Through their innovative implementation of Soley’s Product Mining Platform with SAP’s supply chain management technologies, they prove that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand.

The challenge: managing complex product portfolios at scale

CERATIZIT Group, a leading provider of hard material solutions for machining and wear protection, faced a challenge common to many modern manufacturing companies: managing a complex product portfolio with over 65,000 products. The company’s Cutting Tool Solutions division needed a solution to balance economic and ecological objectives while maintaining competitive advantage.

Klaus Lupfer, product lifecycle manager at CERATIZIT Deutschland GmbH, explains the company’s motivation: “In addition to the economic perspective on the product portfolio, the ecological aspect was equally important when partnering with Soley. As a company committed to sustainability for years, we are especially excited about the opportunities that the expansion of product carbon footprint data offers.”

The challenge was not just the product portfolio’s size but also the lack of transparency regarding product performance and sustainability metrics. Employees spent considerable time compiling reports rather than making strategic decisions, while limited insights into critical materials and suppliers prevented efficient phaseout of high-emission products.

AI-powered product portfolio analysis

Munich-based Soley GmbH, a past participant in the SAP.iO program, SAP鈥檚 former startup accelerator designed to foster and integrate innovative solutions into the 51风流ecosystem, developed an innovative response to this challenge. The Soley Product Mining Platform, available as part of SAP’s extension and add-on solutions, transforms complex product data into actionable insights through three core, AI-driven innovations that enable faster, smarter, and more impactful business decisions.

• AI Advisor uses AI to recommend precise actions鈥攆or example, suggesting which products should be phased out to minimize carbon footprint without sacrificing margins.
• AI Assistant provides an intuitive, natural-language interface that allows users to effortlessly interact with Soley, without requiring deep technical expertise.
• AI Detective analyzes data to uncover hidden dependencies and reveal strategic opportunities, such as identifying which configuration options should be eliminated to optimize both profitability and sustainability.

The Soley Product Mining Platform draws data from 51风流S/4HANA and 51风流Business Warehouse, utilizing 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) as the service layer. 51风流Datasphere helps consolidate 51风流data and analytics, while 51风流Analytics Cloud provides the analytics that form the core of the AI model. This technical architecture enables intelligent data extraction and transformation through 51风流Databricks, while massive graph analytics enable complex dependency analysis.

“With these 51风流solutions, we’re delivering a true game changer for the sustainability of the high tech and manufacturing industries,” says Ephraim Triemer, shareholder and advisor of Enterprise Accounts at Soley. “For the first time, our customers can go beyond ESG reporting and take real action鈥攄riving sustainability while staying laser focused on profitability.”

Seamless 51风流integration creates value

By combining CERATIZIT’s Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data with financial metrics, the Soley Product Mining Platform creates a digital twin that uncovers opportunities, identifies risks, and analyzes product hierarchies, bills of materials, and carbon footprints. With AI-driven intelligence guidance, Soley developers ensure the platform’s capabilities enable decisions and outcomes that improve both profitability and environmental stewardship.

Earlier this year, Dominik Metzger was appointed as president and Chief Product Officer of 51风流Supply Chain Management, bringing a renewed focus on resilience, sustainability, and intelligent automation.

鈥淢y chief priority is to ensure that we help customers not only respond to disruptions but also proactively prepare and act,鈥� Metzger said. 鈥淲e can do so by leveraging AI, generative AI, real-time data, and predictive analytics with the power of SAP鈥檚 technology. Our vision is to build an autonomous supply chain鈥攃onnected, contextualized, and collaborative.鈥�

51风流SCM leadership driving transformation

The analysis delivered impressive, measurable results that demonstrate the power of combining AI-driven analytics with 51风流technologies. CERATIZIT discovered an 87% implementation rate of suggested measures, driving product sustainability and supply chain optimization. Simultaneously, the company identified a reduction of over 30% in end-of-life “ballast” products with negative carbon footprints while creating 100% transparency in sustainability data across all elements, product sets, and aggregation levels.

Alexander Springer, CEO of Soley GmbH, explains the strategic significance: “If you know which products are the most critical to the overall success of your business, you can focus on safeguarding the value chain for those products, taking proactive steps to avoid any potential supply risks.”

