2 - Environmental Sustainability Through Green Business Process Management

Australasian Journal of Information Systems Roohy Gohar & Indulska
2020, Vol 24, Research Article Environmental Sustainability through Green BPM
Environmental Sustainability through Green Business

Process Management
Shahrzad Roohy Gohar
UQ Business School
University of Queensland
sh.roohygohar@business.uq.edu.au
Marta Indulska
UQ Business School
University of Queensland
Abstract
The climate change phenomenon, directly or indirectly, affects industries and nations.
Governments and organizations have been challenged to identify their environmental impacts
to address environmental sustainability issues. A promising, yet under-studied in this context,
theme of information systems (IS) literature that has the potential to help with identifying,
quantifying and managing environmental impacts is business process management (BPM).
With its focus on continual process performance improvement, the capacity of BPM to
contribute to Environmental Sustainability (ES) needs to be further explored. Yet,
contributions from the BPM research community and the impact of these contributions appear
to be fragmented. In this paper, we present a systematic literature review to explore BPM
contributions to ES, with a focus on environmental performance indicators (EPIs) as well as
relevant organizational factors related to ES and BPM. In doing so, we identify and explore
‘Green BPM’ contributions and suggest ways to advance BPM research in the context of ES.
Keywords: Environmental sustainability, Green BPM, Environmental performance indicators
(EPIs)
1 Introduction
Sustainability has, at its core, the principle of continual and mindful growth, supporting
societies, and maintaining economic performance without compromising the natural
environment (Brown et al., 1987; WCED, 1987). Environmental sustainability (ES) in particular,
with its focus on sustaining the living (Goodland, 1995), has become of increasing concern due
to mankind’s exploitation of natural resources. Recently, the United Nation’s sustainable
development goals (United Nations, 2016) came into force with 175 world leaders agreeing to
increase their efforts through research and practice to tackle climate change. As part of this
initiative, organizations are required to proactively manage the use of their natural resources
and continuously improve their environmental performance.
Such continual improvement of environmental performance is achievable through the
identification and measurement of environmental performance indicators (EPIs). EPIs are
metrics that organizations use to measure environmental performance and to calculate their
impact on the environment (Epstein & Roy, 2001; IPCC, 2014; Jamous & Müller, 2013; Jasch,
2000; Young & Rikhardsson, 1996). Core EPIs include measures of water consumption, energy
consumption, waste management, recycling, and CO2 and GHG emissions, and are commonly
used by a wide range of industry sectors (Epstein & Roy, 2001; IPCC, 2014; Jamous & Müller,
2013; Jasch, 2000; Young & Rikhardsson, 1996). It is thus important to consider how these EPIs
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can be managed and continually improved as organisations carry out their operations. In this
context, we consider the field of Business Process Management (BPM), which has at its core
the continuous improvement of processes and their key performance indicators (KPIs), and
explore its contributions to ES with a specific lens on EPIs.
We refer to BPM research concerning ES as ‘Green BPM’. The term is used by Seidel et al.
(2012) to include understanding, documenting, executing and continually improving
processes by focusing on their environmental impacts. Broadly, Green BPM supports the
design and implementation of environmentally sustainable processes. In the context of IS,
Opitz et al. (2014b) defined Green BPM as all IS-supported management activities that reduce
the environmental impact of business processes, including design, improvement, process
lifecycle and operational steps. The outlook of Green BPM is promising, yet the body of
research focusing on ES remains lean (Maciel, 2017). Indeed, there is “a significant gap”
between global calls to resolve climate change issues and what IS discipline research offers
(Gholami et al., 2016), based on the number of IS research studies in the last decade that focus
on sustainability (Chen et al., 2011; Gholami et al., 2016). The same trend is observed in BPM
academic literature addressing sustainability (Hernández González et al., 2019). It is also
unclear to what extent Green BPM has been studied and how it has contributed to the ES body
of knowledge. To explore this notion, we conduct a systematic literature review (SLR)
(Kitchenham et al., 2009) of Green BPM literature.
Our review aims to identify relevant contributions of BPM to EPIs and organizational factors
relating to ES (Brooks et al., 2012) and to understand the extent of BPM research contribution
to ES. Thus, our study explores how EPI and ES concepts have been addressed in BPM
literature and suggests further research opportunities. Our study also explores the extent of
alignment of these contributions with the focus of industry on various EPIs. Understanding
this alignment is particularly important as it is an indicator of the relevance of Green BPM
research to the needs of industry (Applegate & King, 1999; Rosemann & Vessey, 2008).
The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 provides a background to ES and BPM.
Related studies that identify BPM contributions to ES are summarized in Section 3. Our
methodology is presented in Section 4. Section 5 discusses the results of our systematic
literature review and contrasts these with an industry focus. Finally, Sections 6 and 7 propose
next steps and offer final remarks.
2 Background
The calls to focus on the environment and to change industrial practices began with the
Brundtland Report published by the World Commission for Environment and Development
(1987). Since then, sustainability-related studies have accelerated in various research
disciplines (Dehghanian & Mansour, 2009). While some researchers consider ecological
concerns or social responsibility as sustainability (Linnenluecke & Griffiths, 2010), current
research looks more to the relationship between the three pillars of corporate sustainability
(Elkington, 1998; Epstein & Roy, 2001; Savitz, 2012). Namely: (1) economic, referring to
economic capital; (2) social, referring to the equitable redistribution of resources; and (3)
environmental, referring to natural capital (Goodland, 1995). These pillars of corporate
sustainability are referred as the “triple bottom line” (Elkington, 1998; Savitz, 2012). Since the
late 1990s, sustainability studies have focused on these pillars and applied them to advancing
technologies and growing consumer demand. Our focus in this study is on the environmental
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pillar and in the context of Information Systems research, specifically Business Process
Management.
2.1 Environmental Sustainability and Information Systems
While information technology (IT) is responsible for producing a large volume of air and
water-polluting waste in its manufacture, operations and disposal, it also allows resource use
to be captured, monitored and controlled in all areas of business and industry. Indeed,
utilizing IT and IS for this purpose is expected to reduce carbon emissions in businesses by up
to 15 percent by 2020 (Lacy et al., 2010), thus contributing positively to ES.
Increasing pressure from environmental legislation, and from consumers, motivates
organizations to reduce the environmental impact of their practices (Bansal & Roth, 2000;
Lintukangas et al., 2016; Rajeev et al., 2017), motivating businesses to further invest in IS
solutions (Lane et al., 2011) and implement environmental management systems (EMS)
(Tinsley & Pillai, 2006; Whitelaw, 2004). An EMS encompasses the organizational structure,
technological resources, practices, processes and information resources for determining and
implementing environmental policies (British Standards Institution, 1994). Many
organizations have implemented an EMS to improve their compliance with environmental
regulations and to reduce their environmental impact and improve their reputation (Sullivan
& Wyndham, 2001; Tinsley & Pillai, 2006). Indeed by 2013, businesses compliant with the
ISO14001 standard were spread across 170 countries (International Organisation for
Standardization, 2013). ISO14001 provides organizations with a framework to develop their
environmental objectives, measure the environmental impact of their operations, and monitor
improvement and compliance with environmental regulations (Melnyk et al., 2003; Phan &
Baird, 2015; Wathern, 2013; Whitelaw, 2004). It is not the only example of a standard that
provides IS solutions, integrating ES into all aspects of business.
Numerous IS-aided solutions and approaches exist to assist estimating the environmental
impact of products, services and operations, such as lifecycle assessment (LCA) (Guinée, 2001)
and environmental input-output analysis (EIO). LCA, which is also part of ISO14000, provides
a method to assess the impact of materials from their initial use to their disposal (Guinée, 2001),
whereas EIO provides an approach to estimate the carbon footprint from EPIs (Finnveden et
al., 2009). These methods individually are not holistic and, therefore, are required to be
combined to sufficiently assess the environmental impact of products and services (Finnveden
et al., 2009). Neither, however, provides a way to measure and manage the environmental
impacts of business operations. Yet, organizations adopt process-oriented approaches, where
a ‘process’ is a sequence of activities, events and decisions that directly or indirectly deliver
value to the organization (Dumas et al., 2013), to manage the performance of their operations
(Kohlbacher & Reijers, 2013) and align their operations with organizational strategies and
culture.
2.2 Environmental Sustainability and BPM
BPM is well-placed to address ES management challenges because it focuses on improving
organizational efficiency (Rehan et al., 2018) and operational effectiveness (Hammer, 2010), by
optimizing processes, technology use, reducing waste and improving performance
(Rosemann & vom Brocke, 2010). It is a holistic management approach that facilitates
managing operations, which enact an organization’s strategy to deliver value (de Burgos
Jimenez & Céspedes Lorente, 2001; Longoni & Cagliano, 2015), and continuously improving
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the economic sustainability of an organization, thus advancing the organization’s competitive

