LAUSR

Abstract The impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on sustainability based on economic, environmental, and social aspects is gaining increasing attention from researchers. In this study, we investigated these impacts using the Triple Bottom Line perspective for sustainable development. A sustainability-oriented model for evaluating the influence of Industry 4.0 technologies on sustainable metrics is proposed. This model analyses the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on several key performance indicators related to sustainable development. The model was tested in the plastics industry which has a high potential of Industry 4.0 technological aggregation in emerging economies. A fuzzy TOPSIS multi-criteria method was used to classify Industry 4.0 technologies, identifying those with the strongest and weakest impacts on sustainable development. As a result, we show that the internet of things, cyber-physical systems, sensors, and big data implementation are drivers for sustainable development. We also evidenced that these technologies are associated with substantial positive impacts on economic metrics. However, there was a much smaller positive influence on environmental and social metrics, suggesting an imbalance on the Triple Bottom Line perspective for the plastics industry. In addition, we found negative impacts from robots on job creation and low influence from cloud computing and system integration technologies for sustainable development. Based on these findings, our work contributes to the decision-making process by aiding managers, process engineers, and stakeholders in understanding and estimating the expected impacts from Industry 4.0 technologies on economic, environmental, and social aspects for sustainable development.