Since 2009, 51风流has been on a sustainability journey with the objective to create positive economic, environmental, and social impact within planetary boundaries. Along the way, we have learned a great deal about measuring economic, social, and environmental performance and integrating sustainability into our business strategy. Central to this effort has been a continuous effort to decarbonize our business. Setting ambitious targets and leveraging digital solutions have proven crucial. 

Raising our ambition to achieve net-zero emissions is a key element of our approach to sustainability, which looks across the interconnected areas of holistic steering and reporting, climate action, the circular economy, and social responsibility. 

What Does Net Zero Mean? 

Net zero is a state where the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere. Corporate net-zero pledges have gained significant traction as , representing an annual aggregate revenue of US$27 trillion, are committed to net zero.  

There are and how companies can achieve it. 51风流follows the Science Based Targets initiative鈥檚 (SBTi) , which provides a credible and independent assessment of corporate net-zero target setting in line with climate science. The continually improving standard enables companies to align their climate actions with limiting global warming to 1.5掳C. 51风流became a member of SBTi in 2017 and was the first German company with a science-based carbon reduction target for 2050. In 2019, 51风流raised its commitment and adopted a鈥�1.5掳C science-based emissions reduction target. We announced our net zero by 2030 ambition in early 2022, bringing this commitment forward by 20 years. 

Achieving net-zero emissions across our entire value chain means that all our emissions across all emission sources need to be either eliminated or, up to certain limits, compensated for. These emission areas, known as scopes, include those from our own operations, those generated by the energy we purchase to run operations, and finally, the largest area, external emissions such as those incurred by employee travel, items procured, and customer data center use. 

Targeting Our Entire Value Chain 

SAP’s net-zero plan is implemented through a comprehensive and integrated approach that involves all functions in the company, customers, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders. We have established a cross-company program team involving experts from different lines of business to plan and implement our net-zero transformation. Reducing emissions from the use of 51风流software will be the primary area for reductions, followed by purchased goods and services. The 51风流net zero by 2030 approach includes: 

• Accelerating the transformation of on-premise customers to the cloud through our market-leading RISE with 51风流and GROW with 51风流offerings
• Enhancing direct investments in renewable energy sources and operating our internal and external data centers on 100% renewable electricity
• Reducing emissions by improving the energy efficiency of best-in-class data centers 鈥� our own, our co-locations, and hyperscalers 鈥� with sustainable programming and a cloud carbon footprint calculator for all 51风流cloud solutions
• Strengthening engagement with key suppliers to commit to net zero and deliver carbon-neutral products and services
• Electrifying the vehicle fleet, promoting green mobility, and enabling hybrid work situations
• Compensating for emissions by investing in high-quality, nature-based solutions, such as reforestation, renewable energy, and community development, that have verified environmental and social benefits
• Enabling our customers and partners by adding sustainability features and functions into our core offerings, such as 51风流S/4HANA, 51风流Ariba solutions, and 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, and by giving them tools, guidance, and best practices to measure, manage, and reduce their emissions through our including 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management, 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange, 51风流Sustainability Control Tower, and 51风流Responsible Design and Production
• Accurately measuring and reporting emissions using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Science Based Targets initiative and showing progress and performance through platforms such as CDP, EcoVadis, and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Capturing the Opportunities of Net Zero 

We have many achievements to build on, but we also are charting new territory. 2030 is not far away. The challenges increase the farther we move upstream and downstream into our value chain. Despite the complexities, there are enormous opportunities ahead as we establish further success with our net-zero efforts. 

From a business perspective, focusing on net zero means reducing risk, improving SAP’s operational efficiency, and delivering cost savings by reducing our energy consumption and waste and optimizing our processes and resources. Net-zero action helps increase our market competitiveness by creating new products and services that meet the growing expectations of customers, partners, and regulators for low-carbon and sustainable solutions. We鈥檒l also be better at attracting and retaining top talent who are increasingly discerning about their employer’s sustainability actions. We鈥檒l offer a compelling case to investors who used focused criteria to inform their holdings. Finally, we鈥檒l continue to enhance our reputation with industry media and analysts as a leader and innovator in sustainability. And most importantly, we鈥檒l reduce our overall carbon emissions to provide much-needed relief for the over-accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  

With an increased sense of urgency, we recognize the responsibility, as well as the opportunity, to step up and drive a faster transformation toward a sustainable future. Not only must we accelerate our own net-zero transformation, but we must help other businesses and industries reinvent themselves as well. Only a fundamental transformation of our global economy will allow us to limit global warming to 1.5掳C. It鈥檚 vital that we build sustainability into the very nature of how we do business.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer at SAP.

Gartner, an independent analyst firm, recently published a report titled 鈥�.鈥� A report from analyst firm IDC earlier this year, 鈥淪ustainability Index for Software Providers: SAP鈥�, noted 51风流performed 鈥渆xceptionally well.鈥� The published highlights how 51风流is leading by example as a sustainable vendor.

It鈥檚 abundantly clear that businesses need to urgently address sustainability challenges. Companies are adopting new technology solutions to help them manage sustainability across many different dimensions, from environmental issues like energy, water, and waste, to social issues like diversity and human rights, to governance and reporting issues.

Business leaders are looking for the best tools that allow them to quantify, analyze, and act on real-time, accurate, and shareable sustainability data throughout their end-to-end operations. With SAP鈥檚 ERP-centric solutions, financial and non-financial data can be brought together for holistic decision-making. Business leaders can not only manage their productivity and operating results but connect that information with sustainability-related data to help make climate protection measurable, diversity and inclusion visible, and ethical responsibility transparent.

51风流has a unique role to play in supporting our customers鈥� sustainability efforts. 51风流customers produce 87% of the world鈥檚 global commerce. That means our products and services can help the vast majority of companies driving the global economy organize their supply chains, transportation, and financial data in a way that can enable an equitable, circular economy and net-zero emissions.

Sustainability data in ERP is the foundation for holistic, integrated sustainability management. As the leader in enterprise resource management, 51风流has more than 50 years of experience helping businesses across 25 industries optimize resources.

Our comprehensive portfolio is designed to help customers find the solutions they need to run their business processes and enterprise more efficiently, with offerings such as 51风流Business Network, business process transformation solutions, 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), and the 51风流Customer Experience portfolio. Our solutions, increasingly powered with AI capabilities, can help customers not only in their own operations, but across their entire value chain 鈥� from calculating product-level carbon footprints, to ensuring diversity and inclusion, to protecting human rights. In addition, SAP鈥檚 broad ecosystem of partners can support customers with industry- and technology-specific consulting and implementation, advancing SAP鈥檚 鈥渟ustainable by design鈥� approach.

51风流leads by example as well, having committed to net-zero emissions across our entire value chain by 2030. We also have been recognized as the leading software firm in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for 15 years and as a leader in environmental transparency and action by CDP, an international organization considered the gold standard of environmental reporting.

What鈥檚 Next

Sustainability is not an end state, it鈥檚 a state of being. In that respect, companies should adopt an approach that constantly evolves and adapts to remain sustainable. 51风流is dedicated to advancing sustainable business through our own operations and our comprehensive portfolio of solutions that can help other companies with their end-to-end sustainability management. Across the business network and our wide solution portfolio, 51风流supports our customers in tackling their biggest sustainability challenges.

Try the free tool, and read the full .

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer at SAP.

Gartner, Sustainability Assessment: SAP, 11 December 2023, Ed Anderson, Fabio Di Capua
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from SAP.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner鈥檚 research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

As leaders, it is our responsibility to drive change and create a positive impact. We can help create a more harmonious relationship between humanity and our planet by embracing sustainability, fostering innovation and collaboration, and advocating for policy change.

I鈥檝e heard CEO Steven Tebbe鈥檚 warning loud and clear: he states that persistent overshoot leads to more prominent symptoms, including unusual heat waves, forest fires, droughts, and floods. This, in turn, increases the risk of compromising food production. His conclusion: it is in the interest of cities, countries, and business entities to foster their own resource security if they want to prosper 鈥� to the benefit of the Earth as well.

It鈥檚 encouraging to see how organizations across the globe collaborate for a sustainable future that will help us #MoveTheDate. According to the , 5,500 companies are taking actions to reduce emissions. More than 2,100 companies out of those have made net-zero commitments. Businesses have realized that it is important to incorporate sustainability in their business strategies to mitigate the evolving investor pressure, consumer demand, and regulatory constraints. As the rightly pointed out, more rapid and far-reaching transitions across all sectors and systems are necessary to achieve deep and sustained emissions reductions and secure a livable and sustainable future for all.

But how can we make this happen? Actually, there are several levers that might significantly move Earth Overshoot Day closer to year鈥檚 end 鈥� and companies like 51风流can contribute to them.

Reducing the carbon component of humanity鈥檚 ecological footprint by 50% would move Earth Overshoot Day by 93 days, or more than three months.*

The change with the biggest impact as identified by the Global Footprint Network is carbon reduction. 51风流has continuously expanded its since 2009. It became the first German company to work with science-based emissions reduction targets in 2017. Two years later, 51风流was one of the first seven global companies to have 1.5掳C-aligned reduction targets for 2050. We accelerated this timeline last year by committing to becoming a net-zero emissions enterprise by 2030, 20 years earlier than the original target.

