The Smart Community: Strategy Layers for a New Sustainable Continental Framework

Abstract

The topic investigated in this article is a comparison, contrast, and integration effort of European strategies for sustainable development with the evolving market initiatives that are beginning to fuel the fourth industrial revolution. Several regulatory initiatives from continental bodies come into effect to radically change access to finances for business development, based on sustainability goals, and an analysis of the legislation and trends becomes essential for an effective pivot tactic in the face of adversity, as well as change management policies to pre-emptively adapt and perform. The general research question is “what the strategic tools are best employed to overcome the hurdles laid forth by the drastic changes legally required for a sustainable future?” The research methods include a quantitative analysis of norms, regulations, and legislation, including strategic initiatives circulated in the European Union governmental bodies, integrated with qualitative research of the literature. The study finds and draws synergies between national strategies that have recently been drafted or are currently evolving with sustainability-centric initiatives such as the hydrogen initiative, the nuclear initiative, the natural gas initiative, the renewables initiative, the synthetics, and biomass initiative, the ESG initiative, the digital initiative. The findings are to contribute to the business administration field by providing an appropriate image of the organizational design model in the sustainability era, and a strategy framework to build the optimum long-term vision founded on continental regulatory initiatives that have come into effect.

1. Introduction

The several palpable technological and conceptual evolutions in the true sustainable human habitat, with nature, increased comfort for inhabitants, with redundant workloads and processes lost to automation and digitalization at the core, for a prolonged and more fulfilling livelihood, must all be approached individually and probed for their relevance, and those that stand the test of scientific consensus must become part of a unified theory of the smart community.

The community brand [1] will be carried beyond the city, country, or continental unions, by power of positive example, and stand on its own as a template for horizontal implementation, with each administration improving the model based on the previous experiences and developing a newer, better model while inviting the corporate environment to participate on a stable platform that they can thrive in. It is imperative that any strategy is not treated as a single, one-time effort, and the strategic guidance be amended periodically to reflect new requirements based on innovative technologies or legal amendments. Considering that European legal requirements are prohibitive in acquiring qualitative consultancy packages [2], statal entities might be deterred from building accurate strategies and regulatory frameworks for sustainable development precisely by the continental regulatory bodies that require them. With such incipient blockages, it is foreseeable that sustainability criteria for public procurement will be second to cost-efficiency. Moreover, the first and foremost foreseeable issue will be the acquisition of an effective–qualitative consultancy package to sketch the initial strategies, meant to influence investments in sustainable development.

Starting from the need for a unified theory, we will restrict the research to the European Union, where burdening bureaucracy is a constraining factor to the evolution of the proposed unified theory, mainly due to a heavy apparatus of functionaries looking to fulfil needs and demands from their own states rather than cooperating for a stronger union [3,4]. The argument is that the E.U. has managed to pioneer the world with a state-of-the-art Emissions Trading System that has no equal in efficiency precisely due to the bureaucratic system, and is academically valid, adding that all member states have participated with knowledge and expertise to develop a rigorous mechanism.

Therefore, we will assume that the E.U. system can provide a valuable framework for the smart community model and base the research on present-day initiatives that the unified theory can be built on. This scientific effort will deliver a quantitative correlation or causation between legislation, normative, and strategic initiatives emitted by the European Union as guides for the smart community unified theory. Qualitative research of literature will build the foundation for a smart community unified theory.

The unified theory is by no means a definitive template to be applied “as is”, but it is meant to be a working model for the current stage of sustainable development, an organizational design model based on strategic action, compiled with the instruments at hand as they are emitted by the continental regulatory institutions.

The research aims to focus on infrastructure nodes as conceptual habitats for the production, assembly, sale, distribution, and transportation of critical components for sustainable supply chains, operations, and implementation. Infrastructure nodes are at the centre of enterprise affairs, and the first step towards building a strategy with controllable elements in mind. Analysing the bargaining power of suppliers [5] is the first step in developing a business strategy, and while all suppliers of global corporations might be impossible to assess, at this stage, in a study that aims to result in concrete methods, the supply chain is prioritized as next in line to suppliers and indeed possible to analyse and monitor for conformity with the sustainability requirements.

Infrastructure nodes benefit from adjacent strategies built for long-term development that overlay each other and begin to generate an image of the organization. The Pan-European Corridor (General Masterplan for Transportation), for example, has specific information regarding infrastructure node development [6], with key strategic inputs that are relevant for this research effort, as they overlay with interest for green hydrogen production, transportation, and use. This issue is clearly visible in the National Strategies for Hydrogen that have been emitted by E.U. member states. Moreover, the two former regulatory efforts overlay on the National Intelligent Transportation Systems Strategies of member states that digitally manage the infrastructure node for optimum efficiency.

