Opportunities of Sustainable Manufacturing in Industry 4.0

The current globalization is faced by the challenge to meet the continuously growing worldwide demand for capital and consumer goods by simultaneously ensuring a sustainable evolvement of human existence in its social, environmental and economic dimensions. In order to cope with this challenge, industrial value creation must be geared towards sustainability. Currently, the industrial value creation in the early industrialized countries is shaped by the development towards the fourth stage of industrialization, the so-called Industry 4.0. This development provides immense opportunities for the realization of sustainable manufacturing. This paper will present a state of the art review of Industry 4.0 based on recent developments in research and practice. Subsequently, an overview of different opportunities for sustainable manufacturing in Industry 4.0 will be presented. A use case for the retrofitting of manufacturing equipment as a specific opportunity for sustainable manufacturing in Industry 4.0 will be exemplarily outlined.