Environmental Side of Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Positive and Negative Effects of I4.0 Technologies

The pursuit of environmental sustainability goals is become an important issue for private companies, not only to fulfil national and international regulation, but also because it is demonstrated that being environment friendly may help companies to gain competitive advantage toward competitors, enhancing their position in the market and developing the resources and capabilities useful to growth in the long term. Technological innovations cover an important role to drive companies toward environmental sustainability. In particular, Industry 4.0 technologies have been considered a relevant tool to assist environmental sustainability decisions, as they allow a better strategic alignment between the information technologies employed and organizational goals (de Sousa Jabbour et al., Technol Forecast Soc Chang 132:18–25, 2018). Despite the interest on the topic is growing (Bonilla et al., Sustainability 10(10):3740, 2018; de Sousa Jabbour et al., Technol Forecast Soc Chang 132:18–25, 2018), a clear understanding of Industry 4.0 technologies’ effect on companies’ environmental strategy remains significantly understudied. Existing studies are mostly focused on the positive effect of the new paradigm, but it is also important to highlight that some innovations may impose unpredictable costs on society, and their transformative nature can make it difficult to anticipate their overall effect once diffused (Binder M, Witt U (2011) As innovations drive economic growth, do they also raise well-being? Papers on economics and evolution). This chapter tries to shed the light on the topic by identifying the possible positive and negative effects of different Industry 4.0 technologies on natural environment.