给我总结一下这个论文，总结字数在两百字左右：Abstract
Digitalization and sustainability are the drivers of the global development 
of the future that have slowly conquered the agendas of governments and orga￾nizations on every continent. In this context, the pandemic has proved to be a 
powerful technological accelerator, helping to give a greater boost to these drivers, 
“guiding” leading the productive and economic sector throughout the world. 
Today the sustainability and digitalization represent the indispensable prerequi￾sites to add economic, environmental, and social sovereignty. In fact, the scenario 
that the Coronavirus is leaving us foreshadows the need not to be satisfied with 
reaching targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but to imagine “global” 
governance for the development of business models based on the new digital 
frontiers. Thus, what are the challenges for achieving the paradigms of sustain￾ability and digitization in this new era? And what are the tools for a “digicircular” 
transformation? The aim of this chapter is to investigate these issues. To this end, 
it should be noted that, in this chapter, our aim is not to present an analysis of 
literature in the classical sense but rather political and social reflections.
Keywords: digitalization, sustainability, business, covid, environment, society, 
economy
1. Introduction
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of responsible use of resources 
in all sectors. The production sector is no exception. COVID-19 has given a push 
to transfer the circular paradigm from the economy to politics, precisely because 
the pandemic has planetary extension and repercussions. The key principle of the 
circular economy is the adaptation of economic cycles to natural cycles. A new 
paradigm is proposed as an innovative and advanced solution to combine growth 
in consumption and demand for goods with environmental sustainability [1]. 
This means rethinking the way in which we use matter and energy from design to 
production, from consumption to the management of the so-called “waste”. In this 
context, with reference to the concept of waste, it would be desirable to speak of 
a “waste resource”, thus overturning the very meaning of the term [2]. Today, it 
is quite clear that circular solutions will not be able to spread without the support 
1
Product Life Cycle - Opportunities for Digital and Sustainable Transformation
of digital technologies and infrastructures, within an extremely broad reference 
perimeter: transport, ports, digital infrastructures, energy, and electricity networks 
[3]. Digital transformation and sustainability should provide for interaction and 
integration between new physical and digital technologies or artificial intelligence, 
internet of things, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, both on the network 
side and on the digitalization of processes [4]. Positive repercussions of the sustain￾able transition on the economy are realistically achievable only on the condition 
of having facilities capable of allowing the exchange of resource flows through 
transcontinental infrastructures. A scenario that can only be obtained under the 
condition of a colossal exchange of information (big data) that will make it possible 
to meet the needs and demand for the well-being of a world population which, 
from 1970 to 2017, has increased by 2 times and world consumption of materials 
increased by 4 times with all the consequent negative effects in terms, for example, 
of waste production [5]. However, there has been talking of digitalization of infra￾structures since the end of the nineties, but today we are quite far from the mini￾mum goal of digitizing the backbones and essential resources of our planet [6]. The 
question is: how to give a metric, a dimension, a “measurability” of the quantities 
that can lead us to sustainability? Today, technology could help achieve this goal; 
for example, thanks to the immense computing capabilities of a quantum computer 
(quantum computing from IBM and Google are already available today for various 
simulations) or the evolution of deep learning. But all this may only be possible if 
the data is available. The key to building economic and social resilience, therefore, 
lies in digitization, which is the dominant element around which the collective 
future takes shape [7]. Thus, what are the challenges for achieving the paradigms of 
sustainability and digitization in this new era? And what are the tools for a “digicir￾cular” transformation? The aim of this chapter is to investigate these issues. To this 
end, it should be noted that, in this chapter, our aim is not to present an analysis of 
literature in the classical sense but rather political and social reflections.
The rest of the chapter is organized as follows: Section 2 intends to analyze the 
link between sustainability, digitalization from a product life cycle perspective; 
Section 3 outlines how to design a “digicircular” future; Section 4 tries to summa￾rize some challenges for digitalization and sustainability. Finally, in Section 5 the 
main conclusions of the study are outlined.
