Unleashing the potential of digital twin in offering green services

Abstract

Decarbonisation and the transition towards a sustainable economy are current challenges faced by many organisations belonging to industries that have zero carbon emission on their horizon. In this backdrop, orientation to services is playing a role in the creation of more sustainable business models. Nonetheless, definition, design, and effective development of green services are still an ongoing debate in the literature. On the other hand, new cross-field technologies are emerging as drivers in the transformation process for sustainability. In this vein, digital twin is already showing their potential on optimising processes and increase operational efficiency. Despite the growing number of articles in digital twin, research on how this technology can underpin services and enable sustainable practices is still scarce and fragmented. This extended abstract contextualises and describes an ongoing research project aiming to shed light on the role of digital twin in enabling green services. The research work in progress, by means of systematic literature review combined with benchmarking analysis, is portraying the state of art and current cross-sector best practices for the development of green services facilitated by digital twin. In a second step, building on the insights deduced from the systematic review, a panel of experts will be interviewed with the object to identify current and future perspectives on the use of digital twin in the service context and define a framework of the key socio-technical factors to be considered in digital twin-enabled green services to succeed. This expected framework could guide both practitioners and researchers in the better design and development of green services by using digital twin.