Industry 4.0 and opportunities for energy sustainability

Understanding the interactions of Industry 4.0 and sustainability is a cutting-edge research topic. The present study aims to contribute to this research topic by explaining how Industry 4.0 may contribute to energy sustainability. The present study performs a content-centric qualitative review of the extant digitalization literature to identify the primary energy sustainability functions of Industry 4.0. The interpretive structural modeling technique is further used for mapping the interrelationships among various energy sustainability functions identified. The interpretive model developed, and the Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée àun Classement analysis offered exciting insights into the Industry 4.0-energy sustainability interactions. Findings show that Industry 4.0 promotes energy sustainability via a very complex mechanism that involves ten interrelated functions. Contrary to the general opinion, production efficiency offered by the digitalization of the manufacturing industry is not the immediate and most essential energy efficiency outcome of the digital industrial transformation. Industry 4.0 primarily contributes to energy sustainability by enabling the energy industry to reshape its operating landscape and enjoy more advanced, intelligent, and complicated energy production and distribution equipment. The digitalization of the energy demand sector, digitalization of the manufacturing industry, and the introduction of smarter and more sustainable products are among the main opportunities of Industry 4.0 for energy sustainability. Overall, the study and the ISM model of energy sustainability developed explains how Industry 4.0 contributes to energy sustainability via different functions and how each function is placed within the structural model based on its driving and dependence powers. •Identifies Industry 4.0 contributions to energy sustainability.•Maps the relationships among energy sustainability functions of Industry 4.0.•Shows how Industry 4.0 reshapes the operating landscape of the energy industry.•Develops a structural model of Industry 4.0-enabled energy sustainability.