Technology solutions must effectively balance economic growth, social equity, and environmental integrity to achieve a sustainable society. Notably, although the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm constitutes a key sustainability enabler, critical issues such as the increasing maintenance operations, energy consumption, and manufacturing/disposal of IoT devices have long-term negative economic, societal, and environmental impacts and must be efficiently addressed. This calls for self-sustainable IoT ecosystems requiring minimal external resources and intervention, effectively utilizing renewable energy sources, and recycling materials whenever possible, thus encompassing energy sustainability. In this work, we focus on energy-sustainable IoT during the operation phase, although our discussions sometimes extend to other sustainability aspects and IoT lifecycle phases. Specifically, we provide a fresh look at energy-sustainable IoT and identify energy provision, transfer, and energy efficiency as the three main energy-related processes whose harmonious coexistence pushes toward realizing self-sustainable IoT systems. Their main related technologies, recent advances, challenges, and research directions are also discussed. Moreover, we overview relevant performance metrics to assess the energy-sustainability potential of a certain technique, technology, device, or network and list some target values for the next generation of wireless systems. Overall, this paper offers insights that are valuable for advancing sustainability goals for present and future generations.

翻译：技术解决方案必须有效平衡经济增长、社会公平与环境完整性，以实现可持续发展社会。值得注意的是，尽管物联网（IoT）范式是关键的可持续发展推动因素，但物联网设备日益增加的维护操作、能源消耗以及制造/处置等关键问题会对经济、社会和环境产生长期负面影响，亟需有效解决。这要求构建自给自足的物联网生态系统，使其所需的外部资源和干预最小化，有效利用可再生能源，并尽可能实现材料回收利用，从而涵盖能量可持续性。本研究聚焦于运行阶段的能量可持续物联网，尽管部分讨论延伸至其他可持续性维度及物联网生命周期阶段。具体而言，我们以全新视角审视能量可持续物联网，将能量供应、能量传输和能量效率识别为三大核心能量相关过程，其和谐共存推动实现自给自足的物联网系统。本文还探讨了相关核心技术、最新进展、挑战及研究方向。此外，我们综述了用于评估特定技术、器件或网络能量可持续潜力的相关性能指标，并列举了下一代无线系统的一些目标值。总体而言，本文为推进当代与未来世代的可持续发展目标提供了宝贵见解。