advantage (Hung, 2006). Process visualization, measurement, analysis, improvement and
monitoring are core to BPM. They drive overall organizational performance and augment
economic resources (Weske, 2012) and natural capital (e.g., time, cost and raw materials). Such
resources become key performance indicators (KPIs). A collective and clear understanding of
KPIs and process resources facilitates the measurement and analysis of process performance
in organizations (Rosemann & vom Brocke, 2015).
Operational and process management approaches, including the BPM lifecycle, are employed
to measure and optimize KPIs (Kohlbacher & Reijers, 2013; Sanders Jones & Linderman, 2014).
Improvement can therefore take on different meanings based on organizational strategies and
objectives (Sanders Jones & Linderman, 2014). For example, improvement could bring reduced
costs and process execution time or improved quality and productivity, or reduction of
environmental impact. In the ES context, EPIs of organizational processes can be measured
through a BPM approach to reduce the environmental impact of organizational activities
(Parmenter, 2010; Wetzstein et al., 2008). In other words, KPIs can be extended to include EPIs,
and BPM analysis techniques can be applied to identify, measure, improve and monitor the
environmental performance of business processes. Therefore, BPM has strong links with ES
due to its process-oriented approach and facilitation of measuring and analysing EPIs at the
process level (DeToro & McCabe, 1997; Ghose et al., 2010). Such managed and controlled use
of environmental resources, together with increasing organizational capabilities, ultimately
results in a competitive advantage for the organization (Porter, 2008; Porter & Van der Linde,
1995; Schmidheiny, 1992).
3 Related work
Stolze et al. (2012) reviewed 2006–2011 literature from English and non-English sources in the
IS and BPM disciplines. They identified and categorized the literature as ‘Green IT’, ‘Green IS’,
‘sustainable’, and ‘business process’. While the study provides high-level categories, it does
not explore how BPM contributes to ES. Through examining 127 research papers, Opitz et al.
(2014a) explored the potential of measuring an organization’s ability to implement Green
BPM. By classifying the papers according to ‘attitude’, ‘strategy’, ‘governance’, ‘modelling’,
‘optimizing’, and ‘monitoring’, these authors proposed a Green BPM readiness model
motivated by the green ICT readiness model (Wabwoba et al., 2013). However, the study did
not identify specific BPM concepts nor ES concepts to which contributions are made and, thus,
offers a narrower focus. Subsequently, Opitz et al. (2014b) categorized the literature into
‘Green IT/IS’, ‘BPM’, ‘Green BPM’ as well as categories relating to ‘reduce environmental
impact’, ‘monitoring’, ‘economical’, ‘cultural change’ and ‘definition’. However, the extent of
the theoretical contributions and details of BPM and ES concepts covered in the study is
unspecified. Moreover, there is a lack of attention to EPIs which are necessary for measuring
the environmental impact of organizations and monitoring performance improvement.
Maciel (2017) reviewed Green BPM literature according to six BPM components: strategic
alignment, governance, method, information technology, people and culture, to extend the
means to address ES and green initiatives. He found that Green BPM research literature has
concentrated on BPM lifecycle steps such as design, measurement, and improving ES
processes while paying little attention to strategic alignment, governance, people and culture.
An initial taxonomy of sustainability in business process models was proposed by
Schoormann et al. (2017), while Couckuyt (2017) focussed on the business process lifecycle in
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the Green BPM context. Couckuyt and Van Looy (2019) conducted an SLR on the contribution
of BPM, operations management and IS publications to ES. The study identified the number
of research studies from various disciplines, the range of environmental topics, the affiliations
contributing to ES, and the types of scholarly contributions.
Our study offers a different perspective. It offers a single consolidated resource of Green BPM
literature using the lens of BPM concepts, organizational factors and EPIs (Dada et al., 2013)
to explain current contributions. Identifying, measuring and monitoring EPIs is crucial
because organizations use them to analyse their environmental impact and monitor their
performance. EPIs, if measured and reported correctly, influence an organization’s strategic
decisions and provide transparent and meaningful information about its environmental
impact. Such data can be analysed over time to assess improvement and compliance of firms
with environmental regulations and standards.
4 Methodology
We use a systematic literature review approach to carry out our study. We do so because an
SLR assists with the identification of contributions and pinpoints research gaps related to the
phenomenon under study (Kitchenham et al., 2009). SLR allows researchers to extract and
evaluate the available research on a particular phenomenon of interest (Kitchenham et al.,
2009) and serves as a foundation to the research in the field (Webster & Watson, 2002). To
conduct our SLR, we follow guidelines from Bandara et al. (2015) to ensure our review
provides an exhaustive and comprehensive insight into BPM contributions related to ES.
Because the earliest ES-related academic paper in IS was published in 2006, while research into
ES in BPM prior to 2005 is non-existent, our study covers the time period of 2005 to 2019. To
identify as many relevant articles as possible, we relied on Google Scholar rather than purely
IS or BPM publication outlets, after identifying keywords via an initial IS and BPM data set. In
addition to identifying academic papers, we identified several authoritative industry reports
on ES issues and challenges to allow us to contrast industry focus with academic contributions.
The search strategies for both types of contributions are outlined in the following sub-section.
4.1 Search Strategy
To identify search terms relevant for our study, we first explored ES-related keywords,
variations and word-stems in use specifically by the IS and BPM community. We used a set of
publications in prominent IS journals and high-quality conferences, because this is where most
IS and BPM publications can be found. Our data set included the Association for Information
Systems (AIS) senior scholars’ basket of eight journals1, the Business Process Management
Journal (BPMJ) and top IS and BPM conferences2.
We reviewed the IS and BPM literature for frequently used ES-related keywords and identified
‘Green’, ‘Environmentally Sustainable’, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Sustainable’, as key terms. We
1 European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS), Information Systems Journal (ISJ), Information Systems
Research (ISR), Journal of AIS (JAIS), Journal of Information Technology (JIT), Journal of Management
Information Systems (JMIS), Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS), and MIS Quarterly.
2 Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), European Conference on Information
Systems (ECIS), International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), American Conference on