Considering all these regulatory initiatives are the foundation of new organizational design models by means of strategy formulation, the article is to deliver relevant information regarding such legal initiatives and provide an interpretation of the best possible outcome for the social, public, and economical ecosystems to use for their own sustainable development plans.

The main motivation for writing this article is to propose a unified theory for the development of a smart and sustainable human habitat, specifically in the context of the European Union. The authors argue that current technological and conceptual evolutions in sustainable living must be evaluated individually and that those that pass scientific consensus should be incorporated into the theory. The author also notes that the community brand will be carried beyond the city, country, or continental unions, by power of positive example, and stand on its own as a template for horizontal implementation.

2. Materials and Methods

After reviewing the research outlined in Sustainability (issues 2019–2022), Energies (issues 2019–2022), Sustainable Cities and Society (issues 2019–2022) and Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments (issues 2019–2022), one can conclude that much of the focus is placed on transportation systems running on alternative fuels in general and little focus is placed on those running on hydrogen alone.

Cremades and Canals [7] researched the future of mobility and provided ten scenarios, concluding that battery-based vehicles will not be the choice of the century. Furthermore, Sterlepper et al. [8] focused on hydrogen internal combustion engines, emphasising that the hydrogen combustion engine will be capable of achieving zero-impact tailpipe emissions, an important statement to be taken into consideration when building policies that are aiming to contribute to the European Green Deal.

Additionally, Candelaresi et al. [9] presented an energy analysis combined with a comparative environmental life cycle assessment aiming to help policy-makers implement well-supported strategies of the use of hydrogen in road transport. Moreover, Wang and Tang [10] systematically analysed previously published papers to evaluate the environmental efficiency of new energy vehicles, concluding that electric vehicles pollute more than actually estimated—a conclusion we also reached in one of our previous studies [11].

Similarly, Orsi [12] started his research on the sustainability of electric vehicles asking, “What about their impacts on land use?”. The answer was clearly stated: “energy production may have the largest implications for land use”. The author focused on operating costs, charging requirements, and energy production.

Li et al. [13], after a comprehensive analysis of the hydrogen fuel infrastructure investments, presented the risk of ignoring the potential interaction between the adoption process and the speed with which the required transportation infrastructure will become available. The authors emphasised the importance of the hydrogen vehicles and the development of corresponding infrastructure.

For practitioners and leaders of municipalities, Schachtner [14] proposed stable efficiency measures and visionary holisticness of the adoption capability of ambiguous requirements in the public sector. He also designed and architected some of the most important elements of the digital strategies of municipalities as described in the digital initiative in the Results section of the current article. Additionally, Harizaj and Ndreu [15] provided a scenario of living in “Smart Cities and Green World”.

The reviewed articles helped drawing the whole picture of what are the current trends in research into the field of transport system fuels with a particular focus on hydrogen. Nevertheless, the cited authors are concerned about greenhouse gases, pollution, and cities’ environments along with the positive impact of hydrogen as an alternative fuel.

Quantitative correlation or causation between legislation, normative and strategic initiatives compared, contrasted, and integrated with a qualitative literature review.

Appendix A lists a number of 70 official documents issued by European regulatory bodies, including but not limited to Legislation, Regulations, Directives, Recommendations, Provisions, Initiatives, Strategies, Masterplans, Roadmaps, etc. A study of said documents will come to confirm that European standardisation is highly dense and bureaucratized, but comprehensive as well.

Each of the official documents is either an evolution of previous legislation, through amendments or updates, or a cumulative document that inspires, spans, and evolves into several other bodies of legislation, norms, regulations, strategies, or recommendations (

Table 1. Targeted actions as identified in 70 official documents issued by European regulatory bodies (Appendix A).