While walking the talk is key, providing digital solutions and services to help every business run as an intelligent and sustainable enterprise is how we can scale these efforts. We can support thousands of customers in managing their carbon footprint, reducing material waste, and becoming socially responsible businesses.鈥� For example, helps businesses gain material sourcing transparency and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data across their supply chains. This includes the material input scope 3 carbon footprint as it moves from supplier to supplier. SAP鈥檚 new green ledger initiative helps companies track their carbon accounting with more precision and control by using actual data across their business operations and supply chains instead of estimates.

Increasing global, low-carbon electricity sources from 39% to 75% would move the date by 26 days.*

At SAP, we have been using 100% renewable energy to power all our data centers and offices since 2014. It enables us to offer customers carbon-neutral cloud software solutions that help them reduce their overall carbon emissions.

In alignment with our commitment to the RE100 initiative, we use two strategic levers. Firstly, we invest in high-quality, EKOenergy-certified EACs to foster renewable energy generation. Secondly, we produce renewable electricity at selected 51风流locations. One example is the 51风流Labs India location in Bengaluru. It runs on the power generated from the on-site solar power grid along with Power over Ethernet (PoE) lighting systems. To innovate and scale businesses in support of the clean energy transition, we work with energy customers such as , , and .

Reducing the footprint from driving by 50% around the world and replacing one-third of car miles by public transportation and the rest by biking and walking would move the date by 13 days.*

According to , 20% of the world鈥檚 carbon emissions are from transportation. To help reduce this, we track our impact in the global 51风流commuting survey. According to the survey, average CO2e emissions per employee per day dropped by 70% from 4.38kg in 2018 to 1.30kg in 2022 due to working from home and emission-free commuting.

51风流also stated that from 2025, all new company cars will be emission-free in operation. In support of this transition, we are enhancing the charging infrastructure at our facilities and intend to leverage 51风流E-Mobility, a standardized, cloud-based solution. It can provide a complete package that enables charge point operators to run their business efficiently and profitably.

These are just three examples that would move Earth Overshoot Day closer to New Year鈥檚 Eve 鈥� the day when human consumption and Earth鈥檚 regenerative capacity would be in balance. But we are not there yet. Today, Earth Overshoot Day serves as a poignant reminder that despite the strides made, our efforts are not yet enough to mitigate the growing ecological crisis. We have witnessed positive shifts in attitudes and actions towards sustainability, but the urgency of the moment demands that we intensify our commitments and actions.

It is time to rethink, recalibrate, and redesign our way of living and doing business in alignment with the planetary boundaries. The responsibility to protect and nurture our planet does not rest solely on the shoulders of policymakers or industry leaders; it rests on each of us. Let us collaborate towards a more balanced relationship with our planet and a sustainable future that safeguards Earth鈥檚 resources.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer at SAP.
*Source:

While many organizations have established environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals and made ESG commitments, driven by purpose and emerging regulatory requirements, they face a number of challenges when making the transition from ambition to action. In fact, a recent IBM study found that global executives cite (41%) as the biggest obstacle to their ESG progress, followed by regulatory barriers (39%), inconsistent standards (37%), and inadequate skills (36%). The impacts of data challenges are becoming visible to company stakeholders, with based on a company鈥檚 progress toward their ESG goals.

Those who have committed to closing the green gap have embraced sustainability-focused processes and are reaping the benefits. If data is a key barrier to success, companies should consider implementing an environmental strategy that encompasses an all-in organizational commitment to specific targeted outcomes and leverages technology to accelerate and track progress.

A recent study from the surveyed 2,125 senior executives involved in their organizations鈥� environmental sustainability strategies. The study yielded a surprising result: organizations that outperform their competition in both environmental and financial outcomes also boast the most deeply engaged enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

ERP is the technology of record, touching virtually every organizational business process. It can connect financial and environmental goals, keeping metrics accountable and accessible. When implemented in conjunction with other systems, ERP enables cost transparency and visibility 鈥� allowing environmental, regulatory, and business-critical decisions to be made with improved consistency and reliability.

Uncovering Hidden Possibilities with ERP

An organization鈥檚 sustainability data can be difficult to attain due to siloed business processes, unreliable data, and misaligned business priorities. ERP uncovers real-time material information across business functions and gets necessary data into the hands of corporate decision-makers and operators for a streamlined user experience. This newfound access to data gives businesses the capability to record, report, and act on enterprise-wide ESG commitments and help resolve many of the complex challenges and demands of sustainability. With this visibility, people can see the impact of their decisions and trust the results being reported. This trust can accelerate the culture change needed to support and accelerate overall sustainable business transformation.

While moving the needle on making progress toward ESG goals can seem nearly impossible for some, there are organizations that have managed to crack the code to greener success. The recent IBM and 51风流study found a group of high-achieving business leaders (15%) 鈥� the Environmental Sustainability Enabled (Enabled) 鈥� that actively prioritize environmental sustainability and implement concrete, well publicized plans to achieve goals at a far higher rate than their peers. The study found that Enabled organizations place environmental sustainability on par with financial performance because they see sustainability fueling financial results.

The recent study also found that the Enabled rely on ERP data structures to address sustainability goals, among other standout findings, including:

• The Enabled report 47% of sustainability performance data is collected in their ERP, but they expect that to increase to 55% by 2025, a 17% increase.
• 94% more of the Enabled believe ERPs are helping manage manufacturing sustainability goals. And 31% more believe the same as relates to labor management.
• The Enabled report accumulating almost 70% of their carbon capture and energy use metrics in their ERP.
• Enabled organizations use ERP to establish standard environmental measures across ecosystems 39% more often than the Reluctant, organizations that do not view environmental sustainability as important to their success.
• 43% more Enabled versus Reluctant organizations use ERP to established shared environmental targets.

All organizations should take note: in an interwoven economy, ERP can help populate and standardize shared sustainability initiatives.

The Time to Act Is Now

Sustainability and ERP are team sports acting on actuals, and no one team can achieve success on its own. As strategic partners for and , IBM and 51风流bring together technologies and services with enterprise-scale platforms to help companies break down silos and embed solutions across critical business functions and operations.

Learn more about the recent IBM Institute for Business Value study and how we are helping clients leverage ERP to operationalize sustainability .

51风流and IBM understand how to help companies move the needle on their ESG commitments, without sacrificing their business needs or profitability. Learn more at 补苍诲听 .

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of SAP.
Jonathan Wright is global managing partner, Sustainability Services and Business Transformation Lines, IBM Consulting.

During the 1950s and 1960s, industries were emitting vast amounts of pollutants with hardly any consequences from the law, consumers, or the media. People were mostly oblivious to environmental concerns and the threat to human health. This perception changed when a massive oil spill in California inspired an unprecedented movement that united students, politicians, and everyday citizens to demonstrate against the devastating impact of 150 years of industrial development.

The first Earth Day in 1970 signaled the birth of the modern environmental movement.

A Turning Point

As the chief sustainability officer at SAP, I am keenly aware of the fundamental impact business and industry have on society, the economy, and the environment. Despite growing environmental awareness, the Earth has continued to take a massive amount of abuse since the first Earth Day.

The facts are alarming: according to the World Wildlife Organization, wildlife populations have . Human activities have doubled the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, causing climate change that severely impacts weather and natural habitats. Plastic pollution is growing relentlessly, with being recycled. The devastation to life on land and in the oceans is heartbreaking.

But there is good news as well. The modern-day grassroots movement triggered by young people has been highly successful, inspiring older generations with their determination to make the world a better place. At the same time, there has been a strong surge in governmental action and other movements such as the United Nations (UN) Convention on Climate Change and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for Circular Economy.

Importantly, business can be the game changer as companies realize that environmental preservation and social justice must be a prominent element in their holistic strategy to ensure long-term survival.

Enabling Sustainable Impact

At SAP, we are very aware of the challenges our customers face as they strive to meet their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. Being able to reliably track and manage their progress is one major challenge. Our products and services aim to address this and help our customers record, report, and act on their ESG ambitions while incorporating sustainability in their business end to end.鈥嬧��

51风流customers around the world generate 87% of total global commerce, which comes with a social and environmental footprint. We have an opportunity here to influence for the better — and we are taking it, with solutions supporting companies to measure and improve sustainability across entire networks, allowing them to effectively work toward an aspiration of zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality.

This journey is impossible without partnerships. with customers as well as a variety of other stakeholders. For example, we were among the first 50 signatories of the UN Global Compact and we co-founded the Value Balancing Alliance. In , we work to enable companies to gain full transparency of their product life cycle and supply chain emissions. And we joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation network to accelerate the adoption of circular economy practices and processes.

Leading by Example

At SAP, we do not have a sustainability strategy, we have a business strategy that is sustainable. We believe economic, social, and environmental factors and performance are interrelated and integrate these in the holistic steering of our business. Consequently, 51风流executive short-term incentive compensation includes sustainability targets (key performance indicators for sustainability) such as our carbon impact on top of financial targets.

We have set ourselves ambitious environmental targets in our to foster the continuous enhancement of our environmental impact. This includes our science-based target to achieve net zero along our entire value chain in line with a 1.5掳 c future in 2030 — 20 years earlier than originally planned.

