Green industry through industry 4.0 : expected and observed effects of digitalisation in industry for environmental sustainability Digitalisation in industry – also called “Industry 4.0” – is seen by numerous actors as an opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of the industrial sector. The scientific assessments of the effects of digitalisation in industry on environmental sustainability however are ambivalent. This cumulative dissertation uses three empirical studies to examine the expected and observed effects of digitalisation in industry on environmental sustainability. The aim of this dissertation is to identify opportunities and risks of digitalisation at different system levels and to derive options for action in politics and industry for a more sustainable design of digitalisation in industry. I use an interdisciplinary socio technical approach and look at selected countries of the Global South (Study 1) and the example of China (all studies). In the first study (section 2 joint work with Marcel Matthess) I use qualitative content analysis to examine digital and industrial policies from seven different countries in Africa and Asia for expectations regarding the impact of digitalisation on sustainability and compare these with the potentials of digitalisation for sustainability in the respective country contexts. [...]