Proposal Action Domain	Official Document (as in Appendix A)	Attributes
Emissions	(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, 35, 36, 37, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 55, 56, 57, 59, 68)	Emissions trading for roads Emissions trading for buildings CO2 emissions standards for cars and vans EU Emissions Trading System Aviation Initiative Carbon Adjustment Mechanism
Social Climate	(1, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 25, 29, 31, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 58, 60)	Funding Sharing Regulation
Land Use	(2, 19, 20, 25, 31, 55, 56)	Land Use Change
Forests	(3, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 25, 30, 31, 55, 56)	Forestry Regulation EU Forest Strategy
Energy	(1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 38, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 68, 68, 69, 70)	Aviation Initiative Maritime Initiative Energy Taxation Renewable Energy Directive Energy Efficiency Directive
Renewable	(4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 55, 56, 58, 59, 67, 69)	Aviation Initiative Renewable Energy Directive
Alternative Fuels	(4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 25, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 51, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 68, 70)	Infrastructure Regulation
Standards	(1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 66, 70)	CO2 emissions standards for cars and vans

The documents in italic do not mention the research concept specifically; however, they do contain information or discuss actions and strategies related to it. Some of the studied documents (41, 47, 48, and 61–65) are hardly linked with the research concepts; however, they are important in creating the framework for their development (e.g., funding programs).

). A simplified graphical representation of the regulatory documents studied can be found in Figure 1. The research has been developed, over Appendix A, and extended to specific regulatory documents that evolve past (but are closely linked to) environmental regulations. Appendix A research must be regarded as a dynamic wireframe of interdependent instructions for a period-bound assessment of the efforts employed by continental regulatory bodies, that ultimately results in a framework set on pragmatic foundations for the concepts proposed by this research effort.

Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 is a recommended pivot point for developing a unified theory for the smart community, as it lists the “Union guidelines for development of the trans-European transport network”. The scientific literature is abundant regarding correlations between infrastructure and community development, with industry and society developing in unison on strategic infrastructure nodes since humanity has begun to evolve [16,17,18].

Several European regulation documents have been emitted and have been studied to be included in Appendix A that begin to build on the unified strategy theory by consolidating communication networks to link and expand the community principles [19], evolving past physical realms of societal dynamics by data-driven networks [20,21]. The Digital Single Market Strategy, heavily subsidised for implementation by several economic packages such as Horizon Europe and The Recovery and Resilience Program, is evidence of the Union’s efforts to consolidate continental and global communities via digital instruments.

Under regulatory body guidelines, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) National Strategies are beginning to take shape in nation states, with a first-and-foremost purpose to reduce waste in supply chains by reducing errors in transportation networks to a minimum, with a direct influence in reduced carbon emissions [22]. A secondary result of ITS evolution is a drastic reduction in transportation accidents by remote and autonomous management of people and cargo logistics [23] with a correlation between transportation infrastructure nodes and digital infrastructure nodes required for broader data transfers that connect transportation machinery to command centres, that insure continuity in automated facility management, that process data and metadata for ever-greater efficiency on routes, and that provide the best financial option correlated to the most environmentally sound offer from provider to client [24].

Environmental aid has risen to the centre of attention with the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), that includes ambitions to reduce 55% greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the Union by 2030, calculated in comparison with 1990 archived registries. A more recent agreement on EU ETS stipulates that the reduction increases drastically in ambition, as the new goals are to reduce GHG by 62% to 2030, reported on 2005 figures [25].

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism levels out the global supply that is openly dealt on European markets, and reduces well-known discriminating practices of outsourcing carbon-intensive production to countries where environmental concern is at a minimum and damaging industrial practices are still the norm [26]. Draconic fiscal measures come into effect, forcing importers to calculate both the environmental impact of production and the supply chain effects on the environment and pay mitigation fees [27].

The EU ETS and the foreseeable ETS2 package [28], which covers issues of caps and reductions in GHG, rules for market stability, extensions on maritime transportation, a separate regulation and system for buildings and road transport, supplements on the Innovation and Modernisation Funds, and improved regulations on ETS revenue management, will have direct effects on both environmental affairs, directly reflected in an improved lifestyle for smart communities and on a global scale, influencing EU external suppliers and importers to act more responsibly in trade with fiscal penalties insured otherwise.

The EU ETS, CBAM, and RefuelEU package have a direct influence on external suppliers, forcing them to adjust their production quality and equal the EU standard in order to comply with imports standards on the continent, resulting in a positive global impact. Similar to the “employer branding” concept and strategies [29], EU regulatory bodies and corporations that comply to legislation, norms, and regulations will have a direct influence on the betterment of global communities via their supply chain and global reach, an effect nuanced in the academic literature as “community branding” [1]. A simplified explanation of the conceptual framework resides in the power of corporate affairs to produce positive effects remotely, by enforcing only those standards that directly benefit both production communities they employ and consumer communities they cater to. With the new regulations that come into effect on European premises, economical agents are mandated to enforce minimum standards for equitable production and consumerism.

