Challenges of Albanian Companies for Sustainable Development in the Era of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Many companies have implemented technology in their production or service delivery processes. In this way, companies today see Industry 4.0 as a necessity, because it provides companies with a competitive advantage, quality product, speed and better fulfillment of customer needs and desires. However, even though companies today are using Industry 4.0, there are still problems such as: high level of resource consumption, high level of pollution, environmental changes, high unemployment rate, etc. Companies today face the pressure and the necessity of implementing sustainable development. This pressure is exerted by the community, the government and even by the universe itself. A sustainable industrial development strategy should aim to achieve the integration of environmental concerns and sustainable development in industrial policy, thereby promoting environmental protection, competitiveness, innovation and employment. In the long term, sustainable industrial development can only be achieved through the integration of all three pillars of sustainable development – economic, environmental and social. Sustainable development is not only environmental protection, it is a process in which different policy areas such as economics, trade, energy, agriculture, industry, etc., are formulated in order to create a development that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.