Holistic Framework to Data-Driven Sustainability Assessment

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper proposes a generally applicable framework for sustainability assessment. Their main concept is to provide a more exact approach for the assessment by integrating data-driven solutions.

The review section provides a nice summary of recent methods and a good foundation for the discussion of the main steps of the proposed data-driven approach. The paper can be a good source for researchers involved in the field.

The present version of the paper is well-written. Still, some corrections and amendments should be made to improve its quality.

·         Please check Elkingston’s citations in lines 45 and 81. They seem to be in conflict (and 29 years could be more appropriate).

·         Please give a short explanation for the 38 other literature sources not covered in the review section (e.g. after line 79).

·         Regarding the relationships between different metrics could you add a brief explanation (1-2 sentences) to Figure 5.

·         References of figures seem to be mixed up. Please check and correct (lines 376, 588, 599).

·         Table 1 is a very useful piece of the paper. Could you extend the column Scope with a few words about the actual application area in parenthesis (if it is applicable)?

·         Left aligning in the text columns could help readability (Tables 1 and 2).

·         Using multiple numbered references together could be more transparent if space were inserted before comma (Table 2).

·         Your mixed form of citing the references is very disturbing. Many sources are cited just by numbers while others by author-year. The list of references in your paper does not support the later form of citing references. It is recommended to harmonize the citation (probably the numerical citations match to this paper better).

·         Including a list of acronyms used in the paper could greatly help the reader.

·         Although the language and wording are fairly good a thorough grammar check and minor corrections could beneficial.

 

 

Author Response

Dear Editorial Board,

Please find enclosed the revision 1 of the original manuscript “Holistic framework to data-driven sustainability assessment” by Paulo Peças, Lenin John, Inês Ribeiro, A.J. Baptista, Sara M. Pinto,  Rui Dias, Juan Henriques,Marco Estrela, André Pilastri, Fernando Cunha, submitted to the Special Issue “Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Production Management" of the Sustainability Journal.

The authors would like to thank the valuable contribution of the reviewers. All the reviewers’ comments were considered, and the manuscript was largely improved and the main modifications are highlighted in yellow. The answers to the reviewers is sent in a separated file.

All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript.

We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

on behalf of the authors,

 

Paulo Peças*

 

 

*correspondent author

IDMEC , Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av.Rovisco Pais,1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal; Email: [email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors, you are addressing an urgent matter. Your contribution do have potential, but I suggest that you do some further work before publication, see my appended comments.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Editorial Board,

Please find enclosed the revision 1 of the original manuscript “Holistic framework to data-driven sustainability assessment” by Paulo Peças, Lenin John, Inês Ribeiro, A.J. Baptista, Sara M. Pinto,  Rui Dias, Juan Henriques,Marco Estrela, André Pilastri, Fernando Cunha, submitted to the Special Issue “Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Production Management" of the Sustainability Journal.

The authors would like to thank the valuable contribution of the reviewers. All the reviewers’ comments were considered, and the manuscript was largely improved and the main modifications are highlighted in yellow. The answers to the reviewers is sent in a separated file.

All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript.

We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

on behalf of the authors,

 

Paulo Peças*

 

 

*correspondent author

IDMEC , Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av.Rovisco Pais,1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal; Email: [email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a very interesting paper on the issues of evaluating sustainable development in companies based on data.

The paper does not take into account the relationship between sustainable development and the idea of Industry 5.0. The definition of industry 5.0 is based directly on 3 pillars: human orientation, sustainable development, resilience to crises. 

If possible (and if such data is available), it is very interesting to present an example (case study) of an organization or company's assessment in terms of sustainable development in accordance with the 5-stage guide developed and presented in the paper.

Author Response

Dear Editorial Board,

Please find enclosed the revision 1 of the original manuscript “Holistic framework to data-driven sustainability assessment” by Paulo Peças, Lenin John, Inês Ribeiro, A.J. Baptista, Sara M. Pinto,  Rui Dias, Juan Henriques,Marco Estrela, André Pilastri, Fernando Cunha, submitted to the Special Issue “Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Production Management" of the Sustainability Journal.

The authors would like to thank the valuable contribution of the reviewers. All the reviewers’ comments were considered, and the manuscript was largely improved and the main modifications are highlighted in yellow. The answers to the reviewers is sent in a separated file.

All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript.

We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

on behalf of the authors,

 

Paulo Peças*

 

 

*correspondent author

IDMEC , Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av.Rovisco Pais,1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal; Email: [email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors, thank you for the revised and partly improved version of the paper. Sine my main issues still remains, the lack of proper method section, and a discussion my response is still major revision. If this should be considered a scientific study enough information is needed to secure the validity and reliability.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Editorial Board,

Please find enclosed the revision 2 of the original manuscript “Holistic framework to data-driven sustainability assessment” by Paulo Peças, Lenin John, Inês Ribeiro, A.J. Baptista, Sara M. Pinto,  Rui Dias, Juan Henriques,Marco Estrela, André Pilastri, Fernando Cunha, submitted to the Special Issue “Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Production Management" of the Sustainability Journal.

The authors would like to thank the valuable contribution of the reviewer. All the reviewer’ comments were considered, and the manuscript was largely improved and the main modifications are highlighted in yellow. The answer to the reviewers is sent in a separated file.

All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript.

We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.

 

Sincerely yours,

on behalf of the authors,

Paulo Peças*

*correspondent author

IDMEC , Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av.Rovisco Pais,1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal; Email: [email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for the improved version. This would be OK for publishing in Sustainability.

I have only one concern, the second sentence in the introduction is incomplete. I suggest the following:

"Due to dwindling non-renewable resources, tougher environmental and occupational safety requirements, and rising customer desire for ecologically friendly products, achieving sustainability in industrial operations has..."

Through this you remove the repetition of the phrase "in this sense" and you get a full sentence.

Author Response

Dear Editorial Board,

Please find enclosed revision 3 of the original manuscript “Holistic framework to data-driven sustainability assessment” by Paulo Peças, Lenin John, Inês Ribeiro, A.J. Baptista, Sara M. Pinto, Rui Dias, Juan Henriques, Marco Estrela, André Pilastri, Fernando Cunha, submitted to the Special Issue “Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Production Management" of the Sustainability Journal.

The authors would like to thank the valuable contribution of the reviewer 2.

Accordingly, with what was suggested by Reviewer 2, the sentence in the section Introduction (as highlighted in yellow in the document):

“Due to dwindling non-renewable resources, tougher environmental and occupational safety requirements, and rising customer desire for ecologically friendly products. In this sense, achieving sustainability in industrial operations has been identified as a crucial necessity.”

was changed to:

"Due to dwindling non-renewable resources, tougher environmental and occupational safety requirements, and rising customer desire for ecologically friendly products, achieving sustainability in industrial operations has been identified as a crucial necessity."

The last suggestion on track-changes were all accepted.

All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript.

We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.

 

Sincerely yours,

on behalf of the authors,

Paulo Peças*

*correspondent author

IDMEC , Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av.Rovisco Pais,1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal; Email: [email protected]