Sustainable Manufacturing in India: Evaluating Green Technologies, Energy-Efficient Systems, and Strategic Enablers in Industry 4.0/5.0 Contexts

Abstract

The increasing pressure of the need of environmentally friendly and resource-friendly industrial processes, has boosted the sustainable manufacturing as a strategic necessity, especially in the emerging economies such as India. The paper presents the multi-dimensional nature of the adoption of sustainability within Indian manufacturing, in particular, small and medium enterprises (SMEs). With the mixed-methods research design, the study combines survey information of more than 100 firms, interviews with experts, the estimation of green technology, organizational enablers, and policy mechanism using simulation modeling with RETScreens and MATLAB, and structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the influence of green technologies, organizational enablers, and policy mechanisms. The findings indicate a middle ground of adoption as far as green manufacturing processes like energy systems, waste heat recovery, and closed-loop water reuse are concerned. However, adoption is not equally distributed across the sectors because of the limitation of capital, absence of technical competencies, and fractured laws. Companies that have incorporated the use of Industry 4.0 technologies including the IoT, AI, and blockchain have shown better sustainability results, particularly when coupled with endogenous forces such as the dedication of top management, cross-functional education, and awareness of cultures regarding sharing knowledge. The importance of favorable policies and government incentives is also mentioned in the study but the current mechanisms are usually found to be insufficient to cover the needs of SMEs. Fuzzy set analysis and life cycle analysis (LCA) validate that effective adoption of sustainability is the product of synergistic technologies, organizational capacity and institutional support. The study gives a verified sustainability evaluation tool that can be used by companies to compare performance and strategize on interventions. The findings offer policy-makers, executives in the manufacturing sector, and scientific communities interested in scaling sustainable manufacturing with a view to scaling it in an inclusive and systematic manner.

Introduction

Rapid industrialization has significantly boosted economic growth but also caused severe environmental damage, with industries consuming over 30% of global energy and contributing about 20% of carbon emissions. Sustainable manufacturing has emerged as a crucial approach to balance industrial development with environmental protection, emphasizing economic viability, resource conservation, and social equity aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals.

India faces a unique challenge of sustaining industrial growth while managing environmental impacts. Despite national initiatives like Make in India and NAPCC, widespread adoption of sustainable practices remains limited, especially among SMEs, due to high costs, lack of expertise, fragmented policies, and poor infrastructure.

Key sustainable manufacturing strategies include green technologies (renewable energy, waste heat recovery, pollution control), energy-efficient systems enhanced by Industry 4.0 digital tools (IoT, AI, blockchain), and Industry 5.0’s focus on human-centered innovation and ethical AI. Sustainable materials, such as bio-based polymers and recycled alloys, support circular resource use but face cost and performance challenges.

Successful implementation requires strong organizational readiness through knowledge management, culture change, leadership, and partnerships. Barriers in developing economies include financial constraints, skill shortages, policy fragmentation, poor infrastructure, and cultural resistance.

The study proposes an integrated, evidence-based framework combining green technologies, energy systems, sustainable materials, digital tools, and organizational enablers to improve sustainability in resource-constrained, digitally immature environments like Indian SMEs. Using mixed research methods, it aims to provide practical insights and strategic recommendations to bridge the gap between theory and practice for a sustainable industrial future.

Conclusion

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the sustainable manufacturing process, specifically in the Indian industrial scenario with emphasis on the interaction of green technologies, energy-efficient frameworks, and organization enablers within the scope of Industry 4.0 and 5.0. The study, using a mixed-methods design, which included structured surveys, in-depth interviews, simulation modeling, and structural equation modeling, determines the opportunities and constraints that define the adoption of sustainability in manufacturing firms, particularly the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The results show that even though a significant proportion of the firms have embarked on the use of green technologies like solar photovoltaic systems, waste heat recovery units and closed-loop water recycling systems, the extent of full-scale integration of these technologies is a limited phenomenon. The energy modeling conducted in RETScreen and MATLAB demonstrates that the significant decrease of energy consumption and emissions can be accomplished once these technologies are integrated with smart monitoring and predictive tools. However, they are normally constrained by capital constraints, lack of online infrastructure, and dissemination of knowledge, particularly amongst the SMEs. It is also found in the study that companies, which make use of Industry 4.0 technology, including AI, IoT, and blockchain, have better sustainability results, especially in terms of energy optimization and emissions monitoring. But, these advantages are highly interfered with internal organisational variables like knowledge management practices, training of employees, and leadership commitment. Companies that had developed a good top-to-bottom sustainability vision and functional alignment always performed better than others in terms of the environment and operations. Policy engagement emerged as a double-edged factor. Despite the awareness created by national programs like PAT and ZED, they are bureaucratic and do not provide sector specific services to the SMEs hence limiting their effectiveness to resource limited SMEs. The inconsistency of regulations and its fragmentation also fails to stimulate the investment into the sustainable transitions on the part of the private sector. Nonetheless, companies have indicated their readiness to abide by the standards of sustainability with the proper incentives, simplified process, and local assistance. The sustainability framework that was achieved through the validation process in this study integrates technological aspects, organizational aspects, and policy aspects. It allows companies to benchmark their preparedness regarding sustainability, and measure their preparedness levels as well as design interventions strategically. Fuzzy set analysis also reveals that there exists no single route to attaining sustainability; instead, it is the outcome of various and situation-specific arrangements with technology, knowledge, and policy convergence. What this means to policymakers is that sustainability policies in the future need to be more than merely technical requirements and instead, construct enabling ecosystems via financial incentives, capacity building, and a coherent regulatory structure. Sustainability cells that are technology-specific, industry-academia ties and distributed knowledge centres can be instrumental in further adoption. At the same time, sustainability cannot be seen as a source of compliance burden on the part of industry leaders, but rather a strategic lever in innovation, risk reduction, and long-term competitive positioning. Overall, the paper has provided an empirically and holistic conceptualization of sustainable manufacturing in the emerging economies, which links the gap between theory and practice. It establishes a feasible roadmap that can be collectively assembled by industry, government and research agencies to develop an ecologically and economically viable manufacturing ecology.

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Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Jabbar Ahmad, Sanjeev Sarswat. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.