Information Systems (AMCIS), Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), and Business
Process Management Conference (BPM).
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also considered stemmed searches using derivations and variations of the terms
‘Environmental’ and ‘Sustainability’. Through keeping the search terms broad and combining
them with Boolean operators (see Table 1), we identified a pool of papers to analyse to identify
more specific ES-related terms used by IS and BPM researchers.
Boolean
Broad BPM/IS search terms Broad ES terms
Operators
Information systems (IS) AND Environmentally sustainable
BPM ES
Business process reengineering Green
(BPR) Environmental, environmentally, environment*, sustainable,
sustainability, sustain*
Narrow BPM/IS search terms Narrow ES Search terms
Process Carbon-footprint, GHG Emission, energy, ecological,
environmentally-aware, carbon-aware, energy-aware
Table 1 Search Terms and Operators
Via a manual review, we observed that some papers did not specifically mention ES in their
title, yet still focused on ES (e.g. ‘carbon-footprint (CO2)’, Energy, ‘GHG emission’ and
‘Ecological’). Therefore, we included these terms to ensure our later search using Google
Scholar was inclusive. Terms such as ‘environmentally-aware’, ‘carbon-aware’, ‘energy-
aware’ were also used to identify search terms. By identifying and choosing the most-used ES
terms in IS and BPM publications, we derived a list of relevant search terms (see Table 1). After
identifying these terms, we combined stemmed terms to conduct searches using Google
Scholar to identify publications as our primary collection of literature. We searched only
articles by authors who used titles that combined our BPM and ES keywords as we considered
these articles to have a central focus on ES and BPM. Then, we iteratively performed forward
and backward searches, exploring bibliographic references and authors in retrieved
publications.
Through this process we identified 269 journal and conference papers containing Green BPM,
Green IT and Green IS contributions. By maintaining the same approach of first considering
article titles, we created three categories of papers. Forty-nine publications matching ES
relevant keywords and Business Process/BPM were considered to be within our Tier 1
publications. Subsequently, 122 papers with titles containing ES related terms and IS were
ranked as Tier 2, while 98 papers focused on ES and IT were ranked as Tier 3 papers. We
excluded Tiers 2 and 3 to maintain our focus on ES and process/BPM. Table 2 presents our
criteria for including and excluding papers.
To ensure an exhaustive collection of BPM-focused articles, and assuming some IS-focused
articles may contain BPM-related concepts, we double-checked excluded papers. Specifically,
we conducted a full-text search for the term ‘process’ in the 122 Tier 2 articles, which resulted
in 20 matching articles. However, because a manual review revealed none focused on BPM,
they were not included in our analysis. Accordingly, using forward and backward searches,
overall, we identified 49 relevant academic papers.
To ensure an exhaustive collection of BPM-focused articles, and assuming some IS-focused
articles may contain BPM-related concepts, we double-checked excluded papers. Specifically,
we conducted a full-text search for the term ‘process’ in the 122 Tier 2 articles, which resulted
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in 20 matching articles. However, because a manual review revealed none focused on BPM,
they were not included in our analysis. Accordingly, using forward and backward searches,
overall, we identified 49 relevant academic papers.
Inclusion Tier and Criteria

Tier 1: Green BPM – articles with a focus on BPM and ES (49 papers)
Industry reports with a focus on ES (6 reports)
Exclusion Tier and Criteria
Tier 2: Green IS (122 papers)
Tier 3: Green IT (98 papers)
Articles did not match the inclusion criteria
Non-English articles
Articles containing search terms such as BPM AND ‘process’ but not relevant to our focus and inclusion
criteria
Table 2 Inclusions and exclusions
To identify industry ES challenges, we performed a Google search using the keywords:

