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The integration of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies and Lean Manufacturing (LM) principles has emerged as a significant strategy for industries seeking to improve precision, customization, competitiveness, and environmental sustainability. However, existing literature lacks a comprehensive model that incorporates these approaches and guides companies towards a green paradigm (GP) transition. This study aims to address the gap in literature by developing a comprehensive model that integrates I4.0 and LM practices and examines how this integration can enhance companies' ability to achieve a green transition. A Systematic Literature Review was conducted to identify 27 critical variables related to I4.0, LM, and GP. The ISM-MICMAC method was applied for analysis. Validation of the model was performed through interview with a sample company. The developed model provides a comprehensive framework for integrating I4.0 and LM practices to facilitate companies' transition towards environmental sustainability. The analysis revealed critical variables and their interactions, highlighting areas of focus for organizations aiming to adopt a green paradigm. The integration of I4.0 and LM practices offers significant potential for enhancing companies' ability to achieve environmental sustainability goals. By identifying critical variables and their relationships, this study provides valuable insights for organizations seeking to navigate the transition towards a green paradigm. This research contributes to the existing literature by presenting a novel model that bridges the gap between I4.0, LM, and environmental sustainability. The findings offer practical guidance for industries aiming to leverage technology and operational strategies to address sustainability challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, one third of European citizens paid attention to environmentally-friendly practices or certificates when choosing accommodation or destination for their main holiday, although only about 16 per cent considered a mode of transportation with low impact on the environment. Using 20,000 individual observations from the Flash Eurobarometer, a Bivariate Probit model is employed to estimate the characteristics of green tourists in Europe, that is, those who consider environmentally-friendly transportations, practices or labels as important for the choice of holiday. Both the large representative cross-country dataset and the joint modelling of destination and transportation preferences are novel contributions to the literature. Results reveal that contemplating an environmentally-friendly destination depends significantly on a bundle of socio-demographic and contextual characteristics, where country of residence is the most important factor. Nature seeking and sports tourists, persons who travel with a partner and women are more likely to find environmental issues relevant for their choice of holiday, while older and highly skilled persons do not. Those who pay attention to both environmentally-friendly destinations and transportation modes in their choice of holiday belong to the group of green tourists that mainly spend their holidays domestically, or take a particular interest in nature-based outdoor activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the vast number of academic products with focus on sustainability being currently generated, it is becoming exceedingly difficult and time-consuming to perform accurate literature reviews that have actual relationship with such a topic and correctly reflect its state of the art. Thus, this work proposes a comprehensive Systematic Literature Review (SLR) design as a novel approach for collecting the body of contributions for any given research field in general and sustainability in particular. This design is guided by a semi-automated procedure that aims at incorporating the best automation features of earlier SLRs and involves available scientific databases, e.g., Scopus and Web of Science. The results of the proposed SLR design include bibliometric analyses, a list of researcher and institution networks, and a qualitative assessment of practical applications of the field of interest. Moreover, the proposed semi-automated approach allows for the inclusion of subject categorization based on the generation of author-density maps and keyword co-occurrence networks. For illustration, the semi-automated SLR design is implemented by thoroughly reviewing the contributions pertaining to the P-graph (Process Graph) framework with a focus on sustainability. The P-graph framework has been applied to multiple areas, such as network design, optimization, and system integration; in particular, the framework has proven to be useful for the development of sustainable systems. Upon execution, the semi-automated SLR design collected 284 contributions related to P-graph, of which 139 were classified as sustainability-related, and further partitioned into specific categories. It is expected that the proposed semi-automated SLR design will help researchers in the sustainability community accelerate the generation of works in that area by rapidly generating accurate literature reviews. [Display omitted] • Presents a novel Systematic Literature Review design with automation tools. • Integrates semi-automated solutions comprehensively in the full review process. • Includes bibliometric-, network-, and text-mining aided content analysis has a high potential for full-automation via AI tools. • Demonstrated the SLR design in the research area of P-graph and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioeconomy clusters, besides stimulating economic and innovative performance, are expected to promote sustainable regional development. Despite their growing popularity, there is still a lack of awareness about how these clusters contribute to sustainability. This paper aims at increasing our understanding of the processes through which bioeconomy clusters generate sustainability effects and promote the bioeconomy transition. We analyze the event-history of the French Bazancourt-Pomacle cluster and interpret its development as a continuous interplay among its geographical, institutional, and structural scales to capture how these dynamics eventually affect specific sustainability scales. The results of the scale analysis reveal that the actors of the biocluster maintain a certain mode of action by organizing their activities along scales related to the valorization of local natural resources, whereas improvements of sustainability appear as a posteriori result of these activities rather than an aim in itself. Our study contributes with novel insights to the literature on sustainability transitions and clusters as well as demonstrates the potential of the scale-perspective for identification and measurement of sustainability trade-offs in a way accessible to policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores drivers of supply chain sustainability during COVID-19 in both the Australian and Saudi Arabian fashion industries. COVID-19 is the most recent global crisis to amplify sustainability issues in a very polluting sector. This qualitative, comparative study draws on 44 semi-structured interviews with fashion brands across the fashion spectrum, evenly distributed between Australia and Saudi Arabia. A grounded approach to analysis was applied. Findings indicate reactive and proactive approaches to dealing with COVID-19 and its impacts. A reactive approach, or dealing with a situation when faced with it, is guided by isomorphic pressures, which are classified as external forces that shape and influence how an organisation operates within society, but also can lead to changes in internal practices. A proactive approach implies foresight and acts upon a situation prior to being 'forced' to make changes and encourages social sustainability along the supply chain. To overcome challenges intensified by the pandemic, fashion organisations need to increase flexibility and collaborative approaches. This study makes a novel contribution to the literature through its cross-cultural comparison, exploring sustainability drivers with institutional theory. • Comparison (Australia, Saudi Arabia) exploring sustainability drivers during COVID-19. • Reactive and proactive approaches form baseline for dealing with COVID-19. • Isomorphic pressures (external driving forces) guide reactive approach. • Proactive approaches imply foresight and encourage social sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is estimated that the adaptation of the Circular Economy approach can yield material cost savings of hundreds of billions of dollars per year for the EU and can result in huge environmental benefits. To tap this potential, the manufacturing industry needs to take a circular approach, where the products are designed intentionally to be used for multiple lifecycles. However, there is a lack of methodologies to date that can support such an approach. To fill this gap, this research has proposed a novel methodological approach that can support designing products for multiple lifecycles to keep the products as well as the components and the materials at their highest utility and value at all times. This research has identified that there is a strong synergy among the concepts of product design strategies, product obsolescence and product end-of-life options. Taking this synergy as the foundation and adopting modular architectures in the product design and development process, lifecycle planning can be performed for products that will sustain multiple lifecycles. This research is performed in two steps: first, the research review process is used to explore the knowledge base in the field of product design methodologies and based on the insights from the literature a novel methodological approach is proposed; second, a case example is used to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodological approach. • Introduces a novel methodological approach that can support designing products for multiple lifecycles. • Applicability of the methodological approach is tested using a washing machine as the case study. • The methodological approach takes a system approach to plan the lifecycles of a product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]