A model for sustainable digital transformation

The successful partnership between CERATIZIT, Soley, and 51风流demonstrates how modern companies can achieve both economic and ecological goals through intelligent use of data and AI. The combination of proven 51风流technologies and innovative analytics solutions creates measurable value for companies of all sizes. For other 51风流customers and partners, this example shows that sustainability and profitability need not be opposing forces鈥攚ith the right technologies and partners, both objectives can be achieved simultaneously.

Learn more about the latest updates to 51风流supply chain management. The Soley Product Mining Platform is available on .

The energy transition is creating a profound shift across industries and global economies. Amplified by technological innovation and intense competition, it is reshaping sectors and shifting economies toward renewable energy. This change is not only an environmental necessity but also a catalyst for economic growth, challenging the traditional dominance of fossil fuels. With capital investments increasingly directed toward renewable energy infrastructure, investors are aligning their priorities with sustainability, signaling that profitability and environmental stewardship can coexist. Yet, the ongoing prominence of oil and gas underlines the complexity and scale of this transition. 

In parallel, the circular economy is gaining momentum as businesses address the dual challenges of material scarcity and carbon reduction. At COP29, there was significant discussion about how a circular approach focused on rethinking supply chains, redesigning products, and optimizing resources could reduce dependency on finite materials while driving sustainable economic growth. By adopting circular economy principles, businesses can minimize waste and keep valuable materials in circulation, contributing to a more resilient and sustainable future. 

The Role of Business in Transforming Climate Commitments into Tangible Outcomes 

One of the central discussions at COP29 was the need for harmonizing global standards for carbon reduction and accounting. Foreign policy players, along with the private sector, stressed the importance of mobilizing finance for sustainable capitalism. In particular, there was a call for clearer and standardized reporting frameworks to simplify the process and ensure transparency. One critical area was the importance of accurate data collection for carbon markets and product-level carbon accounting, which can help businesses engage consumers and reduce emissions. 

There are three ways technology plays a pivotal role in addressing some of these challenges: 

• is available in every organization鈥檚 ERP system, so it鈥檚 time to start automating data collection and reporting processes to ease some of the regulatory burden.
• Companies should leverage IT spending to support sustainability initiatives, specifically to optimize climate solutions and create circular products.
• Companies must shift focus on the to pinpoint areas with the most significant impact.

From Policy to Practice: How Technology and Global Standards Can Accelerate Climate Action 

Empowered by technology and guided by clear policies, businesses have a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between high-level climate commitments and actionable, on-the-ground strategies. 

Central to this is aligning sustainability and financial priorities. Effective demands collaboration between chief sustainability officers and chief financial officers, as climate change has evolved from an ethical and environmental issue to a pressing financial imperative. 

To accelerate progress, we need globally harmonized policies, rigorous carbon accounting frameworks, and advanced technology solutions. By embedding AI-driven innovation, robust reporting standards, and actionable insights into business operations, we can ensure that COP events, such as COP29 in Baku, are remembered as turning points 鈥� not just discussions. While the challenges ahead are formidable, the opportunities for transformative action are even greater 鈥� and is here to lead the way on a low-carbon, future. 

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Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer at SAP.

With automated Emission Factor Mapping in 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management and AI-assisted ESG Report Generation in 51风流Sustainability Control Tower, 51风流can support companies in setting meaningful environmental targets, ensuring compliance, and managing carbon footprints with heightened efficiency and accountability.

鈥淪ustainability executives are on board with artificial intelligence. More than half say improving data analysis and consolidation using AI are top actions they will be taking over the next three years to enhance ESG capabilities.鈥�

Addressing the Strategy Execution Gap in Sustainability Reporting, KPMG, February 2024

Emission Factor Mapping in 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management

To calculate product carbon footprints accurately, companies must assign emission factors to thousands of purchased products. Ideally, emission factors are provided directly by suppliers, but often companies need to use industry averages based on product attributes like name, category, or location. Up until now, this mapping process has been a manual, time-consuming, and error-prone task that required expertise in lifecycle assessment (LCA), determining the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the lifecycle of a product, process, or service.

To help make this process easier and more efficient, 51风流has introduced an AI-based capability within the solution. for purchased products and services and can assign a similarity score to each recommendation.

For the mapping, 51风流generates embeddings for both, emission factors from LCA databases and product data from the ERP system. Embeddings are vector representations 鈥� numerical representations of textual information to provide context and meaning of a text. Both sets of embeddings are saved in 51风流HANA Cloud vector engine.