‘Environmentally sustainable’, ‘ES’ and ‘Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI)’. Our
resulting corpus included six authoritative agendas and annual reports. These were reports
from global bodies (e.g., the United Nations [UN]), peak industry bodies and, for a local
perspective, the Australian Government:
• The Australian Government Sustainability Plan (2010–2015) presents a plan to
reduce carbon emissions and improve the sustainability of ICT operations
(Commonwealth of Australia, 2010).
• A New Era of Sustainability: UN Global Compact — Accenture’s 2010 CEO Study
reports the challenges within the journey toward a sustainable economy (Lacy et
al., 2010).
• The 2014 Annual Report by the United Nations Environment Programme (2014)
highlights global development and challenges to overcome climate change and
other sustainability issues.
• The Synthesis Report on Climate Change presents findings of three working
groups that contributed to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): the most thorough
assessment of climate change undertaken by the IPCC (2014).
• The Sustainable Australia Report 2013 covers emerging issues and major trends for
Australia’s sustainability, including ES (National Sustainability Council, 2013).
• ES and Industry: Road to a Sustainable Future is the largest survey of
environmental practices developed from findings of the National Sustainability
Council (2013). It was conducted by the Australian Industry Group in conjunction
with Sustainability Victoria (Australian Industry Group, 2007).
4.2 Coding and content analysis
After compiling our corpus of 49 academic papers (see Appendix), we coded it to identify the
significance and frequency of concepts contained within. We looked for search terms, relevant
phrases, theoretical constructs and proposed research artefacts. Specifically, we looked for
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relevant BPM concepts addressed, advanced and developed, as well as any of the EPIs and ES
concepts addressed, studied, tested and or implemented using process-oriented methods. To
do so, we first identified a set of coding criteria, using an Excel spreadsheet.
We began with basic codes, resulting in spreadsheet columns headed, ‘Title’, ‘Year of
publication’, ‘Main contribution’, ‘BPM concept’, ‘Research methodology’, ‘Data collection
method’, ‘Data analysis method’, ‘Assumptions’ and ‘Limitations’. In our first round of
analysis, the ES and BPM specific coding criteria were based primarily on sustainability
keywords identified from key papers in the sustainability literature and frequently mentioned
concepts in BPM academic publications (Australian Industry Group, 2007; Epstein & Roy,
2001; Goodland, 1995; Hammond et al., 1995; Hoesch-Klohe & Ghose, 2012; Jasch, 2000). We
based the main themes of these papers on ‘types of sustainability (economic, social,
environmental)’, and EPIs (e.g., ‘energy consumption’, ‘CO2 footprint’, ‘GHG emissions’,
‘waste management’, ‘water consumption’ and ‘recycling’). Similarly, we identified
organizational factors related to ES and recorded them as ‘management’, ‘strategy’ and
‘culture’. We classified studies about management of structure, practices, operations, and
inter-organizational collaborations that support ES as ‘management’ factors; decision-making,
and internal and external policies as ‘strategy’ factors; and ES organizational culture as
‘culture’ factors (Dada et al., 2013; Jakobi et al., 2016; Sharma, 2000; Wesumperuma et al., 2011).
All 49 publications were repeatedly examined to identify the presence of the concepts
mentioned above. Moreover, we identified and included literature reviews (Couckuyt & Van
Looy, 2019; Maciel, 2017; Schoormann et al., 2017; Stolze et al., 2012) in our literature set for
completeness. While the EPIs and organizational factors were identified from the literature
before coding the 49 articles, a set of BPM concepts (presented in section 5) emerged through
consolidating the ‘BPM concept’ code and recoding all papers iteratively. We conducted a
second round of analysis on our literature corpus to identify themes relevant to environmental
impact assessment methods such as ‘LCA method’, ‘EIO analysis’, ‘hybrid assessment
methods’, and further emerging concepts relevant to ES.
5 Results
Our 49-paper corpus (see Appendix) consisted of 29 conference papers, 8 journal articles and
12 book chapters published between 2005 to 2019 (see Figure 1). While the results indicate
some preliminary interest in ES from BPM researchers, there was no evident trend. However,
as the publication distribution suggests, ES gained more attention from BPM researchers
during 2011 and 2012, due to special issues of journals and conference tracks on the topic of
sustainability.
In the following subsections, we explore Green BPM research from different perspectives.
First, we explore the main BPM concepts contributing to ES and relevant organizational
factors. Subsequently, using the EPI focus in industry reports, we summarise Green BPM
research from an EPI perspective. In addition, we explain how Green BPM research has
contributed to environmental impact assessment methods, and, finally, we explore the use of
theory in BPM research in the context of ES.
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Book chapter Conference Journal

14
12
1
10
3
8
1
6
4 6 8
2 2 4 1 2 5 2
1 3 2 1
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Figure 1 Distribution of publications by type per year
5.1 Contributions of predominant BPM concepts to ES

Through multiple iterations of reading and coding the papers, we identified nine core BPM
concepts within the Green BPM literature, as follows:
‘BPM lifecycle extension’ suggests additional components to the current BPM lifecycle
models (Rosemann & vom Brocke, 2010; Van Der Aalst, 2004; Weske, 2012) aiming to design,
analyse, model and validate business processes based on ES objectives (i.e., Green BPM
Lifecycle) (Jakobi et al., 2016; Nowak, Leymann, & Schumm, 2011; Opitz et al., 2014a; Recker
et al., 2012)
‘BPM architecture extension’ refers to models and tools proposed to improve the business
process management architecture of organizations based on targeted ES goals (Harmon, 2010;
Lübbecke et al., 2016b).
‘Capability maturity model extension’ refers to extended theoretical dimensions for
organizations to measure their current BPM maturity level based on ES as a capability (Cleven
et al., 2012; Nowak, Leymann, & Schumm, 2011; Nowak et al., 2011; Seidel et al., 2012).
‘Process performance measurement method extension’ refers to performance measurement
methods developed and or adopted to capture environmental process performance based on
EPIs (Ardagna et al., 2008; Hoesch-Klohe & Ghose, 2010; Nowak, et al., 2011a; Recker et al.,
2012; Thies et al., 2012; Wesumperuma et al., 2013).
‘Process modelling extension’ refers to additional modelling methods or process modelling
notations to enrich process models with ES information (Hoesch-Klohe & Ghose, 2012;
Hoesch-Klohe et al., 2010; Recker et al., 2012; Wesumperuma et al., 2011).
‘Process reengineering’ and ‘process design’3 refer to suggested techniques and methods to
assist organizations in designing and reengineering (Hammer & Champy, 1993) their business
processes based on environmental objectives, e.g. reducing CO2 or GHG emissions (Ghose et
al., 2010; Hoesch-Klohe & Ghose, 2010; Lübbecke et al., 2016b; Nowak & Leymann, 2013;
Nowak et al., 2011a; Wesumperuma et al., 2013).
3 Process design is concerned with creating processes to meet specific requirements inside the
organization. Process reengineering is concerned with radically changing processes to maximize value
in the organization, which can involve process design.
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‘Process Optimization’ (by re-designing, improving and adopting) refers to developed

concepts based on iterative stages of monitoring, redesigning and improving business
processes to move them towards ES organizational objectives (Ghose et al., 2010; Houy et al.,
2012; Jakobi et al., 2016; Nowak & Leymann, 2013; Pernici et al., 2008; Wesumperuma et al.,
2013; Wesumperuma et al., 2011).
‘Definition of Green BPM extension’ includes attempts to define Green BPM based on past
definitions of BPM (Weske et al., 2004) and proposed environmental performance aspects of
processes (Ghose et al., 2010; Opitz et al., 2014b; Seidel & Recker, 2012).
The top three most prominent categories of contribution from BPM to ES were through process
optimization, process performance measurement methods and process design (see Figure 2).4
Several other BPM concepts were also featured, as per Figure 2. For example, twenty-four per
cent of the examined papers have contributed to the BPM lifecycle and 12% to definition
extension (most being conceptual studies). In the following subsections we provide a summary
of these research contributions.
Green BPM Definition extension 12%
Process Optimization 53%
Process design 33%
Process Reengineering 18%
Business Process Modelling Notation… 18%
Process Performance Measurement Methods 35%
Capability Maturity Model Extension 6%
BPM Architecture Extension 8%
BPM Lifecycle Extension 24%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Figure 2 Relevant BPM Concepts
5.1.1 Process optimization

