Industry 5.0 is based on three main pillars: the human-centric approach, sustainability and resilience. While the need to develop all three concepts is confirmed, the specific role of the human-centric approach in the development of sustainability is not explored enough. This research fills that gap by systematically investigating whether and how human needs and capabilities that are put at the center of industrial processes contribute to environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The contribution of this paper is to give a detailed analysis of the synergistic relationship between human-centricity and sustainable development. The findings show that human-machine collaboration, focused on human well-being, directly optimizes resource consumption and energy management (environmental sustainability); productivity and innovation through creativity (economic sustainability); and inclusive, safe, and ethical workplaces (social sustainability). For decision-makers, especially as regards the European Commission, the findings provide empirical arguments for the "Green deal" and Industry 5.0 agenda. The research implies that sustainability targets cannot be achieved by technological upgrades alone but require a workforce that is enabled by human-centric design. Furthermore, for the Community of Practice on Industry 5.0 (CoP I5.0), this study provides a validated framework for best practices showing that the "human" pillar is the vital driver for the "sustainability" pillar, changing the paradigm from trade-off to mutual reinforcement.
Žunjić et al. (Wed,) studied this question.