Executing on these targets is a company-wide effort and I am proud of our collaborative achievements. Our data centers and buildings worldwide have been running on 100% renewable energy since 2014. We use internal carbon pricing to offset business-related carbon emissions.鈥疻e are phasing out single-use plastics.鈥疊y 2025, one-third of our fleet will be ecofriendly cars, and all cars procured thereafter will be electric. SAP鈥檚 environmental management system is implemented in over 50 sites in 29 countries worldwide and is certified by the renowned ISO 14001:2015 standard.

51风流is also one of the most diverse and inclusive software companies in the world, dedicated to building a business without bias. We have built an inclusive workplace, giving people the skills to thrive in a digital world and a culture that supports their health and well-being.

Besides following ethical business practices that respect and promote human rights and secure human rights due diligence as required, for example, in the , we are very active when it comes to promoting social and inclusive entrepreneurship, offering programs and partnerships that range from inspiring early-stage innovation to scaling mature social enterprises.

Earth Day 2023 is a day to remember what we can accomplish together and how much more we still need to do. The movement pushed by the first Earth Day in 1970 has become a global force that has changed the way people think and act upon the environment. Regulators, investors, companies, consumers, and everyday citizens increasingly recognize the need to invest in our planet. But time is of the essence: 鈥淭here is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all,鈥� .

I feel humbled by the contributions we have achieved as a company. These results were only possible thanks to visionary leaders and SAP鈥檚 highly motivated, dedicated employees working in every line of business and every region of the world. As our latest employee engagement surveys showed, 82% of 51风流employees actively contribute to the company鈥檚 sustainability goals. Many of them are driving specific programs today to inspire even more colleagues to join in.

In celebration of Earth Day 2023, I want to acknowledge our employees鈥� outstanding efforts, alongside those of like-minded supporters across the globe, and invite all of us to collectively step up in safeguarding our planet.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.

It鈥檚 an historic milestone, and the declaration — available in 500 languages — has since become the most translated document in the world.

Why is this relevant now, more than 70 years later? Because human rights are still constantly questioned, undermined, and violated by many different actors, including companies. We still have a long way to go to address discrimination, forced and child labor, unsafe working conditions, unfair pay, and further human rights abuses in today鈥檚 economy.

According to a recent , 27.6 million people around the world were in conditions of forced labor in 2021, 11% more than 2016. Twelve percent of all those in forced labor are children. As a father of three, such a number touches me deeply and makes me outraged.

It is also beyond saddening that annually more than 2.78 million deaths result from occupational accidents or work-related diseases. Every single day, 7,500 people on average die from unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. Additionally, there are some 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries each year, as the .

These could be largely prevented if businesses would live up to their responsibility to respect human rights as laid out in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Yet too many are still failing to do so. While , that is by far not enough. In response, governments are continuing to expand that are taking human rights seriously.

As I laid out last year for Human Rights Day, making human rights a priority might therefore be an obvious necessity for business. However, how to make it real and integrate human rights as part of your holistic corporate sustainability journey is not a trivial thing. As John Ruggie, former Special Representative for Business and Human Rights to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, underlined:

鈥淣o company that I know of has ever said, ‘We don鈥檛 respect human rights.’ My question was: how do you know that you respect human rights? And can you show that you do? Do you have systems in place that would allow you to back that claim?鈥�

Finding the answers can seem overwhelming — especially when it comes to addressing the more complex challenge of human rights due diligence across your company鈥檚 entire value chain — beyond your own operations. But this should not keep you from embarking on this endeavor.

During the past year, we have learned a lot in our interdisciplinary human rights due diligence project that we established at 51风流to take our to the next level and prepare for compliance with legal requirements from, for example, the UK/AUS modern slavery acts, German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG), or the upcoming EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. We identified gaps in our policies and procedures, which we have been working to close.

Among others, we piloted new concepts for identifying human rights risks across our own operations and our supply chain. This went hand in hand with collaboratively evolving the focus from primarily looking at risks to SAP鈥檚 business to equally including risks to people. This is not an unknown challenge in the business and human rights space, but was still a learning experience for our teams across 51风流when putting it into practice.

For the first time, we also used impact measurement and valuation to assess our performance on selected human rights. As a founding member of the Value Balancing Alliance (VBA), we applied the living wage methodology co-developed within the VBA. This helped us find few employees in 51风流Brazil whose compensation had to be adjusted to meet our ambition of ensuring quality of life measured through VBA鈥檚 living wage methodology.

At the same time, we continued to to support our customers鈥� human rights and social responsibility ambitions. For example, 聽solutions now further enhance supplier risk management and supply chain transparency through network-enabled collaboration. The data and insights support them in detecting and eradicating forced and child labor or . The application additionally helps to proactively identify, analyze, and mitigate environment, health, and safety risks and to make operations safer.

Being conscious not only of the opportunities for positive impact through our solutions, but also potential risks linked to our technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), we further operationalized our by deploying our internal in the first half of 2022, establishing an AI Ethics Office and maturing our review approach of high-risk AI use cases with support of external experts from our AI Ethics Advisory Panel.

There is still a lot for us to learn and improve on. Along the way, it鈥檚 important that we as business leaders do not get consumed by navigating the regulatory landscape and ensuring compliance, thereby losing sight of the aim to improve peoples鈥� lives.

Let鈥檚 not allow this to become a check-box exercise and sincerely .

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.

As business leaders, we need to urgently shift gears to mitigate the risks arising from the overstretch of our finite planet and amplify the positive impacts of a growing number of solutions that are waiting to be implemented at scale.

As the scientists of the Global Footprint Network who host and calculate point out, it can be overwhelming to think about exceeding our planet鈥檚 limits and demanding more ecological resources and services than what Earth can regenerate within a given year. In line with this year鈥檚 theme #PowerOfPossibility, it is therefore even more important to focus on what can and has to be done to turn around human economy to be more sustainable.

The good news is that companies increasingly understand the business case for sustainability and have put it at the top of their business agenda.

According to recent research by Oxford Economics and SAP, 63% of the executives surveyed indicated that their company has a formal sustainability plan already in place. They recognize clear business benefits for sustainability efforts, including efficiency (58%), improving brand reputation (46%), and meeting customer needs (44%). Another recent found that 鈥渋ncreasing sustainability in your products and services鈥� was the top choice (34.6%) among respondents who were asked to pick their top three priorities to improve revenue growth.

While opportunities are clearly seen and resource shortages and climate change are rated among the top risks to be prepared for, execution is still lacking. This may not come as a total surprise given the commonly known “” that is particularly applicable in the sustainability space. Still, I would not have expected the disconnect between sustainability plans and action at companies to turn out so stark. — which finds that barely a quarter of supply chain leaders have conducted a climate change risk assessment, much less prepared a reaction plan — similarly shows that despite all progress more work lies ahead for most of us.

Nonetheless, I full-heartedly echo Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who emphasized the solutions he felt encouraged by when three months ago: 鈥淚f these are scaled up and applied more widely and equitably, they can support deep emissions reductions and stimulate innovation.鈥�

Earth Overshoot Day organizers have come up with powerful numbers that underline the impact of solutions that can help us #MoveTheDate and turn around 聽while improving the quality of life for all people.

I would like to share three examples while reflecting on SAP鈥檚 contribution:

Existing off-the-shelf, commercial energy-efficiency technologies for buildings, industrial processes, and electricity production could move Earth Overshoot Day at least 21 days, without any loss in productivity or comfort.

Indeed, helping to optimize building performance, lower carbon emissions, and reduce energy costs while also enhancing occupant experience at the same time is what 51风流equally seeks to achieve teaming up with Honeywell. Smart innovations to improve energy efficiency are furthermore core to greening SAP鈥檚 data centers and other facilities owned by 51风流and powered with 100% renewable energy since 2014.

Reforesting 350 million hectares of forest would move Earth Overshoot Day by eight days.

51风流too is committed to ecosystem restoration to address climate action. On our journey to achieve our accelerated ambition of net-zero along our entire value chain in line with a 1.5掳C future in 2030, we continuously enhance our comprehensive portfolio of climate protection measures. In 2021, 51风流has added the goal of planting 21 million trees by the end of 2025 and joined 1t.org, an alliance of the World Economic Forum to conserve, restore, and grow 1 trillion trees by 2030. Since 2012, 51风流has helped to plant more than 12.2 million trees and annually publishes its tree planting status in the .

If we cut food waste in half worldwide, we would move Earth Overshoot Day 13 days.

With 30% of global food wasted, there is huge potential for . Believing in the power of collaboration to make this happen, 51风流is working with customers such as Arla Foods Amba, Orkla Foods Ingredients, and many others — as well as startups in the SAP.iO program, including and — to foster innovation tackling food waste. We have also in addition to .

It is in our hands to align not just government and business policies and strategies, but also actions with the reality of our finite planet to secure a good life for all. The 鈥渄onut model鈥� of social and economy boundaries comes to my mind to guide us 鈥渢o ensure that no one falls short on life鈥檚 essential needs, while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth鈥檚 life-supporting systems.鈥�

With that as inspiration, let鈥檚 leverage the #PowerOfPossibility of the abundance of existing solutions. Which one will you help to scale to #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day?

