Green business process management: A research agenda

Abstract

There is a global consensus on the need to reduce our collective carbon footprint. While much research attention has focused on developing alternative energy sources, automotive technologies or waste disposal techniques, we often ignore the fact that the ability to optimize (existing) operations to reduce their emissions impact is fundamental to this exercise. Business process management (BPM) technology, with its focus on understanding, modelling and improving/optimizing business processes, is a key starting point. Process modelling technology has applications beyond what we would traditionally describe as business processes - we can also model and improve manufacturing and other "physical" processes. This paper describes the contours of the emerging research landscape in green business process management and presents some early results in this area.