Modeling the influence of the energy sources and consumption on the resulting ecological footprint

Abstract

The ecological footprint analysis is an important part of sustainability, as it allows to calculate the resources used for the needs of a country and its residents, and to compare it to the biocapacity of the same country. Multiple factors can affect the level of the ecological footprint, such as energy production, pollutants’ emissions, transportation, industrial production and similar. The logistics processes of production and transportation have a major impact on the ecological footprint because of their environmental impact, especially due to higher consumption of energy resources and, consequently, higher carbon emissions. This paper introduces a novel approach of ecological footprint analysis in terms of energy efficiency, from the aspect of the production 4.0 and including the logistic process. The analysis of obtained data is facilitated by using the multiple linear regression approach. The aim of the analysis is to create a prediction model based on the values of specific types of energy inside the concept of Industry 4.0, aiming to decrease the ecological footprint of analyzed economies.