Industry 4.0 as an Opportunity to Achieve Environmental Sustainability: The Difference between SMES and Large Companies

Abstract

The decline of environmental sustainability is undoubtedly one of the biggest problems if not the most severe one that threatens our planet. In the last decade, to overcome this global issue, industries were regulated, events and conferences were organized, objectives have been made, but the high cost of green practices, the fierce competition among firms, and the massive increase rate of production made all these efforts insufficient, in the other hand, the fourth industrial revolution could potentially provide suitable solutions to achieve high environmental sustainability. The present research contributes to the environmental sustainability literature by studying the vision that companies in Europe have on Industry 4.0 and the main objectives that they want to achieve from this transformation. Furthermore, relying on a statistical study, the research identifies the differences between large companies and SMEs in Europe when it comes to the incorporation of environmental sustainability objectives within their Industry 4.0 strategies