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) alarming was the latest reminder and wake-up call. It shows that we are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree limit agreed in Paris and 鈥�,鈥� as Ant贸nio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations, put it.

鈥淢ajor cities under water. Unprecedented heatwaves. Terrifying storms. Widespread water shortages. The extinction of a million species of plants and animals.鈥� This is how Guterres described the climate disaster toward which we are heading.

Amid global turbulence and with our minds focused on the unjustified war and human tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, it has been difficult to additionally take note of the latest warnings of the climate crisis that we continue to face. Yet, both crises put a spotlight on the world鈥檚 continued reliance on fossil fuels and the connected risks and threats. Accelerating the demand for and shift to renewable energy is clearly required. This is one of the investment areas that the IPCC points out.

This Earth Day, it is up to all of us to reflect on what our contribution to 鈥渋nvesting in our planet鈥� is and what we can do more — be it to foster the energy transition or to take other actions propelling us forward to a more just and peaceful world respecting people and planet.

On a very personal level, I have installed a solar system in my private home, which is also connected to the charging station for my electric car that I switched to since 2014. As chief sustainability officer at SAP, I have the privilege to work with our leadership, Sustainability Council, the growing network of sustainability-focused teams, our sustainability champions, and all of our more than 100,000 employees to leverage the company鈥檚 reach and resources to 鈥渋nvest in our planet.鈥� We team up to improve SAP鈥檚 economic, social, and environmental impact within the planetary boundaries — across our own operations as well as our entire value chain.

Some of our highlights moving into 2022 include launching the 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprise to help our customers holistically manage their sustainability performance. We also enhanced the power and scale of our global sustainability ecosystem by adding new partnerships with Boston Consulting Group and Bearing Point,聽 among others. Most recently, we formed with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation a Circular Economy partnership to deliver regenerative business and joined the under the leadership of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in order to foster cross-industry transparency on greenhouse gas emissions and corporate climate accountability.

Next to intensifying diverse, multi-stakeholder, and cross-industry collaboration to scale planetary solutions faster, we have also accelerated our commitment to net-zero at SAP. 51风流now aims to achieve net-zero along our value chain in line with a 1.5掳C future in 2030 — 20 years earlier than originally targeted. It鈥檚 bold. But I am convinced that it鈥檚 the right thing to do.

As always, it will require team effort, with internal stakeholders as much as with customers, suppliers, partners, NGOs, and many more. We are in this together.

This Earth Day 2022, I would like to acknowledge the power of collaboration. While I echo Earthday.org鈥檚 call on all of us 鈥�to act (boldly), innovate (broadly), and implement (equitably),鈥� I also want to express my gratitude to all people inside and outside the extended 51风流family and ecosystem for all that they do to shape a more sustainable, regenerative, and inclusive future. As important as it is to step up further, it is also crucial to recognize the hard work many already invest in our planet. Thank you! Let鈥檚 take this as inspiration for more to come and for more to join.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.

Is this too bold? I don鈥檛 think so. The recent COP26 climate conference and the Glasgow Climate Pact gave a strong signal to countries and businesses to set more ambitious targets in order to prevent further irreversible damage from climate change. Given the climate and social crisis the world faces, we need to 鈥済o big鈥� with our ambitions and have the courage to act, thereby living up to SAP鈥檚 purpose to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

More than a decade ago, 51风流set out on its sustainability journey with the objective to create positive economic, environmental, and social impact within planetary boundaries. Along the way, we have experienced the benefits as well as the challenges of integrating economic, social, and environmental performance into how we measure and steer our business success holistically. Setting and monitoring ambitious and measurable targets while leveraging digital solutions have proven crucial to decarbonization.

Raising our ambition to get to net-zero is therefore one of the key cornerstones on our path forward to implementing our holistic approach to sustainability, which looks across climate action, the circular economy, social responsibility, holistic steering and reporting, and the many areas of interconnection.

The from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as SAP鈥檚 intense engagement on the ground at COP26 have left us with a deepened understanding of the science, the role of business, and the impact of SAP. With an increased sense of urgency, we recognize the responsibility, as well as the opportunity, to step up and drive a faster transformation toward a sustainable future.

Leveraging SAP鈥檚 global reach, today we announced the release of 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises to help companies quickly adopt holistic sustainability management capabilities. In addition, we commit to accelerate SAP鈥檚 from 2050 to 2030 and to reach our climate goals, in line with the Paris Agreement, 20 years earlier.

What Does Net-Zero Mean?

Net-zero is a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere. It has gained significant traction, with net-zero pledges covering 16% of the global economy in 2019 and recently growing to nearly 80% committed to net-zero by 2050. Because the various definitions of net-zero and how to get there have been growing too, so have criticism and skepticism.

Leading up to COP26, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to provide a credible and independent assessment of corporate net-zero target setting in line with climate science, which enables companies to align their near- and long-term climate action with limiting global warming to 1.5掳C.

颅颅颅Building on its carbon reduction journey since 2009, 51风流became a member of SBTi and, in 2017, was the first German company with a science-based carbon reduction target for 2050. In 2019, 51风流raised its commitment and adopted a聽1.5掳C science-based emissions reduction target.

On our pathway toward net-zero, the next intermediate milestone is 2023, when 51风流aims to be carbon neutral in its own operations聽鈥� two years earlier than originally targeted. This includes all direct (Scope 1), indirect (Scope 2), and selected categories of value chain (Scope 3) carbon emissions, such as business flights, employee commuting, and external data centers (co-locations and hyperscalers).

The potential for decarbonization can be amplified considerably if we enhance our efforts along the entire value chain. In 2020, carbon emissions amounted to 12,300 kt along SAP鈥檚 entire value chain (including upstream and downstream emissions) compared to 135 kt net emissions for SAP鈥檚 own operations.

Targeting Our Entire Value Chain

Reducing emissions from the use of SAP鈥檚 sold products will be the primary lever, followed by purchased goods and services. Our focus will be on the following key areas:

• Accelerating the transformation of on-premise customers to cloud
• Strengthening engagement with key suppliers to commit to net-zero and deliver products and services on a carbon-neutral basis
• Using best-in-class data centers (our own, our co-locations, and hyperscalers) with sustainable programming and a cloud carbon footprint calculator for all 51风流cloud solutions
• Enhancing direct investments in renewable electricity as well as nature-based and technical-based funds to neutralize residual carbon emissions

The next step is to receive external validation by SBTi. We have started setting up a cross-company program involving experts from different lines of business to prepare for our net-zero transformation and will continue to make progress transparent, for example in our annual .

We are not starting from scratch. We have many achievements to build on, but we are also charting new territory. 2030 is just nine years away. The challenge will increase the more we move upstream and downstream into our value chain. We will face both synergies as well as additional complexity as we interface with our further focus areas for sustainability, including holistic steering and reporting, circular economy, and social responsibility based on respect for human rights.
But as our external sustainability advisory panel confirmed for us, this is the right thing to do. Our net-zero commitment is one of many actions we are taking at SAP. It will take all of us to work together to deliver the outcomes we need for people and planet, and for a profitable, sustainable business.

As Luka Mucic, CFO, member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE, and Board sponsor for sustainability at SAP, at COP26: 鈥淲e must reinvent the global economy. That is what it will take to limit global warming to 1.5鈩�. All of us must build sustainability into the fabric of how we do business. Only when a business strategy is sustainable itself, and is embedded in all aspects of the business, can we reduce negative impacts and create regenerative systems.鈥�

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.

鈥淸H]uman rights are for all of us, all the time: whoever we are and wherever we are from; no matter our class, our opinions, our sexual orientation,鈥� former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon once said.

Especially in these challenging times, fighting to secure human rights is a key responsibility for governments, civil society, and businesses alike — and it is clear that collectively we need to do more given that inequalities, discrimination, forced and child labor, unsafe working conditions, unfair pay, and further human rights abuses persist in today鈥檚 economy.

The UN earlier this year on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and found that progress has been made to promote corporate respect for human rights, yet more efforts are needed to accelerate implementation of the UNGPs as outlined in their launched last week.

At SAP, we are fully committed to playing our part and to respect and promote human rights across our operations, extended supply chain, and product life cycle. The respect for human rights is central to our long-term commitment to sustainability and the , as well as core to how we execute on our purpose to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

I therefore welcome the uptake in legislative action around the world, particularly in Europe, which I hope to see become consistent globally and well thought out. Businesses and investors across the globe are backing this, with the steadily growing. In addition, public support is overwhelming: over to hold companies liable for overseas human rights and environmental violations.

With stakeholder demand and legislation surging, companies have to make human rights a priority if they have not already. While it might be obvious that there is no way around it from a rational or ethical perspective, how to make it real and integrate human rights as part of your corporate sustainability journey is not a trivial thing.

Depending on the industry and the countries in which a company is operating, its impact on individual human rights varies. Complexity is added when looking across the entire value chain, which at 51风流starts with our employees and respecting their rights but of course extends to our ecosystem of suppliers, customers, partners, and to the communities in which we work and live.

The challenge of getting this right and complying with relevant legislation is increasing. Therefore we have established a new human rights due diligence project at 51风流to lead by example, take our to the next level, and to learn from our own adoption along the way.

