of their implementation for Society 5.0. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries)

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Review

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26 pages, 3435 KiB

Open AccessReview

In Search of Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0 in Small-Medium Enterprises—A State of the Art Review

by Agnieszka A. Tubis and Katarzyna Grzybowska

Energies 2022, 15(22), 8595; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15228595 - 16 Nov 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2000

Abstract

The implementation of Industry 4.0 currently concerns mainly large enterprises. However, the economy of most European countries is based on the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For this reason, the further development of the I4.0 concept and the technology of Logistics 4.0 depends on adjusting its assumptions to the needs of SMEs. The article aims to identify research areas regarding the adaptation of Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0 solutions to the needs of the SME sector, based on a review of the literature. The PRISMA method, one of the popular analytical methods used in a literature review, was used for the research. The selection of publications for the analysis was based on the Web of Science database, an important interdisciplinary research platform. Ninety-five publications were accepted for the final analysis, which concerned only the application of Industry 4.0 in SMEs and 10 publications on Logistics 4.0. The conducted studies of the literature allowed to identify the scope of research on the implementation of the concept of Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0 in the SME sector. The research allowed us to distinguish five thematic groups in total, which have been characterized. One of the identified groups concerns the adaptation of Logistics 4.0 systems to the needs of SMEs. The number of publications on this group of studies is minimal, therefore this area has been recognized as the currently existing research gap. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries)

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13 pages, 1799 KiB

Open AccessReview

Combining the Water–Energy–Food and Food Waste–Food Loss–Food Security Nexuses to Reduce Resource Waste

by Eulalia Skawińska and Romuald I. Zalewski

Energies 2022, 15(16), 5866; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15165866 - 12 Aug 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2004

Abstract

The availability of water, energy and food plays a key role in meeting the basic needs of the world population and allowing them to achieve prosperity and supports the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). These three fundamental resources are closely interrelated, with their deep interdependencies reflected in various concepts of the ‘water–energy–food nexus’ (W–E–F). One-third of the total food produced globally results in food loss and waste (FL and FW), which also means the waste of resources used for their production, mainly energy and water. We thus propose a fusion of the W–E–F nexus and the FS–FW–FL nexus to achieve a better correlation between food production and food consumption in order to avoid additional negative effects. We explore the research problem of how the availability of water, energy and food resources can be improved by reducing FW and FL. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of opportunities to reduce the negative effects of FWL. The review paper is based on a comprehensive analysis of the literature, exploration of various (basic and extended) W–E–F models and their linkages with SDG and the entirety of the food supply chain from field to table. In addition to a literature analysis, we applied comparative methods, modeling, visualization and basic indicators of descriptive statistics. Although the amount of literature on this topic is growing, we found that systematic knowledge is still scarce, with each new study putting forth yet more new solutions. Although the data in various studies show somewhat different results, we conclude that reducing FW and FL has a positive, harmonizing effect on the W–E–F nexus. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industry 4.0 and Social and Economic Development in the Aspect of Sustainable Development: Relations in EC Countries)

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