Context-aware approaches have been suggested to optimize the use of operational resources
(Pernici et al., 2008). A context-aware approach increases the capability of an IS to react
dynamically to operating conditions and, therefore, improves the use of resources with
minimum energy consumption. Further approaches have been explored in the context of
defining and measuring ecological characteristics of processes (Nowak and Leymann, 2013;
Wesumperuma et al., 2011) and to do so, the concept of key ecological indicators (the same as
EPIs) was suggested by Nowak et al. (2011). Furthermore, the requirement for a
multidimensional framework for business process optimization was identified by
Wesumperuma et al. (2011). The framework demonstrated how modelling, measuring,
analysing and optimizing business processes supports the mitigation of GHG emissions from
4Twenty-eight papers had multiple contributions in terms of BPM concepts, therefore, we have coded
the authors and their contributions through different lenses.
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business processes. Although the proposed framework was not implemented at the time of
the study and therefore was not validated, the study was extended to investigate further
methods to optimize GHG emissions of processes and to develop green activity-based
management (ABM) (Wesumperuma et al., 2013). Green ABM merges activity-based costing
(ABC) and the critical path method (CPM) and proposes the use of environmental metrics such
as GHG emissions in the same manner as businesses use process performance metrics such as
time and cost in regard to processes. Accordingly, a green ABM approach provides an
opportunity for organizations to include green objectives in their business performance
objectives and thus adopt multi-dimensional process optimization.
To further align green initiatives with business and process objectives, the concept of
‘collaborative Green BPM’ was introduced, which enables stakeholder involvement in
organisational sustainability initiatives (Jakobi et al., 2016). Similarly, to minimize the
environmental impacts of processes, a theoretical roadmap for a carbon modelling framework
was proposed by Ghose et al. (2010). Its aim is to reflect the carbon footprint of process
activities, so the carbon footprint of processes becomes visible and can be easily communicated
to stakeholders. Furthermore, to assist in identifying and reducing the environmental impact
of processes, an ecological workflow pattern was developed to optimize green business
processes (Lübbecke et al., 2016b). This approach provided decision analytics support for
operations, control flow and data. The study was extended to explore further ecological
process optimizations through compliance checking (Lübbecke et al., 2017) and suggested
process pattern checking (Lübbecke et al., 2017; Lübbecke et al., 2018) as a method to categorize
processes based on design patterns. The study extended the application of a compliance
checking method by identifying ecological weaknesses and ultimately optimizing business
processes.
5.1.2 Process performance measurement methods
Research extending ‘process performance measurement methods’ has generally focused on
the EPIs of ‘CO2 footprint’, ‘energy consumption’ and ‘GHG emissions’ (Ardagna et al., 2008;
Cleven et al., 2012; Hoesch-Klohe & Ghose, 2010; Hoesch-Klohe et al., 2010; Lübbecke et al.,
2016b; Recker et al., 2012; Thies et al., 2012; Wesumperuma et al., 2013). The earliest theoretical
framework for an active energy-aware resource management mechanism suggested the
development of process-based applications that offer high performance, are energy efficient
and also measure energy consumption (Ardagna et al., 2008). A multidimensional quality of
service (QoS) measurement approach for measuring the emissions of processes was also
suggested using an algebraic structure of c-semiring, aiming to measure the carbon footprint
of processes (Hoesch-Klohe & Ghose, 2010). The study suggested the Abnoba framework to
measure the heterogeneous environmental impacts of activities in processes. Wesumperuma
(2015) expanded on earlier studies (Wesumperuma et al., 2013; Wesumperuma et al., 2011) to
develop an activity-based reporting tool that creates, calculates and includes a GHG emissions
inventory from activities undertaken at the business-process level. In addition, a method with
a focus on process performance measurement was proposed (Cappiello et al., 2013), to
improve measurement indicators such as energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and process
performance requirements, measured by suitable metrics. The study used a virtual machine
to test the approach in regard to improving performance while maintaining energy efficiency.
11
5.1.3 Process design and reengineering

Process design has been explored in several studies. A conceptual study explored the benefits
of service-oriented process design (Pernici et al., 2008) to achieve sustainability objectives in
organisations. Based on the same concept, and to improve the environmental impact in
organizations, Nowak et al. (2011b) identified frequently used process design patterns. The
study focuses on organizational factors of ES, such as management. Further research related
to design patterns classified green process design patterns and described the connection of the
design with services, artefacts and applications (Nowak et al., 2012). Later, the study was
extended (Nowak & Leymann, 2013) to assist organizational stakeholders in identifying
sustainable patterns and designing environmentally aware business processes.
Ecological (green) business process patterns were further analysed using general and specific
recurring green patterns in German public sector administration (Lübbecke et al., 2016a). The
study was extended with guidelines to model and design ecology-aware (green) processes
(Lübbecke et al., 2017). However, both studies are ongoing, and the results are based on
synthetic scenarios.
5.1.4 BPM lifecycle and Green BPM definition extension
The need to extend the BPM lifecycle into a ‘Green BPM lifecycle’ was identified by Seidel et
al. (2011). By reviewing ES in the context of IT and IS literature, the study explored how IT
could enable organizations to make sustainability transparent in their processes. A range of
enablers of, and barriers to, adopting such processes in operations were identified through this
research. Consequently, the study suggested that organizations require green initiatives,
capabilities and motivators as a means of encouragement to include sustainability in their
operations and to enable them to provide sustainable IT and IS solutions to their customers.
To this end, the authors proposed the Green BPM lifecycle. Further, Seidel et al. (2012)
emphasized the central role BPM plays in creating environmentally sustainable practices and
argued that business and IT managers should provide a process-centred environment and
opportunities for understanding organizational processes. The study further developed a
framework for Green BPM research by exploring opportunities and contributions that BPM
can offer in the context of ES.
Focusing on phases of the BPM lifecycle, the influence of Green BPM was examined in the
Malaysian manufacturing sector (Kuppusamy & Gharleghi, 2015). With a specific focus on
green-supplier selection, monitoring and collaboration, the study found that green-supplier
monitoring and management significantly improves the greening processes in the
manufacturing sector. They also defined Green BPM differently to Seidel et al. (2012) and
Opitz et al. (2014b), as a factory’s institutionalization of internal environmental management
practices that includes process design such that environmental impacts are reduced.
5.1.5 Process modelling notation extension
A process modelling notation was suggested to reflect the relationship between resources and
activities (Hoesch-Klohe et al., 2010) in a study that illustrated how the measurement and
modelling method could be used to improve the environmental impact of business processes.
Similarly, several studies suggested various modelling methods that could be used to
represent the environmental impact of business processes (Lübbecke et al., 2017; Lübbecke et
al., 2018; Schoormann et al., 2017). A process modelling notation to allow for the representation
of the carbon footprint of a business process was also developed by Recker et al. (2012).
12
Furthermore, an emissions modelling and reporting method for CO2 and GHG emissions was
proposed by Wesumperuma et al. (2013).
5.1.6 BPM architecture and capability maturity model extension
A capability maturity model that enables organizations to define and control their corporate
sustainability is one of the contributions within this category. The model, based on a BPM
capability model, integrates ES into the regular BPM capability of the organization and helps
employees to understand the current performance and targets for future improvements in
different areas, including ES (Seidel et al., 2012; Cleven et al., 2012). Capability maturity
enables organizations to define, implement and monitor their sustainability efforts, based on
a BPM capabilities model (de Bruin & Rosemann, 2007).
5.2 Organizational factors in Green BPM research
Organizational factors include management, strategy and culture, all of which are essential in
achieving ES (Wesumperuma et al., 2011). We found 45 per cent of the analysed articles
acknowledged the significance of organizational perspectives by using BPM to develop
conceptual frameworks and models that involved organizational perspectives (see Figure 3).
Contributions to these areas in the current body of Green BPM literature are outlined below.
5.2.1 Management
The main ES focus, from an organizational perspective, of our 49-paper research corpus was
the overarching concept of ‘management’. We identified organizational structures, practices,
operations and inter-organizational collaborations as key factors that support ES.
Management also encompasses decision-making in internal and external policies and overlaps
with ‘strategy’ factors; and ‘culture’ factors (Dada et al., 2013; Sharma, 2000; Wesumperuma et
al., 2011).
Figure 3 EPIs and relevant organizational factors
5.2.2 Strategy and culture