2. Sustainable sovereignty: condition for digital sovereignty
Digitization and sustainability are among the most discussed topics in recent 
years and their simultaneous implementation will constitute the challenge and 
opportunity for the near future [8]. It is therefore essential to enhance the evolution 
over time of the links between these two and to understand if there are technologies 
that favor the creation of circular economies and, if so, what they are. As known the 
main technologies are: internet of things, cloud computing, augmented reality with 
artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, horizontal and vertical integration, 
cybersecurity, autonomous robots, simulation/digital twin, and big data analytics 
[9]. From our point of view, it is interesting to analyze the link between sustainabil￾ity, digitalization/technologies from a product life cycle perspective [10]. Thus, an 
investigation on Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed 
literature has been carried out in this research. The database was queried using the 
Boolean operators AND and OR as the following string shows: (TITLE-ABS-KEY 
(sustainability) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (digitalization) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (inter￾net AND of AND things) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (cloud AND computing) OR TITLE￾ABS-KEY (artificial AND intelligence) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (augmented AND 
2
Product Lifecycle: Social and Political Reflections from the Digital and Sustainable Perspectives
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100938
reality) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (additive AND manufacturing) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY 
(horizontal AND vertical AND integration) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (cybersecurity) 
OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (robot) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (simulation) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY 
(big AND data) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (product AND life AND cycle)). In detail, all 
the articles that had the string in the title, in the abstract, and in the keywords were 
selected. The search returned 384 documents. The 384 papers were analyzed not 
with the intent of developing a detailed literature review. Rather, the purpose of this 
investigation was to identify challenges and future trends with respect to two aspects, 
the most used keywords, and publication sources. But before analyzing the above 
features it is remarkable to note the distribution of documents over time. Documents 
are distributed from 1999 to 2021 (in progress), but obviously only in the last 5 years 
has there been an increase in the number of publications as shown in Figure 1.
To underestimate the interconnections and trends relating to the concepts of 
sustainability and digitization from a product life cycle perspective, has been used 
VOS viewer software [11]. In particular, co-occurrence analysis and bibliographic 
coupling were performed. Analysis of keyword co-occurrence is the bibliometric 
method used to map the research field. The process of creating keyword networks 
and clustering keywords is aimed at identifying the main research fields in the area 
of technologies (i.e., internet of things, big data analytics and, recently, also addi￾tive manufacturing) and environmental sustainability (see Figure 2).
In detail, it emerged that Internet of Things technologies are mainly used to extend 
the life cycle of the product but they prove to be a good solution also for the manage￾ment of waste collection and recovery operations in the supply chain [12–14]. While, 
Big Data Analytics technologies are useful to use resources efficiently, to collect or 
manage data relating to the life cycle of products, and to develop new business models 
in a circular perspective. Artificial Intelligence can contribute to the implementation 
of a sustainable process in accelerating the development of products, components, 
and the choice of sustainable materials through assisted design processes that allow 
rapid prototyping and testing. It also favors the implementation of circular business 
models [15, 16]. Additive Manufacturing can incentivize sustainability thanks to 
the support it offers in terms of product life cycle management, recycling processes, 
and digitalization of production. In other words, a factory should be designed to be 
completely connected: from machinery to integrated processes, which will be com￾bined with Artificial Intelligence algorithms [17, 18]. Figure 3 shows a bibliographic 
Figure 1.
Documents by years (source Scopus).
3
Product Life Cycle - Opportunities for Digital and Sustainable Transformation
Figure 2.
Co-occurrence analysis.
Figure 3.
Bibliographic coupling.
coupling analysis considering the sources. It emerges that the Journal of Cleaner 
Production is one of the most attractive scientific references for these issues. The result 
is not surprising because in the scientific community the journal is recognized as one 
of the best, interdisciplinary journals in which scientific works are encouraged that 
combine three key elements: reduction, environmental, and sustainability.
The analysis shows that there will be no emerging technology on the others, 
but an integration of technologies. A hybridization of digital technologies that will 
favor the transition towards sustainable production in view of product life cycle 
management is needed [1, 19, 20].
