Operationalizing the Twin Transition: A Cross-Sector DigiCircular Digital Twin Framework for Sustainable Production and Consumption

The twin transition, combining digitalization with circular economy strategies, has emerged as a critical pathway for achieving sustainable production and consumption. However, existing approaches largely treat digital tools and circular practices as isolated interventions, limiting their systemic impact across interconnected value chains. This study proposes a DigiCircular Twin-Transition (DT²) framework, a cross-sector digital twin architecture that integrates real-time life cycle assessment with circular economy governance to enable data-driven sustainability control. The framework federates digital twins from the coffee, textile, logistics, and traceability domains into an integrated decision layer, allowing sustainability indicators to function as operational control variables rather than retrospective reporting metrics. A unified Sustainability Efficiency Index and cross-sector resource-synergy modeling enable multi-objective optimization of energy use, water consumption, emissions, and material circularity. Controlled DT² evaluation experiments indicate substantial improvements compared to baseline operations, including a 30% reduction in aggregate environmental impacts, a 25% increase in resource efficiency, a 20% extension in product life cycles, and a 38% improvement in return on investment over a 10-year horizon. Interoperability and decision reliability are ensured through a federated data schema aligned with ISO 23247 and IEC 62890, while Monte Carlo robustness testing (N = 10,000) and Pareto-front analysis indicate stable and simultaneous optimization of environmental and economic objectives. By embedding verifiable performance synchronization through blockchain-backed governance, the DT² framework extends sustainability management toward predictive and auditable operational monitoring, providing a scalable conceptual and technical framework aligned with SDGs 9, 12, 13, and 17 and global net-zero transition pathways.