Organizational strategy and culture influence an organization’s environmental performance
(Dada et al., 2013; Epstein & Roy, 2001; González‐Benito & González‐Benito, 2006; Sharma,
13
2000). Thus, to positively affect environmental performance, new values need to be

implemented at all levels of the organizational structure and novel strategies need to be
planned and regulated by national and international bodies (Lacy et al., 2010).
5.3 EPI focus in industry versus Green BPM research
In addition to analysing academic articles, we reviewed six reports from global institutions
such as the UN, large industry bodies and the Australian Government. Table 3 shows the
industry reports consistently focus on nearly all of the EPIs and organizational factors. The
Commonwealth of Australia (2010) has set mandatory environmental standards for energy
consumption (i.e., the ISO14001 standard family) for the ICT sector to which organizations
must comply by resource recovery and recycling of material (e.g., digital devices). The IPCC
(2014) addressed the challenges of climate change and provided a future pathway for
adaptation, risk mitigation and sustainable development according to EPIs. Indeed, industry
is expected to reduce the environmental impact of its activities in all its sectors, as per the Paris
Climate Change Agreement (Harvey, 2015; Morgan et al., 2014; Rogelj et al., 2016).
Organizational Factors Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI)
CO2 Footprint
Consumption
Consumption
Management
Management
Emissions
Recycling
Strategy
Culture
(Other)
Energy
Reports
Waste
Water
GHG
(Commonwealth of
✗
Australia, 2010)
(Lacy et al., 2010)
(United Nations
Environment ✗
Programme, 2014)
(IPCC, 2014)
(National Sustainability
✗
Council, 2013)
(Australian Industry
Group, 2007)
Table 3 Focus of industry reports by ES organizational factors and EPIs
Energy consumption is a main agenda of all of our six identified industry/government reports,
including the United Nations Environment Programme (2014) and the ICT Sustainability Plan
by the Commonwealth of Australia (2010). An environmental management strategy is
required to audit and control energy consumption. Of the 49 identified research articles, 15
(i.e., 31%) contain contributions to energy consumption management. From these 15, 14 are
conceptual in nature and focus on energy-aware applications to reduce energy consumption
(Ardagna et al., 2008), purifier-based approaches (Pernici et al., 2008), a case study on network-
centric solutions (Thies et al., 2012), applying an algebraic framework to multiple
heterogeneous dimensions (Hoesch-Klohe & Ghose, 2012), process improvement methods to
support measuring and monitoring performance and energy efficiency, and a conceptual
integration model for energy consumption from IT components to business processes (Reiter
et al., 2014). Energy consumption and waste in processes can be reduced by applying
14
techniques and solutions from BPM (Houy et al., 2011). Furthermore, energy consumption
feedback systems can change organizational behaviour in relation to energy consumption
(Jakobi et al., 2016).
CO2 and GHG emissions directly influence climate change (IPCC, 2014; Young &
Rikhardsson, 1996). From 1970 to 2010, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industrial
processes contributed 78 per cent of the total worldwide GHG accumulation (IPCC, 2014).
Continued emissions of high levels of CO2 and GHG will increase the possibility of pervasive,
severe impacts on the population and the ecosystem by increasing surface and ocean
temperatures (IPCC, 2014). The United Nations Environment Programme (2014) produced a
roadmap for cutting emissions because costs of climate change adaptation will reach $300
billion per year by 2050. The concern about climate change from GHG emissions also continues
to grow (Lacy et al., 2010). Of the 49 BPM research articles, 11 articles (22%) focus on measuring
and managing CO2 emissions. These contributions, which are mostly conceptual in nature,
include a framework for carbon-aware process improvement (Hoesch-Klohe & Ghose, 2012),
a roadmap to optimize the carbon modelling framework (Ghose et al., 2010), activity-based
emissions analysis for measuring CO2 in processes (including a modelling notation extension,
specifically BPMN) (Recker et al., 2011; Recker et al., 2012), network centric solutions (Thies et
al., 2012), conceptual advancement of methods for measuring and monitoring process
performance based on EPIs such as CO2 (Cappiello et al., 2013) and theoretical principles for
capturing, measuring, modelling and reporting CO2 and GHG emissions (Wesumperuma et
al., 2013). A process-based method was proposed by Ghose et al. (2010) to measure emissions
from business processes. The method uses three scopes: 1) direct emissions that occur from
internal activities in an organization; 2) indirect emissions from sources external to the
organization; and 3) all other indirect emissions not part of scope two which are material
emissions, employee commuting emissions etc. Based on this approach, there are three types
of resources, atomic, shared resources and hybrid resources, which organizations need to
consider while measuring the carbon footprint and GHG emissions of their activities. The
paper provides a roadmap for carbon-aware BPM. The studies focusing on CO2 footprint and
GHG emissions are mainly conceptual.
Recycling, waste management and water consumption have received less focus from the
BPM research community. Of the 49 publications studied, four focus on waste management,
with recycling and water consumption having three related articles each. Hoesch-Klohe and
Ghose (2010) discussed the potential of extended EPIs in the application of the Abnoba
Algebraic framework for process optimization. The authors presented a conceptual
framework for the green quality of service measures that generalizes qualitative and
quantitative scales and permits the integration of multiple heterogeneous measures into a
single composite scale. As a result, the framework can measure ‘water consumption’, ‘CO2
emissions’ and ‘waste generation’, which are mainly quantifiable, and ‘damage to fauna and
flora’, which is qualitative. Combined measures such as ‘air quality’ and ‘environmental
performance’ could be heterogeneously measured together. Thus, while the main global and
industry reports indicate the significance of these three EPIs in achieving ES (Australian and
New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council State of the Environment Reporting
Task Force, 2000; Australian Industry Group, 2007; Commonwealth of Australia, 2010; IPCC,
2014; United Nations Environment Programme, 2014), a substantial response from the BPM
literature is yet to come. Again, most of the studies are conceptual with the three EPIs being
narrowly discussed.
15
Table 4 summarizes the number of articles that contribute to an EPI through a specific BPM
concept. For each BPM concept, it also shows the contributions to relevant organizational
factors, and the overall number of research papers that have focused on that particular BPM
concept.
Organizational
Environmental performance indicators (EPI)
factors
Total number of
GHG emissions
CO2 footprint
Management
consumption
consumption
management
BPM Concepts
Recycling
Strategy
Culture
(Other)
Energy
papers
Waste
Water
BPM Lifecycle Extension 5 4 2 1 3 1 - 1 - 12
BPM Architecture Extension 2 2 1 1 - - - - - 4
Capability Maturity Model
3 2 1 - - - - - - 3
Extension
Process Performance
6 3 1 6 6 5 2 2 2 17
Measurement Extension
Process Modelling Extension 3 1 1 1 4 2 1 - - 9
Business Process
4 2 - 3 1 2 1 1 1 9
Reengineering
Process Design 6 2 1 6 5 4 2 2 2 16
Process Optimization 11 5 2 8 7 7 1 1 1 26
Green BPM definition
3 2 1 - - - - - - 6
extension
Table 4 BPM concepts contributing to ES organizational factors and EPIs
5.4 Contribution to environmental impact assessment methods