Non-financial reporting (NFR) requirements gradually come into effect [30], with Appendix A listing the sinuous consultative and legislative efforts that gradually grew into the European Banking Authority Roadmap on Sustainable Finance [31]. Figure 2 lists a series of recommendations meant to aid banking institutions in financing solely those ESG-compliant investments, paving the path to a foreseeable filter on finances for enterprises that are lacking in their efforts to operate in correlation with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as adopted by the European Union via the Paris Agreement [32].

The SDGs rapidly influenced the development of a global green bond market, which corporations gradually grew to use to their advantage, with some knowing and others ignorant of the dealings that produce little to no positive effect on the betterment of the smart global community [33], an effect that came to be known as “Greenwashing”, to be blamed on, amongst others, asymmetric correlations between corporate finances and erroneously calculated time-bound projects [34].

The SDG criteria is by no means flawed, and it is comprehensive enough to ensure an equitable economic environment, with requirements for 17 goals, as visible in Figure 3. However, the European Union further enforces the goals with the Commission guidelines on NFR, and several guides, norms, and recommendations that have influenced or are evolved from the guidelines, as listed in Appendix A.

The guidelines, as evolved from the Directive 2014/95/EU, come to stimulate European organisations to report on compliance efforts with the SDGs, but full reports have yet to appear [35], as corporations manifest an interest in presenting their efforts to the market as a P.R. mechanism, but are still more inclined towards substantial efforts in reducing OPEX by outsourcing to less sustainability-demanding production sites. While NFR guides have been optional and improper reporting should have acted as a red flag on a vigilant market, the EBA Roadmap is a sign that further measures will come into effect and financing options for public interest companies will be restricted without complete disclosure and compliance in the near future.

The EBA, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), and European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) report on undue short-term pressure from the financial sector on corporations; all agree on the need to curb sustainability failures by influencing a shift from the short-term corporate vision and dynamics to long-term strategies with sustainability commitments [36]. All reports listed in Appendix A lead to a common hypothesis of restricted finances and financing options for organizations that fail to report or plan with SDGs, but further regulation is expected to enforce sustainability as a common standard for economic dynamics. A reform is imminent, as the current global crises would not allow lobbying to continue prevailing over social interest on sustainability [37].

Corporate carbon disclosure will require thorough logging of emitting activities. Moreover, SDG disclosure is gradually becoming mandatory, if not for regulatory reasons, then to satisfy ever-increasing market demand for sustainable products and services. Monitoring and reporting activities both demand ESG-focused staff to backlog and maintain an updated corporate ledger, all resource-intensive issues that must shape the organisation design via its quality system [38,39,40]. Total Quality Management (TQM) and ESG become synergic in the design management principles for organisations that opt for a gradual compliance strategy that is drawn out to minimise the stress on operations in the transition period.

The ISO 14064-1:2018 standard is a first step in TQM and GHG correlation, and it paves the path to process automation, with procedures set in place for digital wireframing over quality measures to compile software solutions for the mechanical accounting of emissions [41]. GHG accounting paves the way for fully automated ESG monitoring and reporting, with ISO 26000 already available for process mapping [42], but restricted to CSR measures. ISO 14007 (Determining Environmental Costs and Benefits) and ISO 14008 (Monetary Valuation of Environmental Impacts and Aspects) are being set in place to standardise the “book value of nature” for a cost/benefit analysis that permanently allows corporations to benchmark against SDGs [43].

The forthcoming ISO 14030 (green bonds) is set to deliver standardisation on several aspects related to green bond emission and acquisition [44], while ISO 14097 (Climate-Related Metrics for the Finance Sector) provides standard regulation and frameworks for financial activities related to carbon reduction, with ISO 14007 and 14008 providing frameworks for measuring environmental costs and benefits or valuations on sustainability [45].

Relevant standards are in place for full process automation on ESG, resulting in guides for digital platforms to be built on, for complete and complex accounting starting from GHG and evolving into full SDG evaluation. Moreover, such platforms can be easily confronted with potential investments for offsets and compensation, based on appropriate projects that best suit organisation needs and smart community development at the same time.

ReFuel EU [46] begins to elaborate the subject of alternative transportation fuels, as it is meant to amend the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and develop sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels for large consumers in all transportation industries, with a clear and concise focus on aviation and maritime (river) transport and a revision to the directive on alternative fuels infrastructure deployment. A majority of the alternative fuels proposed to compete with hydrocarbon-based catalysts are either derivatives of hydrogen, require hydrogen for production, or are various hydrogen-based technologies; the European Commission released a supranational strategy for hydrogen deployment, including all required aspects for gradual implementation [47,48].

