Green BPM Made Easy: Enhancing Environmental Sustainability in Business Processes with SOPA

The paper by Finn Klessascheck, Ingo Weber, and Luise Pufahl from the University of Lyon, INSA Lyon, France, and Infologic, France introduces a framework aimed at helping businesses assess and improve their environmental impact. Given the growing global concerns about environmental degradation, this paper emphasizes the importance of integrating sustainability into Business Process Management (BPM). Traditional BPM focuses mainly on financial and operational performance, but this framework shifts the focus to include environmental sustainability as well.

Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Activity-Based Costing

SOPA, which stands for Sustainability-Oriented Process Analysis, incorporates two key methodologies: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Activity-Based Costing (ABC). LCA evaluates the environmental impact of a product or service from its creation to its disposal. ABC, on the other hand, helps determine the true cost of business activities by considering all resources consumed. By combining these methodologies, SOPA provides a comprehensive view of the environmental costs associated with business processes and offers practical steps for redesigning these processes to be more sustainable.

The need for such a framework arises from the pressing issue of climate change and environmental degradation, which are significantly influenced by industrial activities and energy production. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals highlight the urgency of decoupling economic growth from environmental harm. Current business practices often overlook the broader environmental impacts, focusing narrowly on carbon emissions and energy consumption. SOPA addresses this gap by providing a holistic approach to evaluating and reducing environmental impacts.

Addressing Key Research Questions

The authors outline two main research questions: (1) How can businesses analyze the environmental sustainability of their processes comprehensively? (2) How can this analysis facilitate practical process redesigns? To answer these questions, SOPA integrates LCA and ABC into the BPM lifecycle, enabling businesses to assess their environmental impact thoroughly and identify areas for improvement.

The paper begins with a discussion on sustainability, emphasizing its economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Sustainability involves meeting present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet theirs. This concept is increasingly relevant in business as companies face growing pressure to operate sustainably. The authors also delve into LCA, which assesses the environmental impact across a product's entire lifecycle, from raw material extraction to disposal. This approach contrasts with traditional methods that focus only on specific stages or locations.

Practical Application and Case Study

BPM is introduced as a discipline that involves designing, managing, and analyzing business processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Business process simulation (BPS), a key tool within BPM, allows companies to model hypothetical scenarios and evaluate potential process changes before implementation. This reduces the risks and costs associated with real-world changes.

The SOPA framework is developed using a design science research (DSR) methodology, which focuses on creating and evaluating artifacts to solve practical problems. The framework was designed iteratively, incorporating feedback from experts and stakeholders. It was then tested using a real-world case study of a university hiring process.

The SOPA framework consists of three main steps. First, businesses need to model their processes and simulate or extract event logs. This involves mapping out the activities and annotating them with environmental cost drivers—factors that contribute to environmental impact. Second, the environmental costs are calculated using the annotated process models or event logs. This calculation is based on the concrete data provided by LCA and ABC. Third, if the analysis reveals high-impact activities, the process can be redesigned to reduce its environmental footprint. Business process simulation is used to test these redesigns and evaluate their effectiveness.

The paper's evaluation section demonstrates SOPA's application to the university hiring process. The case study shows how the framework can identify activities with significant environmental impacts and suggest redesigns to minimize these impacts. For instance, the hiring process involves multiple steps that can be optimized for sustainability, such as reducing paper usage or opting for digital communication.

Comprehensive Tool for Sustainable BPM

In conclusion, SOPA offers a valuable tool for businesses looking to integrate sustainability into their BPM practices. By providing a comprehensive framework for assessing and redesigning business processes, SOPA helps companies reduce their environmental impact and contribute to broader sustainability goals. The authors highlight the practical benefits of using SOPA and emphasize the importance of considering environmental sustainability in business process management.