Industry is currently undergoing a revolution (called Revolution 4.0) related to the far-reaching integration of all production areas through the digitization and the creation of new communication channels. The Polish economy generated a GDP of USD 524.5 billion in 2017, of which small and medium enterprises generated about 50% of revenue and in which microenterprises accounted for the largest share in generating GDP; i.e., around 30.2%. The aim of the research is to determine the adaptation possibilities of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector to Industry 4.0 solutions. Pilot research was carried out in the Czestochowa Industrial District. Enterprises from the SME sector were asked to provide an information about the used technologies and to determine the level of their organization’s readiness for sustainable development through technological transformation. Financial resources as well as a lack of specialized support in obtaining new technologies were defined as problems as far as transformation is concerned. The solution of the diagnosed problem is the development of a platform aimed at integrating the potential of enterprises from the SME sector in order to undertake joint actions for sustainable development.

The concept of sustainable economic development takes into account economic, social and environmental aspects and strives to achieve balance between them. One of the basic areas where it is required to revalue the current views on sustainable development is energy. The growing public awareness of environmental protection forces changes in this industry. Despite the global nature of this problem, its solution is perceived differently in various regions of the world. The unquestionable leader in introducing the idea of sustainable development economy is the European Union, where the energy sector is of key importance for the effectiveness of this process. In order to assess the sustainable energy development of the European Union countries, studies were conducted based on 13 selected indicators characterizing this sector in terms of energy, economy and environment. In order to assess the specificity of the European Union countries, these indicators were additionally compared to the gross domestic product value and the number of inhabitants of individual countries. For these cases, multi-criteria analyses were carried out using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. It allowed the authors to rank the European Union countries in terms of their adaptation to a sustainable energy economy. Based on the determined values of indicators versus the gross domestic product and the number of inhabitants of the countries in question, these countries were also divided into similar groups with the use of the Kohonen artificial neural networks. These groups can pursue a common energy policy in the field of sustainable development. The aim of the research was to present a new approach to the assessment of sustainable energy development of the European Union countries. The extensive ratio analysis (13 indicators of the sustainable energy development), including the economic and demographic potential of individual countries, and the use of modern tools made it possible to acquire new knowledge in the field of sustainable energy development in the European Union countries. The results should be utilized for more effective sustainable energy development of the European Union countries.

Personalization, mobility, deliveries on the same day, and perhaps artificial intelligence—all of these elements will shape e-commerce in the near future. It is necessary to consider what features and standards online shops will have to meet in order to achieve success and to adapt to the changing preferences and requirements of the customer and their awareness of the perception of the environment through the prism of, for example, sustainable development. This means there is a need to specify a set of attributes that will influence the decision to use the services of a given e-shop. Despite all efforts, many online shops fail because they do not meet the expectations of customers. At the same time, meeting customer expectations is a big challenge for newly emerging e-shops. There are many studies on sustainable development in e-commerce, but there is no specific methodology for e-shop design, especially in the aspect of sustainable development. The authors propose a methodology based on Kano’s model and customer satisfaction to explore customers’ stated needs and unstated desires and to divided them into different groups with different impacts on customer satisfaction. In this paper, a case study on the attributes of customer satisfaction for a newly opened e-shop with organic products, which is to operate in the countries of Central Europe and takes into account selected assumptions of sustainable development, was presented. The research took the form of an original (authorial), universal survey that can be used in other similar research. A total of 1069 correctly completed surveys were taken into account for the analysis. Respondents indicated 16 must-have features for the e-shop in order to make customers benefit from its services and 11 one-dimensional features that will determine the level of customer satisfaction. Among the must-have features, there were those related to sustainable development, which indicates the environmental awareness of potential customers. The obtained results were given to the management of the research e-shop and were included during the design of its operation. After one to two years of e-shop operation, the results will be verified.

Rational decision-making requires assessing the advantages and disadvantages of options, including nonmarket effects (such as environmental effects). This also applies to strategic decision-making in the industrial sector to select alternative renewable energy source (RES). Often, a variety of criteria can be used to select a renewable energy source, whereas no ideal family of criteria for renewable energy selection for industry has been defined in the literature. It was concluded that there is a need to support the actions of industrial development based on RES, which will contribute significantly to overcoming the limitations of the negative effect on the environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. There is a clear need for a systematic and polyvalent multicriteria approach to planning in industry. Therefore, a method for choosing the preferred renewable source of electricity for industry has been developed, which considers key criteria of RES choice: Expert opinions, the costs of obtaining the energy and maintaining energy installations, and the volume of electricity from RES. This article offers a modified multicriteria selection method based on a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) and the technique for preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS), integrated with a qualitative price analysis (ACJ). This new method was tested through a case study on selecting a preferred RES in Polish industrial conditions. The research results indicate that the proposed method of choosing the preferred renewable energy source can be used in industrial enterprises that strive to meet their energy needs in accordance with the principles of social responsibility.

Post-mortem characterisation is a pivotal tool to trace back to the origin of structural failures in modern engineering analyses. This work compared both the crack propagation and rupture roughness profiles based on areal parameters for total fracture area. Notched and smooth samples made of weather-resistant structural steel (10HNAP), popular S355J2 structural steel and aluminium alloy AW-2017A under bending, torsion and combined bending–torsion were investigated. After the fatigue tests, fatigue fractures were measured with an optical profilometer, and the relevant surface parameters were critically compared. The results showed a great impact of the loading scenario on both the local profiles and total fracture areas. Both approaches (local and total fracture zones) for specimens with different geometries were investigated. For all specimens, measured texture parameters decreased in the following order: total area, rupture area and propagation area.

The location of smart sustainable city multi-floor manufacturing (CMFM) directly in the residential area of a megapolis reduces the delivery time of goods to consumers, has a favorable effect on urban traffic and the environment, and contributes to the rational use of land resources. An important factor in the transformation of a smart city is the development of CMFM clusters and their city logistics nodes (CLNs); the key elements of the logistics system of a megapolis. The primary goal of this study was to examine the role of the CLN4.0, as a lead sustainability and smart service provider of a CMFM cluster within the Industry 4.0 paradigm, as well as its value in the system of logistics facilities and networks of a megalopolis. This paper presents an innovative model of a CLN4.0 under supply uncertainty using a material flow analysis (MFA) methodology, which allows for specific parameters of throughput capacity within the CMFM cluster and the management of supply chains (SCs) under uncertainty. The model was verified based on a case study (7th scenario) for various frameworks of a multi-floor CLN4.0. The validity of using a group of virtual CLNs4.0 to support the balanced operation of these framework operations under uncertainty, due to an uneven production workload of CMFM clusters, is discussed. The results may be useful for the decision-making and planning processes associated with supply chain management (SCM) within CMFM clusters in a megapolis.