Along with decarbonisation ambitions, ReFuel EU is dense in solutions for an equitable and equal playing field on the global logistics and transportation market, with obligations for transporters to accept gradually increasing quotas of European-originating sustainable fuels, thus eliminating unfair competition from transporters that have access to cheap fuelling solutions [49]. Fuels are the main operational expenditure in transportation, and drastic variations in price, from continent to continent, invariably result in unfair competition and discrimination against European carriers, an issue that is bundled in the set of environmental solutions under ReFuel EU.

Fit for 55 includes the COM/2021/559—Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation which delivers guides for alternative fuels infrastructure development and financing mechanisms to incentivise market development [50]. However, with an incipient industry that is regulated for industrial hydrogen production, several issues arise with regard to green hydrogen synthesis, transportation, distribution, and delivery to vehicles, that member states must regulate before widespread adoption into transportation. An evolution of hydrogen, as a competitive transportation fuel, compared to hydrocarbon based fuels, requires extensive networks of on-site production as transportation is cumbersome and cost-inefficient; renewable energy resources; carbon capture technology; and a wide-scale adoption expanded into networks for economies of scale to foster the development of “Hydrogen Valleys” [51].

The hydrogen valley is a multi-modal industrial site that facilitates the production, logistics, delivery, and utilisation of hydrogen as a fuel for industrial production and transportation. Steam Methane Reform (SMR) production of hydrogen is still being considered, as long as the technology (which requires natural gas burning) is fitted with carbon capture devices; however, electrolysis fuelled by renewable energy is the optimal approach [52]. According to EU Taxonomy Regulation updates, nuclear energy and natural gas can be considered renewables under certain conditions [53], paving the way to fuel a hydrogen valley network across Europe and consolidating an incipient industry to compete with conventional fuels.

Several issues must be resolved to eliminate hurdles on the path to implementing the regulatory initiatives listed, most stemming from the Union’s overprotective habits that, paradoxically, are contradicting an industry-supported logarithmic evolution rate of technological advancements inspired by the same regulatory initiatives. Strategic public procurement is legally prohibitive with respect to favouring the most financially efficient offer on the market [54], an issue that some countries respect with great diligence to avoid corruption charges [55]. Even with the official “Communication on public procurement for a better environment” and the combined Commission Staff Working Document, Green Public Procurement (GPP) is still avoided in Eastern European countries due to the criteria being recommended rather than imposed and the main procurement legal instruction continuing to favour a lesser product, in environmental terms, due to the cost/benefit analysis pointing towards it.

However, the EU GPP norms have been found in efficient legislation chapters, such as the Energy Performance Directive (2010), Energy Star Regulation (2008), Clean Vehicles Directive (2009), and Energy Efficiency Directive (2012) [56], findings that result in the assumption that recommendations will not be effective without subsequent legislation to enforce sustainability-driven initiatives, driving the nation states to comply and adapt.

3. Results

A comprehensive set of regulatory materials have been compared, contrasted, and integrated into a revealing review of the scientific literature, for a combined quantitative and qualitative analysis required to develop a unified theory of organizational design models considering national and continental strategic initiatives for sustainable development.

As relevant in Appendix A, legal and regulatory initiatives are interdependent and independent at the same time, having minimal common ground but forming a regulatory framework that extends to cover more issues than any other effective body of legislation. This is relevant to the bureaucratic nature of the European Union, and observed superficially, it may appear fuzzy and incoherent. However, a profound analysis reveals several components that can be quantified as palpable results for the organizational design model. For the purposes of this study, the results will be divided into seven subheadings extracted from the combinations, correlations, and extrapolation of continental strategic initiatives, supported by regulatory frameworks and transported into member state strategies for the continental cohesion of industrial standards.

3.1. The Hydrogen Initiative

The research supports a theory of continental effort to develop an alternative to conventional fuels, and break the monopoly that hydrocarbons have in industrial dynamics and mobility. Hydrogen is sustained in multiple regulatory initiatives (i.e., 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 27, 31, 32, 3, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 60, 68 and 70 in Appendix A) and financing vehicles to evolve as the main competitor to petrol and gases. In our previous study [11], we stated that transportation will include hydrogen-powered vehicles as an alternative to internal combustion and electric engines.

