Structuring and Measuring Environmental Sustainability in the Steel Sector: A Single Case Study

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors:

You definitely have a good job on your hands in terms of content, but there are some formal concerns that must necessarily be addressed.

The first is about the scope. You deal with sustainability, industry 4.0, and the steel industry. I think they are two different themes and that they suggest two articles, not a single one. The second is that the current version of your article aims for 55 pages, which is absolutely exaggerated for a scientific article (the expectation is 20-25 pages). Finally, you have repeated information in more than one table, which overloads your text and makes it difficult to follow.

My suggestion may seem, at a first glance, somehow radical, but I think it is reasonable: to split the article in two. The first would deal with sustainability in the steel industry: a review of sustainability concerns in steelmaking plants (I saw you are experts in such plants) and a case study with relative respondents. The second would deal with industry 4.0 contributions to corporate sustainability: also a review and a case study on the issue. You can use the entire amount of qualitative data you have already gathered; it is just a matter of how to present them.

If you accept the suggestion, I don't think it is necessary to withdraw the article but to resubmit it with the first scope. In the attachment, you will find more specific suggestions for improvements that are mandatory to your next submission.

Best regards

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear all, thank you for your review.

Here my reply:

a) We shortened titles

b) We revised the references according the template given and we put some more references on industrial symbiosis and from high category papers

c) we split the paper into two papers, and we would like to upload the paper on sustainability and indicators

d) we revised tables and the narratives of the findings

e) we corrected the definition of steel plants into steel mill

f) We corrected CO2 grammar 

g) we removed figures, since from splitting into two papers they were no more pertinent

h) we improved discussion and conclusion with further future research insights and limitations

e) we corrected the definition

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments:This article explores the relationship between Industry 4.0, digitalization and carbon neutrality, and uses the actual case studies of Feralpi in Italy and Germany to list some of the characteristics and trends towards carbon neutrality in the current operation .

Through detailed interview records and collation, the author shows readers the current business strategies adopted by different industries to face the future zero-carbon market, reflecting that the future consumer market must be a low-carbon market that needs more "green certification".

Suggestions:Although this article is very much in line with the policy guidelines of the current environmental change, it is too much to be written in this article(50 pages), and it is more of a report than an article. Therefore, I think the author should reduce the narrative part of some of the interview content and make the content of the article more concise.

Articles that are too long will hide the core content of the article, and I hope that the author can delete part of the content and highlight the core point

There are many short paragraphs of expert opinions in the article, I hope that these short paragraphs can be summarized and not too scattered

 

Author Response

Dear all,

a) We shorten our article, as suggested

b) We improved the narrative overall, included experts point of view

c) We improved methodology of case study and presentation of hypotheses

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Ok