Exploring the Role of Business Process Management in Sustainability Initiatives

The sustainability of business activities is gaining increasing importance with organizations putting more effort into this topic. Approaches from the field of Business Process Management (BPM) can support sustainability initiatives. This paper investigates the question raised by BPM researchers about the role of BPM for the transition towards a sustainable enterprise. Online content analysis of 78 case studies is used to derive the context, methods and effects of environmental initiatives across industries. While BPM techniques are foremost implemented and used to achieve cost benefits through more efficient processes, the results of this explorative study indicate they are also applied to promote and achieve an efficient use of resources leading to more sustainable business operations if supported by the top management and a “green” strategy. These results are industry independent and support the research findings in the domains of quality management as well as strategy realization providing BPM researchers and practitioners with insights on the assessment of a transition towards a more sustainable business.