Achieving Sustainable Development by Integrating It into the Business Process Management System

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to present an approach how to integrate sustainability related topics into an organization’s management system. As a starting point and connecting tissue, we use a process-oriented approach (BPM) for managing companies and then apply sustainability dimensions (economic, ecologic, and social) to it. Using this approach we do not change existing or already established management systems of companies, but we adapt it by modifying company vision, strategy and most importantly, management and core processes. Integrating sustainability related processes into organization management system prevents “fire-fighting” and ad-hoc activities, which are performed by companies to comply with the increasing number of sustainability related standards. In addition, we present two managerial trainings (business process management and sustainability management), which when combined, will enable managers to adapt to today’s highly competitive business environment. The concept presented here is a novel approach under the ECQA (European Certification and Qualification Organization), which will allow on-demand clustering of managerial skills and trainings (BPM and sustainability management). The results presented are particularly useful for process analysts, quality managers, sustainability managers, social responsibility managers and similar professional profiles in order to improve their companies’ activities and processes with respect to the sustainable development values.