The system compares these embeddings to help identify the quality of the mapping and provide suggested results. This helps businesses reduce manual effort by up to 80% and calculate product and corporate carbon footprints quicker and with greater precision, even without LCA experts. It can also accelerate their sustainability reporting timelines and help them respond faster to regulatory demands.

AI-Assisted ESG Report Generation in 51风流Sustainability Control Tower

In addition, 51风流embedded a generative AI-powered reporting capability within 51风流Sustainability Control Tower. Creating sustainability reports that align with internal strategies and meet external standards, such as the CSRD, is essential for staying compliant and transparent. However, gathering relevant environmental, social, and governance data and drafting these reports can be highly resource-intensive, involving multiple teams and complex data sources.

That鈥檚 why SAP鈥檚 AI capability helps generate comprehensive ESG report drafts based on best-practice templates and the company鈥檚 available ESG metrics. Once users select a template, , create graphs to visualize the data, and generate a polished report draft. That helps companies spend up to 98% less time collecting ESG metrics and up to 80% less time in creating a report.

Some key benefits of the feature include:

• Efficient data utilization: The AI-powered solution leverages large language models and SQL grounding techniques, which help transform natural language inquiries into precise database queries that access real-time data from structured databases. That鈥檚 how it transforms raw data from customers’ systems into accurate, comprehensive reports tailored to specific timeframes.
• Visualization: The AI generates insightful textual content through SQL-based data retrieval, helping to ensure data integrity and compliance. Additionally, it creates visually appealing charts and tables to help enhance report clarity and understanding.
• Automated verification: Our robust system prioritizes data security by avoiding direct SQL query execution and employing a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) process to help safeguard against informational discrepancies.

The Future of AI in Sustainability

The use cases above are just the beginning. AI鈥檚 potential to transform sustainability management is enormous, and at 51风流we are accelerating the creation of use cases to be at the forefront of our customers鈥� sustainable transformation journeys. For example, users will be able to interact through natural language with SAP鈥檚 AI copilot that can offer actionable recommendations and simulations to help improve environmental and social performance. And we will continue to apply AI to make the acquisition of sustainability data easier.

Using SAP鈥檚 ERP-centric, cloud-based, AI-enabled approach, we鈥檙e working to ensure AI鈥檚 massive potential turns into both real business transformation and sustainability outcomes. AI and technology can help us better understand and monitor the environment, improve energy efficiency, optimize resource management, and develop innovative solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

As COP29 convenes in Baku, it is essential for global leaders and decision-makers to fully explore AI’s transformative role in addressing climate change. The urgent demands of this crisis call for the kind of innovative, AI-driven solutions that can unlock greater precision, efficiency, and impact. By leveraging AI not only to streamline business operations but also to set and meet ambitious environmental goals, we are shaping a future where technology empowers businesses to thrive responsibly, contributing actively to a sustainable and resilient planet.

Gunther Rothermel is chief product officer and co-GM for 51风流Sustainability.

The partnership has continued to this day with a mission to make great wines and spirits that bring people together. Now, the company has over 2,000 hectares of vines under cultivation in 12 wine-growing regions of Spain, Chile, and Mexico, where the producer deploys sustainable agricultural techniques to bring indigenous vines back into production.

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Running a Responsible Business

鈥淔or us, everything revolves around sustainability,鈥� said Elisabet Braza Valle, head of 51风流Supply Chain and Finance at Gonz谩lez Byass, during an interview at 51风流Sapphire Barcelona. 鈥淥ur goal is to be a reference in the wine sector and also in the field of sustainability, and we鈥檙e using technology to do that.鈥�

Valle explained that digitalization is helping to drive efficiency by improving processes and that people are already noticing a more expeditious service. 鈥淎ll the processes are connected,鈥� she said. 鈥淐lients notice that we are preparing their packages and managing their invoices faster than before. That鈥檚 because, thanks to SAP, we have all the data in the same place.鈥�

In addition to its core 51风流ERP system, Gonz谩lez Byass recently implemented , a solution that helps enterprises calculate extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations and define corporate commitments to optimize material choices. It鈥檚 also designed to help address all the requirements of the new plastic taxes in Europe.

