Empowering sustainability in the built environment: A technological Lens on industry 4.0 Enablers

Abstract

According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the built environment contributes around 10 % of global GDP but is also a major source of emissions, land use, and resource consumption. The built environment also consumes one-third of global energy and produces 40 % of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The United Nations has set up the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which emphasize the significance of transforming the built environment to cope with issues such as net-zero emissions, resilient infrastructure, circular economy, health, etc. Researchers have emphasized that digitalization is one of the factors that can meet the aforementioned targets in a built environment with a sustainability aspect. Digitalization in any field is realized with the assimilation of Industry 4.0 enabling technologies with sustainably built infrastructure. It has been identified that; there are limited studies where all Industry 4.0 enabling technologies are detailed discussed. Based upon the above facts, this study aims to analyze and identify the progress of distinct Industry 4.0 enabling technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud Computing, Edge Computing/Fog Computing, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Blockchain, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), Digital Twin, Metaverse, and Robotics implementation in the built environment. Along with this, the study also discusses challenges and suggests recommendations for future work.