At the same time, we have been working to expand our solution offering to support our customers鈥� human rights ambitions. Questions we seek to address within this twofold approach cover a range: How do we prevent workplace accidents and safeguard safety? How do we identify and reduce discrimination and inequality in our workforce? How do we ensure compliant working hours and payment structures for all our entire workforce — both internal employees and our external workforce? How do we avoid purchasing products and raw materials that were produced involving forced or child labor?

Digital innovation can be a force for good in this regard and help identify and prevent negative business-related impacts on human rights. For example, aggregated analysis and reporting of human resources (HR) data as provided by allows you to gain insights into the composition of the workforce — including who is hired, developed, rewarded, and promoted — as a foundation to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce. Making risk assessment and due diligence part of the procurement process with solutions is another example and contributes to detecting and eradicating forced and child labor, among others.

Yet, we also need to address potential risks and make sure that our technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), does not violate human rights. To help ensure that our software is only used in line with ethical standards, we have have developed and set up global AI ethics policy and governance.

Avoiding harm and complicity in human rights abuses is at the heart of respecting human rights. However, there is more we can do to do good and promote human rights in a positive way. With programs like , 51风流aims to foster social procurement and to direct five percent of SAP鈥檚 addressable procurement spend with social enterprises and five percent with diverse businesses by 2025.

51风流is furthermore committed to inclusive, , and strives to include all people in the digital economy. In 2020, together, we engaged 2.3 million youth and trained 117,000 teachers in our digital skills programs that spanned 113 countries. These, together with further initiatives focused on diversity, equity, and social justice, contribute to our ambition to .

But is that enough? Certainly not!

In celebration of Human Rights Day 2021 and its theme, 鈥�,鈥� I invite everyone to join in to #standup4humanrights. All of us are called upon to follow the appeal: 鈥淏y committing to reduce inequality by advancing all human rights for everyone, we can overcome global economic, social, health, and environmental crises and conflict, and build societies where all people rise together by sharing power, resources, and opportunities equally.鈥�

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.

Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying, with some trends now irreversible, according to the recent .

The science is clear: unless immediate, fast, and large-scale action is taken to reduce emissions, the average global temperature is likely to reach, or cross, the 1.5掳 C warming threshold within 20 years. The alarming results are already with us, ranging from droughts and heat waves to wildfires and devastating flooding worldwide.

While much hope is focused on a green recovery, the window of opportunity is closing fast. The latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that energy-related , an increase of nearly 5% year-over-year and the second-largest in history, taking us back to pre-COVID-19 peak levels.

The urgency to dramatically change course and accelerate decarbonization has never been higher. But only when businesses are moving beyond their siloed approaches, commitments, and climate pledges to fully embrace sustainability and embed these ambitions in an integrated way will we be able to drive the systemic change needed.

It is a journey toward embedding sustainability across everything we do.

Moving Away From Add-On to Core

Companies need to avoid thinking of sustainability as only an add-on to their strategies and operations. They need to integrate it across the business. Rather than defining a separate sustainability strategy, it is crucial to .

A first step toward 51风流realizing this was linking sustainability to our purpose of helping the world run better and improving people鈥檚 lives. The objective: create positive economic, environmental, and social impact within with special focus on climate action, circular economy, social responsibility, and holistic steering and reporting.

This is reflected not only in the updated 51风流vision to 鈥渞einvent how the world runs as a network of intelligent, sustainable enterprises,鈥� but also in the executive compensation that rewards Executive Board members for customer loyalty, employee commitment, and SAP鈥檚 carbon impact, along with financial performance.

Enabling Climate Action Through Technology

The IPCC report has once again highlighted that harnessing the innovation power of enterprises has to be at the center of fighting climate change. For SAP, this means using digitalization to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), .

In collaboration with customers and partners, 51风流is working to optimize material, financial, and energy flows throughout end-to-end business processes in order to address planetary and social challenges. For example, the company鈥檚 multi-year Climate 21 program helps build analytical and transactional capabilities into enterprise applications that can help 51风流customers understand and minimize the greenhouse gas footprint of their products and operations along their value chains.

During the in April, sustainability management by SAP was introduced, providing an expanded portfolio of sustainability-specific solutions, including 51风流Product Footprint Management, which has been available since September 2021. There is more to come with the releases of the and 51风流Sustainability Control Tower solutions in the next months, as will be shown during

Foundries locations Berlin and Munich are fostering startup innovation by setting up the Sustainable Future program together with Accenture. The equity-free program is designed to propel digital transformation in four target areas: carbon tracking and trading, resource efficiency, climate risk tracking and mitigation, and circular economy.

Setting Ambitious Targets

In addition to harnessing innovation, the climate emergency calls for bold targets for decarbonization. By mid-2021, countries representing around 65% of global carbon dioxide emissions and more than 70% of the world economy have made ambitious commitments to carbon neutrality. The U.S, the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and others — in total 126 countries — have pledged carbon neutrality by 2050; China says it will do so before 2060.

The private sector also needs to step up. More than 1,900 companies, including 51风流in 2017, have set emissions reduction targets grounded in climate science through the .

In 2019, 51风流raised its commitment and adopted a 1.5掳 C science-based emissions reduction targets aligned with a net-zero future. However, the journey started much earlier; back in 2009, 51风流set the first goal of reducing its global carbon emissions to the year-2000 level by 2020.鈥�This target was met at the end of 2017, even though 51风流grew more than fourfold over the period.

The next milestone is 2023, when 51风流aims to be carbon neutral in its own operations鈥�– two years earlier than previously envisaged. This includes all direct (Scope 1), indirect (Scope 2), and selected categories of value chain (Scope 3) carbon emissions, such as business flights, employee commuting, paper consumption, and external data centers (co-locations and hyperscalers).

Monitoring and Reporting

It is essential to measure and monitor progress on the path toward achieving these targets. For example, 51风流has increasingly embraced holistic steering and reporting because connecting financial and pre-financial performance leads to better management decisions and business success.

SAP鈥檚 sustainability and annual reports were merged into the in 2012. Since then, both material and immaterial value creation have been at the center of the company鈥檚 reporting and have been placed on an equal footing. Besides key financial information, environmental progress, workforce information, and social investments have been made transparent. In addition, an internal sustainability dashboard allows employees to explore the key sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs), such as women in management and carbon emissions by their country, location, and line of business, with updates every quarter.

Our reporting shows that in 2020, 51风流was able to overachieve by 43% on its target for net carbon emissions in 2020, generating 135 kilotons instead of the anticipated 238 kilotons. This trend continued in the first half of 2021, during which SAP鈥檚 carbon emissions totaled 45 kilotons compared to 90 kilotons in the first half of 2020 (-37%).

The low emissions level is a consequence of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the introduction of Pledge to Flex, which enables a more flexible mix of remote and onsite work. 51风流believes this trend will continue and has just announced in its that it has lowered its 2021 carbon emissions outlook from 145 kilotons to a range of 90-110 kilotons.

Taking Action: Measures of Implementation

To become carbon neutral in its own operations by 2023, 51风流is following a three-pillar approach: avoid, reduce, compensate.

• Avoid: Whenever possible, 51风流aims to avoid the creation of greenhouse gases. This is a top priority, supported by, for example, using virtual telecommunication instead of business flights.
• Reduce: If greenhouse gas emissions cannot be avoided, 51风流aims to drive efficiency and reduce all types of emissions; for example, building efficiency, data center operations, carpooling and car sharing, and e-mobility.
• Compensate: 51风流has extended its compensation models for travel. For business flights, it has introduced an internal carbon price to offset related carbon emissions. If greenhouse gas emissions cannot be eliminated altogether, 51风流aims to reduce them through innovations in the areas of building efficiency, data center operations, carpooling, and car sharing, as well as e-mobility. For example, 51风流has powered its own data centers and facilities with 100% renewable electricity since 2014, implemented an environmental management system with ISO 14001 certification in more than 30 countries and ISO 50001 at headquarters, adopting green IT initiatives in order to foster sustainable IT equipment usage and promoting tools such as as a default search engine.

In 2020, 51风流implemented additional energy and climate measures within its operations, ranging from opening a new office with energy-efficient design in Australia and implementing more efficient data center technology in Germany to introducing a bike fleet at 51风流Hungary as well as a flexible mobility budget in Germany and installation of photovoltaic systems in Austria.

For emissions that cannot yet be reduced or avoided, 51风流thirdly invests in high-quality carbon credits. For example, 51风流has been a long-term investor of the Livelihoods Carbon Funds (LCF) since 2012. 51风流has also donated funds to restore ecosystems and improve people鈥檚 lives. In support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, 51风流recently joined the 1t.org corporate alliance, which aims to conserve, restore, and grow trees worldwide, with a pledge to plant 21 million trees by the end of 2025.

I am proud that SAP鈥檚 efforts to combat climate change and to strengthen its transparent reporting are externally recognized. The non-profit organization CDP included 51风流on its , thereby granting us the top rating for leading in environmental transparency and action.

