A Conceptual Model and Methodology for Sustainability-aware, IoT-enhanced Business Processes

This paper proposes a conceptual model and structured methodology to systematically integrate IoT capabilities into Business Processes, enabling the measurement and improvement of sustainability across environmental, social, and economic dimensions, as demonstrated through tourism and healthcare case studies.

The Gist

Imagine you run a busy hotel. You know your guests love their stay, but you also know that running a hotel uses a lot of electricity, water, and paper, and it can be stressful for your staff. You want to be more "sustainable" (better for the planet, the economy, and your people), but you don't know exactly where to start or how to measure if your changes are actually working.

This paper is like a recipe book and a toolkit for business owners who want to use "smart" technology (called the Internet of Things, or IoT) to fix their business processes and make them greener and more efficient.

Here is the simple breakdown of what the authors propose:

1. The Big Idea: Connecting Three Worlds

The authors say that to fix a business, you need to connect three different worlds that usually don't talk to each other:

• Business Processes (BPM): The step-by-step recipe of how you do your job (e.g., checking a guest in, cleaning a room).
• Sustainability: The goal of being good for the environment, the economy, and people (not just the planet, but also your staff and your budget).
• IoT (Smart Devices): The sensors and smart gadgets (like smart plugs, motion detectors, or digital keys) that can watch what's happening and even do things automatically.

The paper creates a map (Conceptual Model) that shows how these three things fit together. It's like a translator that helps a business owner say, "I want to save energy," and the map shows, "Okay, put a smart sensor on the air conditioner to see how much power it uses."

2. The Five Pillars of "Good"

Most people think sustainability just means "saving trees." This paper argues that to be truly sustainable, you need to balance five pillars:

1. Environmental: Saving energy and reducing waste.
2. Economic: Saving money and making a profit.
3. Social: How people interact and treat each other.
4. Human (Individual): Making sure the work is easy and dignified for the people doing it.
5. Technical: Making sure the technology actually works and doesn't break.

3. The Four-Step Recipe (The Methodology)

The authors give a step-by-step guide to take a messy, manual business process and turn it into a "Smart, Sustainable" one.

• Step 1: Pick Your Goals.

  • Analogy: Before you fix a leaky roof, you decide if you want to stop the water, save money on repairs, or just make the attic look nicer.
  • In the paper: You choose which of the five pillars matter most to your business right now.

• Step 2: Measure the Problem.

  • Analogy: You can't fix what you can't measure. You need to know how much water is leaking.
  • In the paper: You look at your current process and figure out what to measure. You decide to use IoT devices (like smart plugs) to count energy usage, or surveys to count how happy guests are.

• Step 3: Look at the Data.

  • Analogy: You check your water meter and realize, "Wow, we are wasting 50 gallons a day!"
  • In the paper: You collect the data from your sensors and surveys. You analyze it to find the "bottlenecks" or waste.

• Step 4: Fix the Process.

  • Analogy: You install a new, smarter faucet that turns off automatically when no one is using it.
  • In the paper: You change your business steps. Maybe you replace the paper key card with a digital phone key, or you program the lights to turn off when the room is empty.

4. Real-World Examples (The "Proof")

The authors didn't just write theory; they tested this recipe in two places:

• Example A: The Hotel Stay.

  • The Problem: Guests manually turn on lights and AC, and staff use paper keys and bills.
  • The Fix: They used sensors to track energy use and surveys to track guest happiness. Then, they redesigned the process so guests use a phone app to check in, get a digital key, and have the room automatically adjust the temperature when they leave.
  • Result: Less paper, less wasted energy, and happier guests.

• Example B: The Hospital (Smart Healthcare).

  • The Problem: Doctors and nurses need to wash their hands often to stop infections, but they sometimes forget or don't use enough sanitizer.
  • The Fix: They set up a "smart station" with scales and motion sensors to track exactly how much sanitizer is used and how long the hand-washing takes.
  • Result: They could see exactly when students were skipping steps or using too little sanitizer, allowing them to train better and keep patients safer.

5. The Catch (Limitations)

The paper is honest about the hurdles:

• It's a Team Sport: You can't do this alone. You need a boss, a process expert, a sustainability expert, and a tech expert all working together.
• It Costs Time and Money: Setting up all these sensors and analyzing the data takes effort.
• Trade-offs: Sometimes saving energy (good for the planet) might cost more money (bad for the economy) or make the system harder to use (bad for humans). The method helps you see these trade-offs so you can make a balanced choice.

Summary

This paper provides a structured way to use smart gadgets to make businesses better for the planet, the wallet, and the people. It moves beyond just "going green" to look at the whole picture, using data to prove that your changes are actually working. It's a guide for turning a "dumb" business process into a "smart, sustainable" one.

Technical Summary

Technical Summary: A Conceptual Model and Methodology for Sustainability-aware, IoT-enhanced Business Processes

Problem Statement

While the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices into Business Processes (BPs) offers significant potential for automation and efficiency, and while Business Process Management (BPM) has increasingly addressed sustainability, a systematic gap remains. Existing research often focuses narrowly on the environmental dimension (Green BPM) or operational efficiency, lacking a holistic framework that integrates IoT capabilities to measure and improve sustainability across all five dimensions: economic, social, human, environmental, and technical. Furthermore, there is a lack of structured methodologies to analyze existing BPs, identify sustainability gaps, and implement IoT-enhanced improvements in a measurable way. The authors posit that without robust conceptual foundations and clear methodological guidelines, organizations struggle to systematically assess and improve their sustainability performance.

Proposed Solution: Conceptual Model and Methodology

To address these gaps, the authors propose two primary artifacts developed through Design Science Research (DSR): a conceptual metamodel and a structured four-step methodology.