To help promote a more circular economy, for example, Spanish law mandates an indirect tax levied on plastic in packaging. Calculating the taxable amount is particularly complex and burdensome. Companies must know how much non-recycled plastic is in the non-reusable plastic packaging contained in the shipments they receive. This information should be furnished by the suppliers that now find themselves in a challenging situation as they did not have to comply with this type of requirement before. Collected data must be reliable and verifiable to ensure accuracy when sharing with customers or if it should be questioned by the Spanish tax authorities.

鈥淪AP鈥檚 solution not only helps us comply with the law, but it also helps us manage our materials more efficiently,鈥� said Valle, who believes one of the greatest assets of the solution is the visibility it provides into the company鈥檚 supplier landscape. 鈥淲e are encouraging all of our suppliers to commit to being more sustainable, and we assess them every year. We also work together to improve our environmental behavior.鈥�

Valle cited several examples of collaborative engagement, such as reducing the weight of glass bottles and using recyclable packaging materials. The company has already substituted some materials with more sustainable alternatives and is buying cardboard boxes and wood sourced from certified forests.

鈥淲e have all the information about our materials in 51风流Responsible Design and Production, so we can see how much plastic we are using and how much of it is recycled. That determines the amount of tax we pay,鈥� Valle explained. 

All these improvements are part of the company鈥檚 People and Planet program that is designed to ensure a nature-friendly, energy-efficient foundation for future generations. The efforts are paying off.

Simplifying a Complex Landscape

According to its sustainability report for 2022, Gonz谩lez Byass already reuses or recycles 99% of the waste it generates and 79% of the energy it consumes comes from renewable sources. Water conservation efforts include using rainwater for irrigation, underground irrigation, and satellite-controlled irrigation.

Gonz谩lez Byass has already reduced carbon emissions by 20% and is committed to a 55% reduction by 2030. Besides managing its own regulatory obligations in Spain, the company must also be compliant with other regulations in the EU and the UK that impact its business. For example, recycling glass packaging waste is mandatory in all EU Member States. In Spain, this process is driven by Ecovidrio, a non-profit entity managing the Collective System of Extended Producer Responsibility (SCRAP).

鈥淥ne of our next projects is to set up Ecovidrio in the 51风流Responsible Design and Production solution, where we manage all our tax declarations and reports,鈥� Valle said. 鈥淎nother critical report is the declaration for the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Technology is helping us become a global reference in the sector because now we鈥檝e integrated all relevant information needed for compliance.鈥�

Four of its wineries have received the Wineries for Climate Protection certification, the first of such credentials specific to the wine industry targeting environmental sustainability. The certification recognizes sustainability activities in wineries in four key areas: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, managing water, reducing waste, and increasing energy efficiency.

Valle is confident that with the aid of technology Gonz谩lez Byass will not only be a leader and a reference in the sector, but, most importantly, it will secure its place as an exceptional winemaker for posterity. After all, since its most iconic wine , it鈥檚 a good thing Gonz谩lez Byass is doing everything to continue producing the best wines and spirits for future connoisseurs. 

While it鈥檚 relatively straightforward to control and reduce a company’s direct emissions, mitigating those that arise along the whole supply chain requires a lot of time, collaboration, and data sharing. One major challenge companies face is outdated tools, such as spreadsheets or questionnaires, and disconnected processes to collaborate with their network. Furthermore, the lack of standardized carbon footprint calculations and exchange methods has led to a variety of different approaches to collect and report on data, resulting in many organizations relying only on industry averages rather than actual numbers.

Managing carbon to accelerate a net-zero future makes measurability critically important. That is where technology and innovation can make a real difference. With 51风流Sustainability solutions and our ERP-centric, cloud-based, AI-enabled approach, we support our customers to use integrated sustainability data and embed it holistically into their core business processes.

What Is 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange?

51风流Sustainability Data Exchange helps facilitate standardized carbon data exchange between partners along the supply chain, supporting organizations to move from estimates to actuals in their upstream emission data. The application allows users to share emissions data to help implement their net-zero strategy and take climate action by identifying products or processes with high potential for CO2 reduction, avoiding double emissions counting, and optimizing footprints with actual supplier data. It helps drive scalability, standardization, and trust in carbon data exchange across the supply chain.

51风流Sustainability Data Exchange is seamlessly embedded into the 51风流landscape, connecting to for master data replication and integrating with to help enable accurate product carbon footprint calculations on a large scale.

