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The paper aims at investigation of the nexus between Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and environmental sustainability in addition to exploring the long-run and short-run effects of Industry 4.0 on CO 2 emissions. For this end, energy consumption, internet and communication technology (ICT) exports, research and development (R&D), artificial intelligence (AI), ICT technology patents and bitcoin are taken as control variables of Industry 4.0 for a panel of 9 countries that contribute to 62% of the total CO 2 emissions in the world. For this purpose, the paper follows two approaches. First, the paper proposes utilization of AI and ICT technology patents, technology-related R&Ds and ICT exports as variables of I4.0 in addition to investigating the effects of economic growth, energy consumption and bitcoin. Second, to control structural changes and nonlinearity in the cointegrating relations and existence of degenerate cointegration, Fourier panel bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag model (FPBARDL) is utilized. Afterwards, FPBARDL based long, short and strong causality analyses are conducted. The empirical findings revealed positive impacts of all I4.0-related variables on emissions in the long-run. Though I4.0 related AI and ICT innovation has no direct effect in the short-run, its effects are determined through increased energy consumption towards emissions. The strong positive effects of energy consumption and positive effects of economic growth, ICT exports and R&D are observed both in the short and long-run. In addition to positive impacts of I4.0 on environment, the findings favor insufficiency of policies focusing on lowering emissions in I4.0 context.Policy recommendations include strong commitment to energy efficiency and renewable energies and trade policies with environmental concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the requirements of sustainable development, this paper aims to develop a sustainable concrete mix by replacing part of the cement with cenosphere waste and multi-minerals. The cenosphere was chemically treated to provide internal curing effect to enhance concrete performance. The sensitivity of cenospheres and multi-minerals on concrete strengths, microstructures, economic benefits and environmental sustainability were evaluated. To simultaneously consider these factors, concrete mixes were optimized using TOPSIS, a multi-criteria optimization method. Results show that the surface-treated cenosphere offers a good internal curing effect to improve the mechanical properties of concrete. A more considerable amount of minerals, i.e., 40%, is observed to have sound performance since the additional curing water provided by the treated cenospheres can accelerate the hydration of cement and minerals, contributing to a densified microstructure with abundant hydrates. Additionally, the addition of cenosphere and multi-minerals also brings a noticeable decline in the direct cost given a maximum decrease of 7.6%, and a significant advantageous effect on environmental sustainability given a maximum decrease of 37.4%, 34.0% and 6.34% in CO 2 emissions, energy consumption and raw material ratio, respectively. Furthermore, mixture G11 with 20% cenosphere, 6% MK and 14% GGBS is suggested when an equal priority is determined for mechanical properties, cost and environmental sustainability. • Sustainable concrete mixes with significant amounts of multi-minerals are designed. • The surface-etched cenosphere can be used as an internally-cured binding material. • A positive composite effect of cenosphere and multi-minerals is identified. • Adding cenosphere and minerals is beneficial to cost saving and environmental sustainability. • Mixture with 20% cenosphere, 6% MK and 14% GGBS is the optimum concrete mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]