From firms and territories to global policies, the PLOTTI project explores how technological innovation and environmental transition can be integrated within Italy’s manufacturing systems.
The transition towards environmental sustainability is increasingly intertwined with digital innovation, shaping what is often referred to as the Twin Transition: a dual transformation in which digital technologies and green objectives influence and reinforce one another. This shift is not simply about adopting new technologies or reducing environmental impact. Rather, it involves rethinking production models, territorial strategies and public policies in an integrated way.
At the firm level (micro), the Twin Transition takes shape through everyday decisions on investment and innovation. Many organisations are investing in advanced digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to support green innovation and improve the efficiency of resource use. Yet the path is not without obstacles. Managerial resistance, strategic uncertainty and financial constraints continue to slow progress, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises. This raises important questions about the factors that enable - or hinder - the development and adoption of digital and environmental innovations, and about how these strategies interact within internal organisational processes.
Territories play an equally crucial role. Local ecosystems with strong capabilities in both digital technologies and environmental innovation tend to be better positioned to embrace the Twin Transition, while disparities between urban and rural areas can lead to diverging development trajectories. In this context, alignment among different actors - businesses, institutions and research organisations - around shared objectives, together with effective governance models, becomes essential to support sustainable innovation pathways across territories.
It is within this context that the PRIN-PNRR–funded project Place Leaders Of Twin Transition in the Italian local manufacturing systems (PLOTTI) was developed. The project focuses on analysing Italian manufacturing territories that are emerging as “local leaders” in the Twin Transition.
The project recently concluded with a final workshop held at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Trento and involved a research team led by the Università di Trento, together with the Università di Milano-Bicocca and the Politecnico di Milano, in particular its Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering.
The aim of the project was to develop metrics capable of representing the Twin Transition from a systemic perspective, integrating digital, environmental and digital-enabled sustainability dimensions. Through a multidisciplinary and multi-level approach, the research team collected and harmonised quantitative and qualitative data from a wide range of sources. This work resulted in analytical tools and dashboards designed to map the adoption of digital technologies, the implementation of environmental practices and access to funding dedicated to the transition.
Among the main challenges faced were the complexity of collecting and integrating territorial and firm-level data, as well as the difficulty of developing reliable indicators to measure the level of territorial “maturity” in relation to the two transitions. Despite these challenges, the analysis provides several valuable insights.
At the provincial level, a strong concentration of funding for the environmental transition emerges, while resources aimed at digitalisation appear to be distributed more evenly across the country.
At the firm level, however, a different pattern can be observed: the communication of progress in the two transitions remains limited, particularly with regard to environmental initiatives. An analysis of the websites of companies receiving public funding reveals a widespread lack of visibility around the green practices they have adopted. Moreover, the alignment between digital and environmental dimensions appears only partial, suggesting that transformation pathways are not always fully integrated.
Another significant aspect concerns supply chain relationships. The data show that both the likelihood of investing in sustainability and the intensity of green practices increase with firms’ exposure to supply chains, highlighting the importance of relational dynamics in transition processes.
The project also opens the way for further research at the macro level, where policymakers are increasingly confronted with the environmental and social implications of digital infrastructures, which are becoming ever more energy-intensive, particularly those required for artificial intelligence. Global and national initiatives - from the European Green Deal to Africa–EU Green Energy programmes, from the Global Gateway strategies for Africa and Latin America to climate transition plans in China and Australia - demonstrate a growing commitment to more sustainable development models. At the same time, the effectiveness of these policies varies across countries and regions.
Understanding how global strategies interact with local specificities is therefore essential to avoid misalignment and maximise the impact of policy interventions.
Overall, PLOTTI confirms that the Twin Transition cannot be addressed in a fragmented way. Integrating digital, environmental and social transformation requires coordination among firms, territories and policymakers. The real challenge in the coming years will be precisely this: building a multi-level alignment capable of leveraging the specific strengths of local contexts while supporting innovation pathways that respond to the economic, social and environmental needs of the future.
For more details, visit the PLOTTI project website clicking here.