4
Product Lifecycle: Social and Political Reflections from the Digital and Sustainable Perspectives
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100938
3. Designing a “digicircular” future
It is clear that digitization can be an opportunity to accelerate the sustain￾ability processes connected to digitalization. The point now is to understand 
how to move from a qualitative to a quantitative approach [21]. The problem is 
not entirely secondary, it is indeed extremely important. In fact, many organiza￾tions and companies struggle to understand what is circular from what is not. A 
paradigm shift is needed. A new mindset to redesign the model for the future, 
adopting the circular economy model on a national and international scale. From 
this perspective, digital technologies represent an opportunity to identify new 
business models [22]. The combination of technologies helps to evolve businesses 
into a virtuous circle of improvement. At the same time, digital technologies help 
not to “make mistakes”. Just think of the potential of digital twins that allow us to 
simulate real systems in virtual environments by comparing multiple scenarios, 
optimizing resources, time, and costs. However, we must be clear that there is no 
single model valid for all organizations and companies [23]. It is essential to know 
the market in order to have all the information and data necessary to define the 
most suitable business model. Today a large amount of data available is lacking the 
right information useful for making decisions and making the system as a whole 
predictive. However, moving to a circular economy model is a complex process 
that requires the use of appropriate measurement and improvement tools. The 
standardization processes launched for some years by the UNI and ISO commis￾sions (UNI/CT 057 Commission and ISO/TC 323—Circular economy) provide a 
valid contribution in starting to speak the same common language. It is clear that 
methods and tools are needed to define the product and manage its evolution from 
the sustainability perspective. In this regard, it is essential to monitor business 
processes by sharing information between the internal functions with all the 
stakeholders (designers, suppliers, distributors, customers) [24]. Thus, quantify￾ing sustainability in the perspective of product life cycle represent a key factor as 
shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Global challenges in terms of enabling factors and the value chain.
5
Product Life Cycle - Opportunities for Digital and Sustainable Transformation
4. Challenges for digitalization and sustainability
The challenges of digitization and sustainability require an integrated approach 
to legislative activity and coordination and cooperation activities worldwide. 
In this sense, it is also necessary to promote new initiatives to regulate artificial 
intelligence, among others, considered as one of the main technologies useful 
for the development of circular models, with particular attention to the ethical 
implications deriving from the use of algorithms. Another aspect to be considered 
among the challenges for the circular economy is the development of global digital 
platforms as a tool for a virtuous use of resources capable of intercepting all the 
stakeholders in the supply chain from a global “resources” market perspective 
[25]. In this way it will also be possible to optimize costs and waste at the national 
and international level, in compliance with recognized global standards as well as 
customized solutions, resulting from applications of global scientific instruments. 
The real challenge is that everyone in their area (production, suppliers, and custom￾ers) should contribute to the “system”, generating value downstream and upstream 
to enable the factors for the transition and thus achieve sustainable sovereignty. In 
fact, a globalized supply chain designed to use fewer materials is more resilient. In 
this way, a collaborative approach is adopted both with companies that treat waste 
and with suppliers of raw materials, to achieve win-win models. Producing what is 
needed when needed (e.g., the use of 3D printers, with the consequent decrease in 
the movement of materials and goods and an increase in dematerialization), think￾ing in terms of services and not just products, are central factors and fundamental 
assumptions in a vision of a globalized and integrated supply chain [26]. Obviously, 
in this perspective, digitization along the value chain represents an essential ele￾ment for the control, planning, and forecasting of business activities that influence 
competitive factors from a circular economy perspective. The information gener￾ated by digital technologies supports the transition to a circular economy/sustain￾ability through the identification of business opportunities and the enhancement of 
resources with a view to benefits and costs. A holistic vision of the product presup￾poses strategic management of data, information, processes, and resources relating 
to each phase, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Enabling factors of Sustainable Soverignty.
6
Product Lifecycle: Social and Political Reflections from the Digital and Sustainable Perspectives
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100938
In other words, “digicircular actions” horizon can be summarized as follows: (1) 
Create a taxonomy for the international circular economy; (2) Integrate environmental, social, and economic policies; (3) Promote standards and certifications; (4) 
Use transparent tools (LCA, EPD, …) and (5) Strengthen measures for the development of the bioeconomy.
5. Conclusions
Digital and Sustainable are among the most discussed topics in recent years and 
their simultaneous implementation will be a challenge and opportunity for the 
near future. Digital transitions should help redraw the boundaries of our world in a 
more “sustainable” way. Of course, technology itself does not mobilize itself towards 
transformations of sustainability, since a strong political will is needed to create 
pathways capable of engaging these perspectives. Furthermore, digital technologies are not innocent in the progressive worsening of the state of our planet and 
the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, there is also a topic related to 
the impact of digital technologies. The perception of the relationship between risk 
and benefit remains a complicated aspect to assess. However, in the long term, the 
benefits will outweigh the risks, as it is easy to imagine if the use of technologies is 
accompanied by responsible use. In conclusion, the present study underlines the 
link between sustainability and digitalization and make people understand that 
correct management of the life cycle requires innovation. Technologies, in fact, are 
able to optimize the use of resources, reducing waste, simplifying processes, and 
making the use of infrastructures sustainable. It is, therefore, necessary to connect 
these two issues to achieve what will be the smart sustainable factories capable of 
bringing a triple economic, environmental and social advantage.
Conflict of