Several articles have contributed to assessing the environmental impact of processes using
existing impact assessment techniques applied to products, services and operations such as
lifecycle assessment (LCA), input-output analysis (EIO) or resource-based analysis.
Process-analysis techniques for activity-based costing were adapted by Recker et al. (2011) to
measure the environmental emissions of processes under the title of activity-based emissions.
The authors also discussed three diverse methods to measure CO2 emissions from business
processes: bottom-up, which is the same as process-based analysis; top-down, which is the
analysis of inputs and outputs of processes or products; and a hybrid or combined method
that uses a combination of the two other methods. They calculated CO2 emissions on an
exploratory case of a direct invoicing process in an organization. Later, Recker et al. (2012)
proposed an approach to modelling and recording the carbon footprints of business processes.
Using a business process model example and an extended activity-based costing example, the
authors presented a process-based perspective of modelling and analysing CO2 emissions
from business processes. An extension to process modelling was suggested which allows
better communication and monitors the compliance and recording of environmental
information about processes. Example case studies were used to demonstrate the practicality
of conducting an activity- and process-based measurement of environmental emissions from
business processes.
16
With a focus on identifying the environmental impact of activities, Hoesch-Klohe and Ghose
(2012) reviewed suggested potential BPM contributions to ES in organizations. The authors
noted that the environmental impact of activities and processes could be identified using a
variety of different methods (e.g., educated guess by experts, activity-based costing, and
derivation from resource model and carbon-dioxide accumulation). They used case studies to
demonstrate a trade-off analysis for environmentally aware business process design and a
framework for green process improvement.
Regarding bottom-up impact assessment, Wesumperuma et al. (2013) proposed a green
activity-based management (ABM) approach to measure, report and manage environmentally
sustainable business processes. This study was later extended by Wesumperuma (2015) to
develop an activity-based reporting tool which creates, calculates and incorporates a GHG
emissions inventory of activities at the business-process levels.
5.5 Use of theory in Green BPM research
Academic literature should develop, test and use theories; this applies in the IS field (Gregor,
2006) as well as in the BPM fields and sets academic publications apart from practitioner and
consultant reports. Therefore, we also reviewed the literature to identify examples of theory
building. Of the 49 publications we analysed, five applied theories to their studies and two
theorized models using case studies, but none attempted to extend previously developed
theories.
Ardagna et al. (2008) applied systems and control theory and queuing theory (Qin & Wang,
2007) to their framework for active energy-aware management of business processes.
Whereas, Cleven et al. (2012) used Socio-Technical theory (Bostrom & Heinen, 1977) to
understand the different components, systems and sub-systems in organizations that should
be considered to understand, measure and manage the impact of IS activities on the
environment. To develop energy-aware and optimized processes, Cappiello et al. (2013) used
a multiple criteria decision-making theory (Triantaphyllou, 2000). Furthermore, to highlight
the benefits to companies for adopting environmentally sustainable practices, Kuppusamy
and Gharleghi (2015) used RBV theory (Barney, 1991) to study the competitive advantage
companies can gain by applying their valuable resources to sustainable practices. Finally,
considering the role of the consumer, Jakobi et al. (2016) explained that rational choice theory
(Jackson, 2005) and value belief norm theory (Stern et al., 1999) support feedback campaigns
for change in consumer behaviour to reduce energy consumption.
A case study on the adoption of environmentally sustainable practices conducted by Seidel et
al. (2010) recognized that IT can enable sustainable operations. Their study also encouraged
future research to investigate the adoption of sustainable practices to develop a more
generalized view and theoretical models. Also based on case studies, Seidel and Recker (2012)
developed a framework to theorize sustainable business process implementation.
6 Green BPM: The next steps

Our analysis of global industry reports reflects an increasing understanding of organizational
factors and EPIs related to ES (see Table 3). By using various BPM concepts, we propose several
research directions within the BPM and ES context, as outlined below.
Several studies focused on management and strategy within organizations have
recommended extending the BPM lifecycle into a Green BPM lifecycle. BPM is often referred
17
to as a holistic management approach in managing an organization’s performance; therefore,