Hydrogen production requires investments in hydrolysis plants that, themselves, require renewable energy to function in the designed standards. Renewable energy is defined in legislation, but the definition is subject to change, as nuclear energy and natural gas burning with carbon capture technology have been included in the definition to supplement hydroelectric production, photovoltaics, wind power, biomass, and geothermal energy.

Green (renewable-energy-fuelled) hydrogen production is strategically placed in hydrogen valleys, industrially dense regions that evolve around fuel production. Hydrogen valleys are meant to host industrial processes, multi-modal transportation hubs for passengers, cargo, and fuel transfers to demanding recipients. The industrial complex is in proximity to human-resource-rich communities that thrive based on the economic dynamics resulting from hydrogen-centric sustainable development.

In our analysis, there is a significant medium-positive relationship between the number of documents mentioning hydrogen as an alternative fuel and all the EU initiatives on energy (r(25) = 0.463, p = 0.015) which shows the importance of it in the actual legislation framework.

The hydrogen initiative is an overlay of several sustainable development strategies, including but not limited to the hydrogen strategy, the energy strategy, the transportation masterplan, the intelligent transportation systems strategy, the smart city strategy, and the economic and commerce strategy of a European region or country, adapted from the continental framework provided.

3.2. The Nuclear Initiative

Hydrogen demand is forcing a reconsideration of hydro, photovoltaic, and wind power as the main renewable energy supplies, due to their sporadic availability and lack of technological advancements in energy storage.

Advancements in nuclear technology come to sustain a theory of regional energetic independence fuelled by small modular reactors (SMR) or micro-modular reactors (MMR), able to act as the main source of energy for hydrogen valleys, industrial sites or even regions, cities, and nations.

Energy strategies are being amended to include nuclear sources of grid surplus, together with a component of independently fuelled regions of interest, only connected to the grid for emergencies, as seen in some of the studied documents (i.e., 4, 6, 14, 16, 17, 20, 32, 33, 34, 55, 56).

European regulations begin to relax around nuclear technology, signalling a shift towards a widespread adoption of continental energy independence, an all-too-present narrative in strategic initiatives that have been studied. However, the correlation between the number of documents mentioning nuclear energies among all the initiatives on energies is non-significant small positive (r(9) = 0.158, p = 0.643).

3.3. The Natural Gas Initiative

Legislation, strategies, and regulation define natural gas as a transition fuel, with hydrogen being the desired goal. Natural gas strategies include transportation infrastructure development, an essential element in the development of hydrogen networks, as European gas ducts are under mandate to transport a mix of gas and an ever-increasing quota of hydrogen.

All natural gas consumers can be retrofitted to burn hydrogen, drastically reducing GHG emissions. European strategies, influencing national strategies mandated by the Recovery and Resilience Facility, point to the direction of gas infrastructure modernisation and hydrogen production for transportation via ducts for multiple-use cases, spanning from central heating in thermal plants to extracting from the mix and supplying vehicle-fuelling stations.

There are specific requirements to reduce the production of hydrogen from steam methane reform, a gas-intensive process, and shift towards hydrogen production from electrolysis, as SMR hydrogen is regarded as redundant for a strategy that ultimately achieves the transportation of pure hydrogen on the European duct infrastructure.

3.4. The Renewables Initiative

Part of the energy strategy, renewable energy production technology continues to evolve, capturing more and more of nature’s potential to fuel industries, mobility, and communities. A sustained innovation rhythm will result in better yields from harnessing elemental energy, on a long-term prognosis.

All strategic initiatives encourage research and development for renewable energy production; there is a significant large positive relationship between renewable energy documents and EU energy initiatives, (r(40) = 0.976, p < 0.001)). However, the current capacities are not sufficient for energy independence targets (energetic strategies) or for the hydrogen quotas needed to be produced by electrolysis (hydrogen strategies).

3.5. The Synthetics and Biomass Initiative

Synthetic fuels and biomass are circular-economy-driven efforts that aid a transition to 0 emissions by fuelling industries and mobility without the need for the technological overhaul of machineries, as these NET-0-GHG-emitting fuels can be loaded into currently operating technology.

All strategies and regulatory documents treat synthetics and biomass as transition elements, admitting they still have an impact on the environment but regarding them as a less harmful solution accepted for economic stability on the path to technological evolution in renewables and hydrogen. Market stability is a very important factor in strategy elaboration, and synthetic fuels or biomass curb a need for the complete re-engineering of fuel consumers, allowing for a gradual transition based on existing technologies.