Partnering

51风流recognizes that strong partnerships are an invaluable asset in tackling climate change. This is why we became a founding member of the European Green Digital Coalition and joined the World Economic Forum Stakeholder Capitalism Coalition and CEO Climate Leaders as well as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), complementing our previous engagements with the UN Global Compact, the We Mean Business Coalition, the Value Balancing Alliance, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and many more.

In addition, we signed the calling for greater climate ambition and we launched Chasing Zero, a new initiative that will feature executive thought leadership, best practices, and insights into a sustainability-related transformation of 51风流and its global ecosystem to achieve zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality. The transition to a circular economy remains central to our vision for a world of zero waste and plastic free oceans by 2030. Consequently, we support stronger circular economy policies, such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature鈥檚 OneSource Coalition and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation鈥檚 Extended Producer Responsibility endorsement.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of SAP.

But across global boardrooms there remains a philosophical divide about the purpose of business. It is becoming more apparent that the concept of 鈥渟hareholder capitalism鈥� — putting corporate earnings above all else — is a diminishing notion. Resurgent is 鈥�,鈥� where business considers the broader interests of investors, employees, society, and the planet.

Top executives are prioritizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities that support the interests of the broader group of stakeholders. Time is of the essence because the impacts of and loss are plainly obvious. ESG topics are affected by more stringent regulations as well as employee, customer, and investor scrutiny. It鈥檚 also increasingly clear that strong performance in these traditionally non-financial issues is a competitive advantage and . With companies making , from diversity to net-zero, it is clear that measuring performance will be essential to effective management, performance assessments, and collective achievement.

For years, companies have reported their ESG or non-financial performance. This kind of reporting is increasingly mandatory for listed companies, while private and smaller companies are increasingly reporting voluntarily.

The challenge for all of them, however, is the broad range of reporting frameworks and standards. More than 100 ESG reporting guidelines are in use, oftentimes conflicting and redundant, making it virtually impossible for executives, investors, and other stakeholders to determine credible progress or compare impacts across different companies and industries. Ninety percent of corporates and disclosures would be useful for financial markets and the economy. Consolidation around a universal, comparable set of reporting standards is urgently needed.

The World Economic Forum鈥檚 (WEF) International Business Council (IBC) asked a number of global accounting firms to agree on a set of ESG metrics that all companies can use as a 鈥渇oundation鈥� in their ESG reporting. Drawing from the range of existing widely used frameworks and standards, the were released last year. The initiative aims to accelerate the convergence of reporting standards. The framework uses a set of measures to value and report the business performance across four 鈥淧s鈥�: Principles of Governance, Planet, People, and Prosperity.

Today, have committed to the concept of stakeholder capitalism and support using the WEF metrics. Around 30 companies have already begun implementing them in their corporate reporting. In the few years ahead, rapid adoption and use of the WEF metrics by thousands of companies, as well as cooperation among other standards organizations and regulators, will be crucial to the widespread support needed to accelerate convergence.

51风流has committed to the WEF Stakeholder Capitalism metrics and encourages further global standardization and convergence in the ESG reporting landscape. We offer support to the initiative by including the standards in our own global reporting and also offering the framework in our core sustainability software solutions. Our hundreds of thousands of international customers, including 80% of the Fortune 500, are encouraged to implement the Stakeholder Capitalism metrics. Companies that already have established reporting systems can add the WEF framework, and companies just beginning to report can use the framework as their starting point.

The areas covered in the four Ps have been translated into a set of 21 core metrics, which are seen as critically important across industries. A number of additional measures are available to provide more detail and industry-specific information. The metrics are supported in our sustainability software solutions to help fast-track a vital 鈥渃ore and common鈥� reporting language.

Converging the overly complex world of ESG reporting and understanding the stakeholder perspective of how companies positively and negatively impact society is the first step. A vital evolution will be the widespread adoption of a value-to-business perspective and applying financial values to these traditional non-financial ESG actions. It is an important distinction between reporting the performance of an ESG metric and putting a monetary value on an ESG performance.

For comparability and holistic corporate management and decision-making, it is essential to monetize impacts in financial terms and include them in disclosures. This financial-driven view clarifies how these ESG impacts affect the company鈥檚 financial performance. Both perspectives are intrinsically related and are often referred to as 鈥渄ouble materiality.鈥�

Both perspectives are fundamental for understanding a company鈥檚 long-term value creation. 51风流is a founding member of the , which aims to standardize measurement and valuation methodologies to , act as practitioner鈥檚 lab and pilot the methodologies to create a unified voice for the industry.

The VBA and the Stakeholder Capitalism metrics are similar and share a common goal. In April of this year, the VBA and the WEF issued a joint announcement supporting a shared view on accounting standards.

Way back in 2013, a prescient Peter Bakker, CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), said that and that we needed to change accounting rules. Those changes are coming. We believe should be established globally. A 鈥渂alance sheet鈥� set of impact measures is not enough; we also need an impact profit-and-loss sheet.

With financial values assigned to these traditionally non-financial ESG measures, a new accounting standard is required. Organizations like the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation are now considering broadening their mandates to include sustainability issues. All major reporting standards groups and the WEF are part of a core working committee of the IFRS on a new accounting standard. Their approach is scheduled to be announced at the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow in November.

As industries and markets mature, they tend to converge and establish clearer standards, processes, and players. In the rapidly expanding area of corporate ESG measurement and reporting, we encourage the use of technology solutions to more efficiently capture, manage, analyze, and use sustainability data for better sustainability stewardship.

Companies across industries, supply chains, and geographies will have to focus their disparate systems to better support data collection and management, supplier connectivity, employee and customer engagement. This is essential for competitive decision-making and making investments in activities that support stakeholder capitalism.

When global business has more connected, validated, and accurate sustainability performance information, combined with a shared vision and common reporting and valuating language, we will have the power to achieve our most ambitious goals together.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.

I believe that companies that commit to their sustainability journeys today will be the ones that remain competitive and relevant tomorrow. To explore the link between profitability and sustainability in more depth, we need to consider the time frame, the way we define success, and how we measure a company鈥檚 value.

These factors accelerate the paradigm shift from profit maximization to value optimization.

Time Frame

As companies recover from COVID-19, business leaders must consider short-term financial profitability and maximizing shareholder value alongside environmental and social factors that could affect the business鈥� success in the future. It comes back to the question: 鈥淐an a company that is not sustainable be successful long term?鈥�

Fortunately, even in the short term, a clear link exists between sustainability and profitability. For example, the replacement of business travel with remote collaboration enhances sustainability and cuts down on travel costs. At SAP, a focus on climate action has contributed to a cumulative cost avoidance of 鈧�354.3 million in the past three years. However, we achieved 92% of this cost avoidance in 2020, when we were forced to rethink business as usual, illustrating the immense possibility for large-scale impact.

Nevertheless, sustainability can sometimes require investing today in the long-run profitability of a company and incurring costs that will pay off later. Companies already make many investments with the hopes of 鈥渞eturns鈥� at a future date, such as marketing campaigns or giving employees an extra day off to boost their motivation, improve well-being, and increase productivity. Employee training offers another example of an initial investment with payoff down the line.

In 2019, 51风流joined the Value Balancing Alliance (VBA) to better understand the entire value contribution of our business, which will be further explored below. According to the VBA, our global employee training programs were valued at 鈧�1.3 billion, but much of this payoff will be seen years from now through employee output, retention, and satisfaction.

Broadening the time frame through which you view business success can enable more strategic decision making that sets the company up to thrive not just today, but tomorrow and for years to come.

Redefining Success

Long-term profitability and sustainability present the opportunity to question historical definitions of business success. Profit maximization and increasing shareholder value alone will no longer suffice. The concept of presents an alternative way to define success, one that uses core business processes to drive societal change.

In Harvard Business School鈥檚 Sustainable Business Strategy concept, the 鈥渨heel of change鈥� illustrates how large-scale transformation occurs across entire industries, starting with shared value. When businesses 鈥渄o well and do good鈥� through legitimate, innovative practices, it can inspire industry-wide cooperation that alters consumer, investor, and state behavior. This encourages companies to adopt more sustainable practices, ultimately redefining success in a way that considers the entire value creation of an entity.

Consumer, investor, and state behaviors play a critical role in holding the private sector accountable for prioritizing shared value. Consumers and employees want to support and work for purpose-driven companies. Investors demand that companies disclose not only financial performance but also environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to properly assess risk and make investment decisions. And governments increasingly implement climate-related regulations, taxes, and policies, as well as workplace safety procedures, extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, anti-discrimination laws, and more.

For businesses, it will be critical to consider a holistic view of their performance, one that integrates positive and negative impacts on the economy, society, and the environment. Research shows that a .

Measurement

Redefining success to include sustainability requires measurements that capture this element of performance. For business leaders to make the appropriate decisions and set the strategy for a company鈥檚 long-term success, they need access to comprehensive data and metrics that go beyond financial measurements. This enables holistic steering and reporting, with the visibility required to mitigate negative ESG impact and increase positive ESG impact.

As mentioned previously, 51风流joined the VBA in an effort to transform the way businesses measure and value their societal impact. The VBA develops and tests methodologies that assign a monetary value to the impact of any decision, translating environmental and social impacts into comparable financial data. The VBA equips decision-makers with the knowledge to decide and act consciously.

