n. 15 | Industry 4.0 as a tool to increase sustainability

The 2018 stability law previously discussed represents a real environmental measure included in a broader discussion: Industry 4.0. In fact, the environmental technologies for the reuse and recycling of products (making a circular economy possible), the systems for energy saving, the collection and disposal plants, considered circular economy measures, are part of the fourth industrial revolution that sees protagonist a set of technologies, indicated in the National Industry 4.0 Plan, where we can distinguish four main lines of development: the use of data, analytics, human and machine interaction and the transition from digital to real.

We would like to focus on the third guideline, as this interaction facilitates the development of production processes, not only by encouraging environmental sustainability, but also by promoting social sustainability, providing responses to new challenges and emerging needs of society, such as climate and product resources, main topics to be faced in an ever-increasing green economy.

Consider, for example, the use of energy resources: having and processing in real time data that indicate energy needs, translates into an optimization of energy consumption and the use of raw materials and, therefore, emissions, with a consequent reduction of the environmental impact on the entire life cycle of the product.

Industry 4.0 is therefore a completely innovative approach, based on knowledge and availability of information that becomes in effect a tool in order to efficiently and sustainably produce in the ever greater respect and awareness of the environment.