Moreover, strategies are calculated with life cycle costs in mind, ensuring a transition period where current investments are amortised and/or reused by modernisation, with the Union encouraging circular economy tactics for retrofitting machinery to be fuelled by transition solutions, with clearly calculated goals for a long-term transition to new technologies.

3.6. The ESG Initiative

ESG is the most documented initiative in implemented legislation and relevant strategies, as it is regarded top-down as a market regulation and bottom-up as a stimulation package. All ESG-related mechanisms are meant to develop a self-sustained system that penalizes non-compliant agents to the benefit of proactive market players.

ESG strategic foresight starts from environmental action, with the E.U. ETS enforcing carbon accounting for economic agents, restricting access to financing for GHG intensive market operations that fail to adopt corrective action. The CBAM extends the E.U. ETS to global markets, forcing economic agents to comply with E.U. regulations and sustain continental strategies by acting equitably. Moreover, CBAM and ETS reduce unfair competition from countries that enforce lesser standards than those mandated by the European Union.

By penalising disparages between international ESG accounts of organisations, the Union builds upon the principle of a global smart community brand, where all economic agents are forced to comply either by paying to comply or transparently reporting on ESG compliance for financial burden reduction on imports to the E.U. Economic agents are forced to disclose compliance efforts in non-financial reports, that are now mandatory for access to finances, and there is a consensus amongst European regulatory bodies that short-term performance indicators for economic growth are not considered business-planning best practices anymore, raising the demand for long-term, sustainable development goals in finance requests.

The standardisation of sustainability measurements is taking shape in organisational design, with TQM delivering instruments for precise evaluation and proactive corrective action, paving the way for automated measuring mechanisms to be developed and implemented in a digital market for ESG. This results in automated compensation with sustainable projects developed precisely to absorb penalties applied to organisations that have yet to fully comply with ESG requirements, projects that positively influence the global community and eliminate the harm caused by failing to initially comply.

More and more sites that absorb finances from this compensation mechanism can be developed, for the benefit of communities worldwide, sites that must promote SDG principles as well and compete between each other by complying with said norms, where partially complying will result in fractured financing and full compliance will result in immediate funding.

ESG quantified in TQM and automated in digital platforms is a logical evolution towards a transparent market where greenwashing practices can be flagged and eliminated to the benefit of both organisations that are proactive in sustainable development and communities that absorb compensation finances and develop in sustainable principles. This results in a self-governed society framework where state entities take a step back from fiscal intermediation and allow for the economic environment to contribute directly to self-developing smart communities.

All strategic initiatives are geared towards the self-administration organisational design model, at a continental level, and the scientific literature brings evidence of continental regulation meant to eliminate nation-state-lobbying practices in favour of a fully automated fiscal compensation mechanism, where human intervention for short-term illicit benefits becomes impossible. Strategy formulation does not directly address the issues of continued correction of illicit economic activity, but all strategies resolve immoral practices with systemic correction.

3.7. The Digital Initiative

Full automation for digital governance of all social and entrepreneurial dynamics is prioritised by the E.U. in several strategic initiatives. From public administration digitalisation to digital collaboration platforms between public and central administrations, where economic agents can immediately connect for rapid business deployment, to intelligent transportation systems and ESG platforms, including digital twins for infrastructure and smart cities, all systems are meant to reduce waste and improve communications between supply and demand.

A direct result of digital integration strategies is the environmental assessment of all undergoing administrative or economic processes. Having the ability to raise red flags in heavy-consuming or GHG-emitting processes will result in immediate corrective action. Moreover, a transparent administrative process and corporate evaluation platform will directly benefit the smart community that uses integrated platforms to its advantage.

Continental strategic initiatives and financing mechanisms stimulate the development of digital platforms for both economic agents and public administrations, with several R&D resources for complete integration.

3.8. Study Limitation

Our study is focusing on the European Union and its bureaucratic system as a framework for the development of the proposed unified theory for a sustainable human habitat. The research only looks into the initiatives and guidelines emitted by the European Union for building the theory and does not consider other global or regional perspectives. Additionally, the research also prioritizes on infrastructure nodes as the focal point for sustainable supply chain, operations, and implementation, which may not be inclusive of other important aspects of sustainable development. The study only analyses the bargaining power of suppliers in the European supply chain and not all suppliers of global corporations which may limit the generalization of the findings.

