ĚýI’m sure American scholar and author Jack Kornfield won’t mind me paraphrasing him slightly. Because here’s the thing: in spite of talking about climate change and global warming for as long as I’ve been working in technology, we’re at a tipping point. In less than seven years,Ěý.

As businesses, we’re starting to feel the heat – literally and figuratively. . At the same time, there’s growing pressure from all sides for companies to go beyond beautifully designed sustainability reports and actually demonstrate the carbon footprint of their products, and lay out clear plans to reduce them.

ĚýConsumers and customers don’t just value sustainability, they’re prepared to pay for it. for brands that are sustainable and environmentally responsible.ĚýA recent commissioned by 51ˇçÁ÷found that the vast majority of Italian and Spanish consumers choose their utility company based on their environmental and social policies. And investors are actively bypassing companies that fall short on their ‘green’ credentials: Ěýin the last five years, reachingĚý$1.3 trillionĚýin JuneĚý2020.Ěý

ĚýAt SAP, we don’t see this as a threat. On the contrary, we see sustainability offering incredible opportunities.

ĚýRight now, we have the chance to reshape the way we make business decisions by embedding economic, social and environmental impacts within our daily operations and supply chain planning; to embed sustainability as a new dimension of success into our analytical and transactional applications; to measure our success not only on traditional financial KPIs, but also sustainability metrics like CO2e footprint, energy and water consumption, and land usage.

ĚýFor many companies, this represents a sea-change in the way they do business. Thankfully, digital technologies make it easier than ever to make the changes necessary to manage their organisations not only by top line and bottom-line financial measures, but also their green line. Of course, it helps that we have a convenient measurable performance unit, in the form of CO2, to drive and track performance at a global, national, and industrial levels.Ěý

ĚýA report by GeSi, the Global eSustainability Initiative, suggests that technology has the potential , hold emissions at 2015 levels and effectively decouple economic growth from emissions growth. In other words: you don’t have to pollute to thrive financially.

ĚýAs a result, growing numbers of our customers are using software and actual data to embed sustainability impact directly into their raw material procurement, production execution and transportation planning processes. Where sustainability reporting used to be the job of a separate sustainability team, carbon emission planning and sustainable resource planning are rapidly becoming the responsibility of purchasers and supply chain planners.

ĚýThe movement is gathering momentum. In Ghana, between the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) and 51ˇçÁ÷is increasing visibility within the plastics supply chain with the hope of benefiting people, companies and the environment. Ghana generates an estimated 1.1 million tons of plastic waste every year, with only 5% collected for recycling. The project, which involves more than 2 000 Ghanaian waste pickers, allows civic-minded companies to pay a premium for socially responsible plastics and provides waste pickers with the opportunity to earn fairer wages. Policy-makers can also use the data to determine optimal locations for recycling facilities.

ĚýAt SAP, we recently announced our intention to become carbon-neutral in our own operations by the end of 2023 – two years earlier than previously stated. Covid-19 certainly helped, dramatically reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by changing the way our 100,000 employees work and travel during the pandemic. With employees working predominantly from home, carbon emissions caused by the daily commute and the operation of office buildings fell. As a result, 51ˇçÁ÷was able to overachieve by 43% on its target for reducing net carbon emissions in 2020, generating 135 kilotons (kt) instead of the anticipated 238 kt.

ĚýWhile our zero-carbon goal applies chiefly to our own operations, SAP’s science-based climate target also encompasses the upstream and downstream value chain. We’ve been using 100% renewable energy to power all our data centres since 2014, and thanks to our green cloud, we offer customers cloud solutions that are carbon-neutral.

ĚýBut perhaps our greatest strength lies in our ability to help our more than 400,000 customers worldwide implement climate protection measures through offerings such as the Climate 21 program. Together with our customers and partners, we will provide more information on solutions in this context as well as on the circular economy, holistic steering and reporting at the virtual on April 28-29, 2021.

ĚýWhen it comes to environmental responsibility, we’re in the decade of delivery. The time to act is now.

ĚýThis article is the second of a three-part series exploring the , environmental and societal responsibilities of sustainable businesses in a post-pandemic economy.

