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The discipline of business process management (BPM) is challenged by investigating how work is performed in organizations while simultaneously recognizing preeminent environmental issues. Although organizations have become more open to the ecological impact of business processes through Green BPM, research in this field and guidance for practitioners remains relatively limited. Therefore, this study aims to extend and translate the conventional perspective on business process maturity towards green business process maturity levels.

The authors bridged product-focussed and process-focussed environmental management practices by surveying ecolabels against theoretical capability areas for business process maturity. Since ecolabels are instruments to develop environmental-friendly products and services, the authors looked at the underlying processes to produce such green outcomes. By surveying 89 ecolabel organizations, the authors had indirectly access to an international set of companies, operating in distinct industries and producing a wide variety of green products and services.

The authors statistically uncovered a classification of four groups of ecolabels based on the process capabilities, each representing a distinct green business process maturity level. The four levels are “Green BP immaturity”, “Green BPL maturity”, “Green BPM maturity” and “Green BPO maturity” and align with well-established concepts in the business process literature and profession.

Scholars are encouraged to elaborate on the identified maturity levels in order to build and test a green business process maturity model, whereas practitioner-related advice is provided based on possible green business process maturity journeys towards excellence.

Green Business Process Management (BPM) focusses on the ecological impact of business processes. Although it is an emerging field, different attitudes exist towards the discipline’s name, the objectives and the approaches to realise them. By means of a systematic literature review, the purpose of this paper is to arrive at a common understanding of the discipline for successful development.

The review methodology relies on a hermeneutic framework which integrates the search, analysis and interpretation of the literature. The sample is used in a text analysis to find an appropriate definition (RQ1), a bibliometric analysis to give insights in current Green BPM contributions (RQ2) and a content analysis to present differences with conventional BPM (RQ3).

Green BPM follows a similar development as conventional BPM, namely from a more technical perspective to also including the managerial perspective. More research is required that goes beyond the traditional business process lifecycle.

The research questions generated a comprehensive overview about application domains and research topics, which in turn can deliver benefits for both research and practitioner-related communities. Researchers identify future research avenues, while practitioners find appropriate Green BPM techniques for their domain.