Profitability is a necessary condition for sustainability but alone is insufficient. Business can positively impact planet and people, but not if limited planetary resources run out. Unfortunately, the earth鈥檚 resources do not align with earnings cycles or CEO tenures, and sooner or later we will suffer the consequences.

Paul Polman recognized this early on and launched Unilever鈥檚 (SLP) to help ensure that his business would be around 50, 100, or 200 years from now. The SLP shifted Unilever鈥檚 focus from solely meeting investor鈥檚 quarterly earnings to putting environmental and social impact top of mind. Similarly, Kering developed an to effectively measure its environmental footprint and convert it into monetary value. Utilizing this measurement tool provides a holistic approach to reporting that guides business decisions and respects natural resources.

Unilever and Kering know that the successful businesses of the future will integrate sustainability into core business operations today.

By adopting a long-term perspective, redefining success, and adjusting how we measure it, we can inspire a paradigm shift from profit maximization to value optimization, altering the status quo at our own companies and throughout the world. Innovation, business model transformation, and cross-industry collaboration will fuel this change. Wherever your business is today, this transition is a journey.

You may not be there yet, but it鈥檚 time to start by putting this question front and center: 鈥淐an a company that is not sustainable be successful long-term?鈥�

At SAP, we believe it cannot.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.

What unsettles me most is that we have completely re-bounced to the pre-pandemic overshoot. When I was reflecting on Earth Overshoot Day on August 22 last year, I was hopeful that we had turned around the of reaching our planet鈥檚 natural limits earlier and earlier since 1970. It had been the first time in years that we had pushed Earth Overshoot Day to a later date. But now we have almost returned to the level of 2019, with an compared to 2020.

Have we not learned our lessons? Are we not managing to leverage the small window of opportunity to ensure a sustainable recovery?

The conversation around sustainability did actually accelerate in the last 18 months, quite drastically even. Political will has been converging with true economic business cases. . For businesses it is no longer a question of 鈥渋f,鈥� but of 鈥渉ow鈥� and 鈥渉ow fast鈥� — and the latter seem to be the issue. The many bold targets from diversity to net-zero remain to be executed.

It鈥檚 clear that we need to move from goal setting to action and do so faster.

Being a stubborn optimist, I never give up taking note of examples that prove progress in the right direction. I was intrigued when reading about and being among the first cities to implement Doughnut Economics amid the COVID-19 crisis. The model was introduced by :

鈥淗umanity鈥檚 21st century challenge is to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet. In other words, to ensure that no one falls short on life鈥檚 essential needs (from food and housing to health care and political voice), while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth鈥檚 life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend. The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries is a playfully serious approach to framing that challenge, and it acts as a compass for human progress this century.鈥�

Having been inspired by Raworth鈥檚 doughnut, as well as by related frameworks such as Johan Rockstr枚m鈥檚 concept of the , we have also evolved SAP鈥檚 objective over time to 鈥渃reating positive economic, social, and environmental impact within the planetary boundaries.鈥� We know it鈥檚 still directional, but are passionately working together with our employees, partners, suppliers, governments, and NGOs toward bringing this to life.

At our first in April this year, we heard inspiring examples of how this has already been put into practice along with future solutions yet to be implemented. While the focus was on holistic steering and reporting, climate action,and circular economy, it is the circular economy that especially comes to mind today.

Earth Overshoot Day painfully visualizes that our current economy is largely based on a “take-make-waste” model — the linear economy, or as Raworth puts it so vividly the 鈥渋ndustrial caterpillar, ingesting food at one end, chewing it through, and excreting the waste out of the other end.鈥� The key is to move away from this degenerative approach toward a regenerative one based on continual (re)use of resources in a closed-loop system, minimized use of resource inputs, and reduction of waste, pollution, and carbon emissions. This only works through collaboration across networks, which is a key motivation for 51风流to create new business communities able to improve business outcomes, better navigate changing economic and geopolitical conditions, and enhance sustainability contributions.

The experiences, advancements, and challenges shared during the 51风流Sustainability Summit by both large corporations — including Mitsubishi, adidas, H&M, Nestle, Dow, Eastman, Audi, and BASF — as well as startups such as Queen of Raw, Topolytics, Rheaply, Greentoken, and Re-loop, make me hopeful that we have the foundation on which to build. Partnerships that were equally discussed at the event — as with Accenture, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, or the World Economic Forum鈥檚 Global Plastics Action Partnership —聽 should provide the springboard to accelerate and scale.

51风流is committed to play its part in driving the transition toward an — be it through the launch of new sustainability solutions, supporting alliances and pledges like the WWF鈥檚 OneSource and Ellen MacArthur Foundation鈥檚 encouraging government actions against plastic wast,e or by offering a to increase the awareness of benefits and best practices.

I invite everyone to join in and act now. The Global Footprint Network has a to chip away at our own ecological footprint, both collectively and individually. Let鈥檚 make it happen together!

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer at SAP.

The European Union, Japan and the Republic of Korea, together with more than 110 other countries, have pledged carbon neutrality by 2050; China stated it will become carbon neutral before 2060. The U.S. has rejoined the Paris Agreement. On a corporate level, more than 480 companies, including SAP, have meanwhile signed the聽, setting a net-zero target in line with a 1.5掳C future.

Yet, the urgency and importance to act are as high as ever. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) made it very clear: despite a dip in greenhouse gas emissions from the COVID-19 economic slowdown, the world is still heading for a catastrophic temperature rise above 3掳C this century. Hope continues to lie in a green pandemic recovery, which UNEP believes could cut 25% off the greenhouse emissions expected in 2030.

As more than 1 billion people in over 192 countries participate in today, . It is a major milestone on the road to the UN Climate Change Conference 2021 () in November, where world leaders will report back on progress since the 2015 Paris Agreement and are expected to come together to drive ambitious climate outcomes forward.

It has been rightfully emphasized how important it is for our collective well-being to address the climate crisis. During the past year, however, evidence has been increasing how interrelated taking care of the environment is with taking care of ourselves.

Earlier this month, the UNEP announced 鈥�,鈥� a cross-cutting approach that carries out programs, policies, legislation, and research uniting human, animal, and environmental health.

Julian Blanc, a UNEP wildlife expert sees a clear interdependency:聽鈥淢any zoonoses that have become pandemics have been linked to environmental factors like deforestation and are exacerbated by climate change. We will not succeed in securing human health while we continue to ignore environmental health.鈥�

The close link between climate change and health is also in spotlight at the聽 convening at the margin of COP26. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is co-organizing the event, air pollution alone costs an estimated US$ 5.11 trillion in welfare losses globally each year and causes one out of eight deaths globally.聽A new study by the Harvard University published in beginning of February 2021, increases estimates of the numbers killed by air pollution even to one out of five.

Shouldn鈥檛 this reframe everything? It makes climate change seem a lot less abstract and distant; rather an immediate and direct threat to our health and that of our children 鈥� a massive wake-up call!

So as we mark Earth Day 2021 with the theme 鈥淩estore our Earth,鈥� let鈥檚 recognize that for us to be healthy people, we need a healthy planet. This means taking steps to act now and reshape our economy to be more restorative, low-carbon, circular, and inclusive.

At SAP, our opportunity to create the biggest positive environmental, social, and economic impact within the planetary boundaries is to . With nearly 50 years of experience in resource optimization, we focus on those areas in which we can most effectively contribute: solutions for holistic steering and reporting, , climate action, and socially responsible value chains.

Acknowledging that , we partner and co-innovate with customers, governments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world to advocate for practical problem solving.

At the upcoming , we will announce new partnerships and explore opportunities, proven practices, and future solutions with our customers and broader ecosystem, as well as聽see how traditional聽business decision聽making is being transformed with sustainability indicators integrated. In the spirit of Earth Days鈥� theme 鈥淩estore our Earth,鈥� we will restore 100sqm of diverse forest for every summit attendee.

At the same time, we remain committed to lead by example in our own sustainable business operations and practices. In March, when we released our , we announced our objective to become carbon-neutral in our own operations by 2023 鈥� two years earlier than previously envisaged. By accelerating toward carbon-neutral operations, 51风流is taking the lead in considering the impact of COVID-19 on carbon emissions. The pandemic has taught businesses how to work with customers and colleagues effectively in a virtual setting. We anticipate the development toward more remote work and less business travel to continue and are adjusting our carbon neutrality target to uphold our ambition level.

The pandemic has changed the world of work in ways we could not have imagined. While some see a silver lining in the climate impacts, we cannot deny the toll it continues to take on people, our employees. Looking at these impacts as part of our holistic steering and reporting, it was clear that the required even stronger focus in 2021 with a broad portfolio of benefits and offerings help our people maintain balance and thrive mental, emotional, physical, and social health. For example, we are implementing a Mental Health Day, a company-sponsored global holiday for all employees, scheduled for April 27 next week. Work will grind to a halt on that day, giving everyone time off to do something for themselves and their families, thereby offering employees a chance to recharge.

Let鈥檚 take Earth Day 2021 as both a reminder and inspiration of what鈥檚 at stake and how important it is that we join forces to create a more just, healthy, and prosperous life for all people, respecting the boundaries of our one planet.