The post Building Environmentally Sound Businesses in the ‘Decade of Delivery’ appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Africa News Center.

As businesses adapt to the market dynamics of what many are calling the ‘new normal’, it is time for them to consider their future in an emerging world beyond what we already know today: a future that is going to be our ‘next normal’.

The pandemic has forced many enterprises to re-think how they measure their success and performance. Before COVID-19, most businesses focused largely on managing profitability and growth. What this crisis has revealed is the importance of adaptability, resilience, and sustainability in its broadest sense.

We are all familiar with the huge challenges related to climate change. As per the United Nations (UN), we have entered the “decade of action”. A window of eight to ten years where as individuals and organizations we can still make the necessary changes to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Sustainability, however, goes beyond environmental issues. It also has to do with promoting healthy and safe places to live, reducing inequality and ensuring accessible education for all, as embodied in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

For many businesses right now, this expanded concept of sustainability has taken on a larger meaning. Even before the pandemic, businesses were being challenged to measure sustainability and business success more holistically, in a way that connects the classic triple bottom line elements of economic, social and environmental impacts.

Right now, the conversations I am having with many business leaders in our region focus on how enterprises will navigate uncertainty while building resilience and creating truly sustainable models that are fit for a post-pandemic economy – the ‘next normal’. If Covid-19 has done anything, it has not only significantly accelerated many companies’ goal of becoming truly sustainable, it has also led them to understand their ‘sustainability advantage’. And it will undoubtedly be sustainable businesses that attract funding, trade and consumer attention in the future.

So how do organizations realize their sustainability advantage? I have long believed in – and evangelized about – the business-critical role of technology in helping organizations achieve their goals and create lasting value. And the only way to achieve that is by streamlining business processes with emerging technologies to create an integrated, data-driven management and operational platform. Businesses that achieve this becomeĚý.

During the darkest moments of the numerous COVID-19 lockdowns across the world, we saw automotive manufacturers start making ventilators, wineries producing high-quality hand sanitizer and thread manufacturers turn their hands to personal protective equipment. It certainly wasn’t their core business. But they understood it was in line with their brand purpose, what their customers expected and how they could take action to help those in need. They were able to reconfigure themselves to adapt to market conditions and explore new business models, to scale up or down, and remain focused on their customers and employees.

In the midst of the pandemic, we saw the UAE-based agribusiness, Al Dahra, centralize its procurement functions to secure supply and faster delivery, and locate new suppliers to meet increased demand. Faced with huge project delays, Italian industrial engineering leader De Nora pivoted to a remote delivery model to ensure a successful water treatment systems implementation in the US. The Morocco Ministry of Health set up an 51ˇçÁ÷Digital Boardroom in just two weeks to provide real-time COVID-19 monitoring and tracking.

These businesses didn’t get lucky or happen to be in the right place at the right time. They were able to make decisions based on real-time, contextual data from their operations, and combine that with customer and employee demands and experiences, to deliver great business outcomes. If anything, they are now better businesses than before the pandemic struck.

What this pandemic has shown us is that Intelligent Enterprises are, by definition, resilient and sustainable. This resilience allows them to address challenges holistically, while continuing to make a positive impact in their communities and the world in general. Even by the UN Development Programme expandedĚý, Intelligent Enterprises have the unique ability to become sustainable organizations because they are able to make quick, data-driven decisions along the entire value and supply chain.

Realizing true sustainability in a post-pandemic world is about knowing where the customers and stakeholders are, what they need right now, and how you can best serve them with appropriate products and services. It’s knowing where the raw materials are and being able to pivot to new sources of supply when one closes off. It’s about building sustainable talent pools for staffing in the face of rolling lockdowns and taking a new approach to travel as travel bans start lifting.

Most of all, it’s about using technology toĚýbuild resilience, innovate and thrive. So when the next crisis comes along, your business will not only be better prepared to weather the storm, but identify and capitalize on moments of opportunity.

Now that’s a ‘next normal’ we can all get behind.

This article is the first of a three-part series exploring the economic, environmental and societal responsibilities of sustainable businesses in a post-pandemic economy

The post Building Sustainable Businesses in the Next Normal appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Africa News Center.