naturally, it should also focus on the cultural, strategic and management success factors, and
complexities of continual process improvement to achieve ES throughout Green BPM lifecycle
phases. Future Green BPM research should involve designing, evaluating, implementing and
monitoring environmentally sustainable processes that meet the ES strategies for all EPIs.
Further, while Green BPM literature has generated knowledge about organizational aspects of
environmentally sustainable BPM, successful adoption and sustainable solutions that include
economic and social sustainability should also be explored in more depth. Consequently,
critical success factors for Green BPM should be explored.
BPM architecture studies have not considered EPIs specifically, yet the need exists for
researchers to consider further dimensions of BPM architecture that address EPIs and combine
processes, practices and structure of organizations into a capability model. A capability model
should include environmentally sustainable practices, strategies and governance that guides
the targets and assessment and improvement of green capability maturity of organizations. A
green capability maturity model would enable organizations to identify, assess and improve
their practices, processes and strategies with regards to their ES objectives. Such research into
suitable capability maturity models that address specific EPIs is restricted even though the
extent of the overlap of the capabilities related to managing specific EPIs is clear.
More than any other BPM concept, a considerable number of studies have focussed on
measuring process performance. Several studies explore methods to measure and manage
EPIs using energy consumption and CO2 and GHG emissions. While some evidence exists of
suitable measurement methods for other EPIs (e.g., recycling, water consumption and waste
management), most research is conceptual in nature and lacks further evidence of how to
apply measures successfully and correctly. Further study is required to identify the right EPIs
and techniques to measure the impact in organizations. To support industry to reduce climate
change, we see a need for studies focused on implementing EPI measurement methods,
organizational planning, and changing organizational procedures as well as changing
organizational culture to address the management of all EPIs, to provide guidance to
organisations.
Several researchers have suggested extending process modelling notations to reflect EPIs such
as CO2 footprint and GHG emissions in process models. Future research should explore
whether and what ES information would be useful to visualise in business process models in
practice, whether they also apply to other EPIs and, ultimately, whether they enable better
management/awareness of EPIs in the long run.
We suggest further research in identifying the success factors of environmentally sustainable
process design, reengineering and optimization. Stolze et al. (2012) and Thies et al. (2012)
provide an initial study of success factors related to implementing environmentally
sustainable processes. However, design, adoption and implementation of ES in organizations
incurs a cost and requires significant change (Adger et al., 2005; Christmann, 2000), thus it is
important that studies identify and empirically validate related success factors. We
particularly note a lack of studies that focus on adopting green practices and processes without
compromising organizational and process competence.
In general, we also see a lack of research into the cultural factors underlying BPM and ES (see
Table 4). While benefits can be achieved from applying BPM initiatives because of the
18
incremental improvement approach they take and their holistic view of people and systems
(Pritchard & Armistead, 1999; vom Brocke & Sinnl, 2011), adopting ES requires a culture
change by organizations (Harris & Crane, 2002). Culture change may be achieved through
reflecting on the environmental impact of individual behaviour in organizations; also, by
democratizing information and holding discussions with individuals (Degirmenci & Recker,
2018). Green or eco nudging has also been shown to influence individual behaviour and
overall practices in organizations (Hall, 2013). However, changing any practice in
organizations requires continual improvement (Gao & Low, 2014). Therefore, change in
organizational practices and individual behaviour towards ES requires raising public and
individual awareness about the impact of climate change, together with offering practical
solutions to individuals (Linnenluecke & Griffiths, 2010; Nerlich et al., 2010). Future studies
could consider the effect of increasing individual ES awareness, perhaps via games, apps
and/or devices, to raise awareness of specific EPIs. For example, gamification has received
recent academic attention (Hamari et al., 2014; Schlagenhaufer & Amberg, 2015) yet its value
in the context of ES, by changing individuals’ awareness of ES and their behaviour, is
unknown.
7 Conclusion
In this study, we conducted a systematic review of Green BPM literature to identify relevant
contributions to environmental sustainability, with a specific lens on EPIs and relevant
organizational factors. To this end, we identified, collected and analysed 49 relevant academic
research articles. Our analysis identified the core BPM contributions, viz., BPM Lifecycle
Extension, BPM Architecture Extension, Capability Maturity Model Extension, Process Performance
Measurement Extension, Process Modelling Extension, Business Process Reengineering, Process
Design, Process Optimization, Green BPM definition extension, with the main ones being Process
Optimization, Process Performance Measurement Methods and Process Design. We also identified
Green BPM literature’s most researched EPIs as energy consumption, CO2 emissions and GHG
emission and summarised Green BPM contributions through the EPI lens. Further, we
presented Green BPM contributions from the perspective of environmental impact assessment
methods, and, finally, considered the use of theory underlying Green BPM research. As a
result of our analysis, we identified future research directions related to the core BPM concepts
identified.
Our literature review is not without limitations. While papers were collected and identified by
one researcher and checked by another, coding of the papers to BPM and ES was done by one
researcher. Despite the coding being conducted using multiple iterations of full readings of
relevant papers, having a single coder remains a shortcoming that might introduce bias in the
analysis. In addition, while we strived to consider the largest set of relevant papers possible,
our focus was on contributions published in English only. Our search also resulted in some
green supply chain management (SCM) articles. While ‘process’ is a common term in SCM,
because none of the articles we found explicitly focused on Green BPM we excluded green
SCM from this study, which presents a limitation in scope.
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2020, Vol 24, Research Article
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Table 5 Distribution of research contributions to ES and BPM concepts in 49 analysed papers
29
Roohy Gohar & Indulska
Environmental Sustainability through Green BPM
Copyright: © 2020 Roohy Gohar & Indulska. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Australia License, which
permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and AJIS are credited.
doi: https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v24i0.2057
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Australasian Journal of Information Systems Roohy Gohar & Indulska

Environmental Sustainability through Green Business

the economic sustainability of an organization, thus advancing the organization’s competitive

Systems (ECIS), International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), American Conference on

Table 1 Search Terms and Operators

Inclusion Tier and Criteria

Table 2 Inclusions and exclusions

To identify industry ES challenges, we performed a Google search using the keywords:

Book chapter Conference Journal

Figure 1 Distribution of publications by type per year

5.1 Contributions of predominant BPM concepts to ES

‘Process Optimization’ (by re-designing, improving and adopting) refers to developed

Green BPM Definition extension 12%

Process Optimization 53%

Process design 33%

Process Reengineering 18%

Business Process Modelling Notation… 18%

Process Performance Measurement Methods 35%

Capability Maturity Model Extension 6%

BPM Architecture Extension 8%

BPM Lifecycle Extension 24%

Figure 2 Relevant BPM Concepts

5.1.1 Process optimization

5.1.3 Process design and reengineering

Figure 3 EPIs and relevant organizational factors

5.2.2 Strategy and culture

2000). Thus, to positively affect environmental performance, new values need to be

Organizational Factors Environmental Performance Indicators (EPI)

Table 3 Focus of industry reports by ES organizational factors and EPIs

Table 4 BPM concepts contributing to ES organizational factors and EPIs

5.4 Contribution to environmental impact assessment methods

6 Green BPM: The next steps

to as a holistic management approach in managing an organization’s performance; therefore,

Christmann, P. (2000). Effects of “best practices” of environmental management on cost

United Nations. (2016). The Sustainable Development Agenda. Retrieved from

Ardagna et al. 2008 2008 l l l l

Hoesch-Klohe et al. 2010 2010 l l l l l l l

Nowak et al. 2011a 2011 l l l

Cleven et al. 2012 2012 l l l l

Thies et al. 2012 2012 l l l l l l l l l

Table 5 Distribution of research contributions to ES and BPM concepts in 49 analysed papers

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