# Industrial Metaverse: A Comprehensive Review, Environmental Impact, and Challenges  
Computer Science, University of Limpopo, Polokwane 0727, South Africa; [EMAIL_ADDRESS].  
that blends both the physical and virtual realms to the point that data exchange and interactions become fluid and affect each other [1]. The growing Metaverse paradigm is divided into three distinct industries, including the Consumer Metaverse (CM) for leisure and retail, the Industrial Metaverse (IM), which blends the physical and digital worlds, and the Enterprise Metaverse (EM) for virtual workspaces and office collaboration [2]. One practical application of the IM can be the manufacturing industry [3].  
The IM is the application and development of the Metaverse in the industrial field, encompassing the entire process of industrial product development, production, service, and application [4]. According to [5], the IM is an important application area within the Metaverse. It is a new industrial system, economy, and model serving the industrial economy based on core infrastructure and the application concepts of the Metaverse. The IM can achieve holographic display and cross-time-space aggregation of all factors, value chains, and industry chains in virtual worlds. It also incorporates new social and economic models. Through means such as human-machine interaction and digital identities, it collaboratively carries out industrial production and business activities to promote industrial transformation--upgrading and innovative development.  
The IM is characterized in [6] as persistent, real time, economic, interoperable, featuring co-creation and -construction, and purposeful. The ability to create lasting, digital representations linked to elements of the real world is what distinguishes the IM [7]. In [8], the IM is portrayed as a persistent 3D platform that is used throughout a value chain, an organization, and the life cycle of a product. It functions as a digital representation of the whole organization in its operational setting. It combines users, machines, materials, and processes in a bidirectional flow between the physical and virtual worlds because of its combinatory nature. The IM is also characterized as real time, which means it is synchronized at any time and kept in real time, which allows everyone to participate in the experiences in real time. Furthermore, the IM has the feature of a fully functional economy, meaning both individuals and enterprises can create, own, and invest in digital assets and work or invest in the IM, and users will obtain the expected income and value. Another characteristic of the IM is that of interoperability, depicting unprecedented interconnection characteristics, including information interoperability, data interoperability, and value interoperability.  
There is no data island in the IM. An isolated system is like a closed country, which gradually falls behind and loses its status and eventually cannot exist in the IM. Furthermore, co-creation and co-construction is a feature that allows members to collaboratively create the applications and content of the IM platform, sharing in the rewards in the end. Finally, the IM can also be characterized as purposeful, as it promotes the efficient development of the real industry, and is committed to building a brand-new production and service system that encompasses the whole value chain and industrial chain. The IM has enormous potential to change many different industries. This technology is transforming the way enterprise's operate, from fostering better teamwork and communication in industrial settings to opening up new avenues for training and simulation [9].