4. Discussion

This comprehensive study of strategic initiatives, regulatory documents, and the scientific literature results in valuable conclusions and action paths extracted from an otherwise fuzzy distribution of burdening documentation, a fact especially relevant in Appendix A, that lists normative documents in order and logic that regulatory bodies meant for them to be studied. Various regulations come together in continental strategies that member states must adapt to their respective mechanisms, mimicking independence in self-governance but ultimately resulting in continental systems.

A fair assumption is that of the intended apparent regulatory chaos to avoid bottom-up resilience to change and gradually introduce top-down innovative mechanisms with the support of economic agents and willing communities. A metaphoric parallel to the construction industry would support the theory of a stable building being raised in a chaotic site, filled with state-of-the-art technology and the best engineers available for the job, ultimately coming together in an architectural masterpiece.

This study identifies the foundational pillars of said construction, all relevant and described in the seven initiatives in the Results section. Hydrogen is meant to ultimately fuel continental dynamics and industries, with investments in hydrogen infrastructure developing new economic avenues and centring continental finances against inflation, to the advantage of the currency. Hydrogen reshapes transportation networks and transportation vehicles, a finding supported by market evolutions worldwide.

However, hydrogen production is energy-intensive and requires advancements in nuclear technologies. The E.U. has approved nuclear energy as a renewable resource for tertiary production. Green hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis fuelled from nuclear energy, resolving the issue of hydrogen production inertia on the continent by introducing new nuclear technologies, already visible with Nuscale’s Small Modular Reactor fast-tracked introduction on the Romanian energy market and several other initiatives relevant in Poland.

There is not sufficient evolution yet on the path to green hydrogen as an alternative to conventional fuels, resulting in a drastic need for a transition strategy, drawn up in the short term and fuelled by natural gases and circular economy projects. Natural gas infrastructure requirements are building the hydrogen transportation networks, as gas pipes are already mandated to transport a hydrogen mix in them for gradual adjustments to full hydrogen transportation, as the target is set in strategic documents. To meet the targets, industrial-machinery-retrofitting options begin to take shape in circular economy strategies, reusing transportation and production machines with sustainable fuels, either synthetic, biomass-based, or natural gas until transition goals are met.

Renewables remain a long-term solution and several strategies continue to encourage the development of technologies able to capture natural elements and transform them into energy resources. However, a more pragmatic approach to renewables begins to take shape, as their efficiency has yet to improve for renewables to be considered as a stable alternative source of energy.

ESG is the most important component in continental strategy formulation, as it is a framework for self-governance between the economic ecosystem and communities that stand to benefit from a new financial mechanism, built to eliminate political administrators from centralising and distributing fiscal instruments. With several legislation initiatives that regulate organisational behaviour, forcing them to adopt sustainable operation strategies in the entirety of their supply chains, the E.U. has built a global framework for sustainability that does not discriminate against complying agents, as has previously been the case.

However, for ESG strategies to take shape, the widespread adoption of digital infrastructure in administration and industrial operations must become a reality. TQM is rapidly adapting with new standards to meet regulation and strategic foresight, mapping processes that can rapidly be implemented into independent digital platforms, that can be unified on global management systems.

5. Conclusions

The smart community is shaped by the economic dynamics that define it. Economic agents will reshape their organisational design to cater directly to their community, a source for human and financial resources, whose evolution is defined by the community branding concept. Corporate interaction is gradually shifting from elected administrators to smart communities via existing digital infrastructure. Economic agents are already free to pool the markets where they operate on social networks, where they are beginning to realise they are held accountable for both the positive and, especially, the negative influence they have on communities.

The European Union is proactive in shaping an interdependent system for self-governance between economic agents and smart communities, where accountability is enforced by the transparency regulations set in place. A strategy for consolidated sustainable development is shaped, with flaws, but regulatory bodies have proven they are able to react and adapt to swiftly correct errors on the path to a sustainable future.

European strategies are being built to support this path with sustainable fuels for industries and mobility, consolidating all options into long-term evolution plans with set goals. Meeting the goal requires the same levels of perseverance from regulatory bodies, and an exponential growth in technological adoption will set in motion digital control mechanisms. More research is needed to develop a perfect platform for ESG dynamics between economic entities and smart communities, where corporations are allowed to directly contribute to the betterment of the communities they influence.

As a final conclusion: the authors state that it is important to consider that European legal requirements are thus far prohibitive in acquiring qualitative consultancy packages, which may deter entities from building accurate strategies and regulatory frameworks for sustainable development.