At SAP, we are as committed as ever to live up to . I invite everyone to join us on this journey.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.
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Consider this: We are using resources 1.75 times faster than the planet can regenerate. And with another billion people projected by 2030, we will need two Earths to sustain our needs. There is a unique window of opportunity for us to manage the turnaround, but it is closing, and we need to act fast.

Since 1970,聽the , an international research organization, has hosted and calculated Earth Overshoot Day. For the first time in years, this critical milestone occurs later in the year. This disrupts since 1970 where we continue to reach our planet鈥檚 natural limits earlier and earlier 鈥� for example, we reached that point November 4, 1980, and August 7, 2010.

Sadly, we owe this reversal to the COVID-19 pandemic, at tremendous human and economic loss. At the same time, we will need to work hard to keep these environmental gains. Time is of the essence.聽Without a healthy planet, there can be no basis for a return to healthy societies, resilient and restorative economies, and shared prosperity.聽Although聽COVID-19鈥痠蝉 , we clearly remain on an鈥�痑苍诲 .鈥疻e must act now聽to shape a sustainable recovery.

Sustainability: A Business Imperative

Putting aside moral obligations or ethical responsibility, it makes good business sense. It does not take an accounting expert to understand that it is not good to overspend. What business leader would dare report that they spent the company鈥檚 entire annual budget on August 22 and will run on a deficit for the rest of the year?

So why aren鈥檛 we applying this logic to stay within our common budget, the Earth鈥檚 limits? One reason: We need better data quality and a worldwide reporting and steering committee that spans across countries, governments, and other relevant organizations.

This isn鈥檛 the only reason. Breaking it down to the level of a single company, this is also rooted in partially outdated assumptions of how a company creates value. As discussed with key stakeholders on the , much of today鈥檚 accounting system is still derived from Luca Pacioli鈥檚 thinking back in the 15th century, when he popularized the system of double accounting and the world was not yet facing today鈥檚 challenges, including climate change and resource depletion.

Luckily, the mindset is shifting. We are moving beyond Milton Friedman鈥檚 idea that the purpose of business is merely to generate profits. In my conversations with peers, customers, and investors, I observe that, increasingly, business executives share our belief at 51风流that steering a company holistically 鈥� considering the financial but also social and green bottom lines 鈥� leads to better management decisions and better performing and more resilient companies.

For several years we have been investigating the聽聽as they relate to the performance of our business. Each year, we share those findings, which are publicly accessible in the . Identifying the connections within our own operations is only the first step. As part of聽our engagement in the Value Balancing Alliance, we are working with like-minded businesses to transform how to measure and value a business鈥� overall societal impacts and dependencies. While this effort is still at the beginning, all dimensions are interwoven in today鈥檚 world.

Company leaders will need to do much more than manage their top and bottom lines to keep investors and other stakeholders happy.聽They will also need to manage their 鈥済reen line.鈥� This requires openly disclosing, through aggregated reports,聽how their company is improving the environmental as well as social footprint across its value chains.

We Need a Low-Carbon, Circular Economy

Businesses can make a massive impact because they drive global production and consumption and can contribute to . While businesses are often cast as culprits in the environmental crisis, they also play a key role in the solutions 鈥� for example, by driving the transition to a low-carbon, circular economy.

Earth Overshoot Day painfully visualizes that our current economy is largely based on a 鈥渢ake-make-waste鈥� model, where materials are extracted, manufactured into goods, used, and then disposed of; it is a linear economy. We must jointly work toward a circular economy that supports the continual use of resources and creates a closed-loop system that minimizes the use of resource inputs while reducing waste, pollution, and carbon emissions.

expects that in the next 10 years, circular economies will replace linear economies. With the becoming clearer, showing that 45 percent of CO2 emissions can be tackled by transforming the way goods are made and used, we need to accelerate our support for this transformation. Digital technologies can help scale circular economies. That is why 51风流focuses on providing solutions and services that that can pave the way for a better tomorrow.

Tech Innovation Enables Circular Economy and Climate Action

Key focus areas for 51风流include 聽补苍诲听. We want to help companies understand, minimize, and disclose the full carbon footprints of their products and service, and to better manage material flows through their supply chains.

As part of the , 51风流launched 51风流Product Carbon Footprint Analytics to help analyze the accumulated amount of greenhouse gases and other environmental impacts created by the procurement, production, and logistics of services and finished goods. We also build capabilities into our analytical and transactional systems that help customers : responsible design, responsible sourcing and marketplace, responsible production, responsible consumption, and resource recovery and reuse. One example is the Plastics Cloud enabled by Ariba Network, which makes it easier for companies to procure recycled plastics.

We all have a role to play in this. Here at SAP, , and our objective is to create positive economic, social, and environmental impact within the planetary boundaries.

Both the pandemic and Earth Overshoot Day show how critical it is to manage the planet鈥檚 limited resources carefully while ensuring fair distribution. Solving the global challenges that we are facing takes systems thinking and multi-stakeholder collaboration. No single person or entity can master this alone. I invite everyone to be part as we build back together to be more inclusive and restorative, allowing all of us and future generations to thrive.

Daniel Schmid is the chief sustainability officer at SAP.

Earth Day 2020 is also a reminder of what is at stake if we fail to address another crisis that will determine our collective well-being in the long run: the climate crisis.

At SAP, we have always believed in a holistic understanding of sustainability that encompasses economic, social, and environmental impact creation within the planetary boundaries. This includes safeguarding the health and well-being of individuals as well as the planet. One cannot thrive without the other.

For several years we have been investigating the as they relate to the performance of our business. We share our findings in our Integrated Report and make them accessible to the public. But identifying the connections within our own operations is only the first step. As part of our engagement in the Value Balancing Alliance, we are working with like-minded businesses to transform how to measure and value a business鈥� overall societal impacts and dependencies. While this effort is still at the beginning, it is becoming more apparent how interwoven all dimensions in today鈥檚 world really are.

It is therefore not a question of whether it is more important to dedicate resources to economic, societal, or environmental development, or to the COVID-19 crisis or climate crisis. We need to strike a balance among all.

In these uncertain times, our immediate priority at 51风流is to help by protecting our employees, providing open access to technology to tackle disruptions, ensuring business continuity for customers, supporting social sector partners, and more. But our long-term commitment to building a sustainable future remains unchanged.

Looking back to Earth Day 2019, I never could have imagined that one year later, this noteworthy movement would go completely digital for the first time in its history. I am confident, however, that this will not diminish the experience and impact. The extraordinary global lockdown has triggered unexpected creativity and a necessity to come up with new virtual formats and offerings. There is a parallel to sustainability that I believe to be an innovation driver because it equally requires us to rethink how we live and do business.

This gives me cautious hope for the post-pandemic reopening 鈥� a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel of worry and concern.

During a recent virtual dialogue session with about 50 members of our grassroots group 鈥淓mployees4Climate,鈥� we discussed lessons learned from the pandemic for addressing climate change. An online poll uncovered that the majority see the impact of COVID-19 on climate action progress as an opportunity rather than a risk.

Employees pointed out that even the most skeptical among their peers, managers, and customers are learning that virtual collaboration can replace business trips and save travel time and stress. Fortunately, we had already identified this as a key measure to avoid carbon emissions and reach our goal to be carbon neutral by 2025. 51风流had already established much of the infrastructure and equipped our teams with the necessary tools. This helped to minimize disruptions in our operations and support for customers.

The impact is obvious: The decline of business trips in March led to a reduction of SAP鈥檚 first quarter 2020 carbon emissions to 65 kilotons compared to 110 kilotons in the first quarter of 2019. And this is happening all over the world. compared to the same time of the previous year due to measures to contain the virus. Satellite images very clearly visualize the vanishing pollution in China and India.

These are side effects that are good for the planet as well as the health of people suffering from the pollution. Even as we find the silver lining, we cannot lose sight of the tremendous human and economic cost. The key question, as raised in a , is 鈥渉ow to find a paradigm that provides at once environmental and economic sustainability.鈥� To this I would add social sustainability as well. Another key question is how to make the positive shifts in our habits last after the crisis recedes.

Again, I am hopeful. As we plan for the recovery ahead, it is not only the sustainability community envisioning . Policy makers, such as those in the EU, have elevated sustainability to a top security priority after the global coronavirus outbreak to decrease vulnerability to global supply chains. to boost resiliency: 鈥淭his is not only good for our environment, but it reduces dependency by shortening and diversifying supply chains.鈥�

We all have a role to play in this. At SAP, we are as committed as ever to live up to our purpose to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives by providing products and services that meet the sustainability challenges and opportunities of our customers, while leading by example in our own sustainable business operations and practices. Key focus areas for us include digital solutions for and .

The past weeks have shown how critical it is to have full transparency and traceability of supply chains and manage our 鈥� and the planet鈥檚 鈥� limited resources carefully for greater reliability as well as fair distribution.

The Earth Day organizers have suggested the day 鈥渟hould not be seen as a deadline but rather a spark that inspires future action.鈥� As we jointly commemorate its 50th anniversary, let鈥檚 use this spark to reimagine a sustainable future after post-pandemic. I invite everyone to be part as we rebuild together to be more resilient, inclusive, and restorative, allowing all of us and future generations to thrive.

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51风流SE.