1. The Conceptual Model (Metamodel)

The authors present a "Sustainability-aware, IoT-enhanced BP metamodel" that bridges three domains: Sustainability, BPM, and IoT.

• Sustainability Domain: Based on Penzenstadler and Femmer (2013), it defines Goals, Dimensions (Individual, Social, Economic, Technical, Environmental), Values, Indicators, Regulations, and Stakeholders. It distinguishes between Business Activities (core process tasks) and Sustainable Activities (measures taken to improve values).
• BPM Domain: Represents standard process elements such as Business Processes, Activities, Tasks, Actors, Events, and Decision Points.
• IoT Domain: Introduces IoT Devices (Sensors, Actuators, Complex Devices) as process performers or data sources.
• Key Integrations: The model explicitly links:
  • Activities to Sustainable Activities and Business Activities.
  • Sensors to Measurements, which derive Indicators for sustainability values.
  • IoT Devices as both active performers (actuators) and passive monitors (sensors), acknowledging that their deployment itself has sustainability impacts (costs, energy consumption) that must be analyzed.

2. The Methodology

The methodology provides a structured, iterative approach to analyze and improve BPs. It involves a multidisciplinary team (executives, process owners, sustainability experts, IoT experts, data engineers, etc.) and consists of four core steps:

• Step 1: Identify Sustainability Dimensions and Values
  • Establish the BP (e.g., via BPMN 2.0).
  • Select relevant sustainability dimensions based on organizational goals.
  • Identify specific Values within those dimensions and analyze potential conflicts or trade-offs.
• Step 2: Measure Sustainability of the Business Process
  • Identify BP Fragments (sub-processes) relevant to the selected values.
  • Propose Indicators for these fragments (quantitative or qualitative).
  • Define Measurements (formulas) for these indicators.
  • IoT Integration: Recommend and install IoT devices (sensors/actuators) to capture necessary data. If IoT cannot measure a specific indicator, alternative data sources (manual logs, ERP data) are identified.
• Step 3: Analyze Collected Sustainability Data
  • Collect data from IoT devices and process execution logs over a defined observation period.
  • Derive the calculated Sustainability Indicators from the raw data.
  • Analyze the indicators against the BP fragments to generate a Sustainability Report, highlighting inefficiencies or areas for improvement.
• Step 4: Improve the Business Process
  • Propose Sustainable Activities: Suggest changes (e.g., digitization, automation) based on the report.
  • Select Activities: Evaluate feasibility, ROI, and alignment with goals.
  • Translate to Modifications: Update the BP model (e.g., adding IoT actors, removing manual steps).
  • Validate: Review the updated model. If further analysis is needed, the cycle repeats from Step 2; otherwise, the improved "Sustainability-aware, IoT-enhanced BP" is finalized.

Case Studies and Results

The authors validate their approach through two distinct scenarios:

1. Smart Tourism (Running Example):

   • Context: A manual hotel guest stay process involving check-in, room usage, and check-out.
   • Application: The methodology identified fragments related to "Guest Satisfaction" and "Resource Efficiency." IoT devices (smart plugs, HVAC controllers) were recommended to measure energy consumption (Carbon Footprint Index). Surveys measured check-in fluency.
   • Outcome: The analysis revealed opportunities to digitize check-in/out and automate HVAC regulation. The resulting improved process reduced paper waste, optimized energy use, and enhanced guest experience via digital keys and automated room preparation.

2. Smart Healthcare (Controlled Case Study):

   • Context: A blood donation procedure in a simulated lab environment, focusing on hand hygiene compliance.
   • Application: The team focused on Individual (health), Environmental, and Economic dimensions. IoT devices (scales, motion sensors, buttons) monitored hand sanitizer usage and activity duration.
   • Outcome: Data analysis showed that while compliance with when to perform hygiene was high, the duration of hand hygiene (mean 20s) was below the WHO recommendation (30s). The methodology led to the proposal of a live visual feedback dashboard to guide trainees, aiming to improve adherence and sustainability without altering the core medical procedure.

Key Contributions

1. Conceptual Model: A formal metamodel that integrates Sustainability, BPM, and IoT, explicitly defining how IoT devices support, measure, and impact sustainability across five dimensions.
2. Structured Methodology: A practical, step-by-step guide for organizations to systematically analyze existing BPs, measure sustainability performance using IoT, and implement targeted improvements.
3. Holistic Perspective: Moving beyond the traditional "Green BPM" focus, the approach addresses economic, social, human, technical, and environmental dimensions simultaneously.
4. Proof-of-Concept: Demonstration of the methodology's applicability in two different domains (tourism and healthcare), showing its ability to identify specific sustainability gaps and propose IoT-driven solutions.

Significance and Claims

The authors claim that their work provides a necessary systematic foundation for organizations to move from ad-hoc sustainability efforts to a structured, measurable approach. By bridging the gap between BPM and IoT through a sustainability lens, the methodology enables:

• Traceability: Documenting the rationale behind sustainability decisions and trade-offs.
• Automation: Identifying specific process steps where IoT can trigger automated actions to improve sustainability.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Defining clear roles for diverse experts (BPM, IoT, Sustainability) to work together.

The paper acknowledges limitations, noting that the methodology requires significant data infrastructure, interdisciplinary expertise, and does not yet include automated decision-support tools for complex trade-offs. However, it asserts that the proposed artifacts offer a robust starting point for evaluating and enhancing the sustainability of IoT-enhanced business processes. Future work includes integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) to assist in indicator selection and IoT recommendation, as well as conducting larger-scale industrial validations.