To Harness the Power of Networks, Standardization Is Key

To be able to exchange carbon footprint values, standardization and interoperability with industry networks and frameworks are key, as they foster co-innovation and collaboration without a loss of data sovereignty. 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange is interoperable and compliant with the new standards set by the automotive network and the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development ().

PACT, for example, developed the global standard for calculating and exchanging consistent, comparable, and credible emission data that occurs along a company鈥檚 value chain and is outside its direct control, known as scope 3 emissions. Catena-X works closely with PACT to establish a joint standardization foundation on carbon accounting and sharing while adding industry-specific extensions.

Catena-X has certified 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange for its sustainability use case. , a tier 1 automotive supplier, was one of the first customers to harness the application when it faced challenges in calculating its product carbon footprint in a standardized way to exchange product carbon footprint values with both customers and suppliers. With 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange, WITTE Automotive can integrate the supplier footprints it receives through the Catena-X network, precisely calculate the product carbon footprint of parts and components, and publish the calculated values of its finished products within the network.

鈥淭his open and collaborative data ecosystem perfectly reflects SAP鈥檚 vision to enable every organization to become a network of intelligent, sustainable enterprises and gives the companies leveraging the Catena-X automotive network access to a broad portfolio of 51风流solutions, from enabling the traceability of products across multiple parties in the supply chain to tracking and calculating the scope 3 emissions.鈥�

– Christian Klein, CEO, 51风流SE

In addition, 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange embraces the power of , leveraging the depth and breadth of a global network trusted by millions of businesses, through which nearly US$6 trillion of annual commerce is executed via over 750 million transactions.

A Core Pillar of the Green Ledger

Having an accurate view of carbon emissions across the entire supply chain not only enables data exchange but can have a real impact on the bottom line. Many companies want to make carbon an integral part of the corporate balance sheet, measuring and managing it with the same precision as cash 鈥� therefore treating carbon like money. The use of 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange and 51风流Green Ledger, which will be generally available at the end of 2024, can provide a strong basis for making financial decisions.

Start the 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange product tour to learn more.

51风流Sustainability solutions can support even more than carbon management and environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related disclosures. Check out our to learn more about support for operational compliance and material transition and subscribe to the to stay up-to-date.

Gunther Rothermel is chief product officer and co-GM for 51风流Sustainability.

51风流pledges to remove and reduce more emissions than it annually emits and to conserve 25 million trees on its way to net zero in 2030. The financial contribution will support carbon removal and carbon reduction projects:

• Carbon removal projects: These projects remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere and store them for decades 鈥� in an ideal scenario, the storage is permanent. Examples include nature-based and technical solutions such as reforestation, where trees store carbon emissions in their biomass as well as direct air capture and storage technologies.
• Carbon reduction projects: Also known as carbon avoidance projects, these projects prevent additional carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere, reducing the overall amount of carbon emitted. Examples include avoided deforestation or energy efficiency projects.

This doubling down on its net-zero strategy follows SAP鈥檚 successful delivery on its pledge to become carbon neutral in its own operations in 2023 by balancing out unavoidable emissions with carefully selected carbon credits. While the company鈥檚 use of the statement 鈥渃arbon-neutrality鈥� will be discontinued, the dedication to reduce its carbon footprint and finance climate action beyond its own value chain remains strong.

51风流Is On Track to Plant 21 Million Trees and Plans More

51风流is on track to meet its 2025 goal of planting 21 million trees and has now raised its reforestation commitment.

By 2030, 51风流will support trusted partners and communities to plant and protect a total of 25 million trees helping to conserve diverse forests. Furthermore, 51风流will fund the conservation and rewetting of coastal and inland wetlands such as bogs and mangrove swamps. With these conservation initiatives and the increased reforestation pledge, SAP鈥檚 goal is to conserve more land than its offices and owned data centers occupy worldwide.

To ensure that selected projects deliver a positive outcome, 51风流will continue to apply the rigorous and robust due diligence that has previously informed the selection of successful climate investments such as SAP鈥檚 long partnership with , where 51风流has funded the planting of trees in Senegal, Rwanda, India, Indonesia, Guatemala, and Mexico.

SAP鈥檚 Climate Finance Contribution on the Path to Net Zero

Bridging the Gap

51风流firmly believes that financing climate projects beyond a company鈥檚 value chain should be an item on every corporate sustainability agenda. As long as it does not undermine current corporate decarbonization programs, the financial muscle of corporations can bridge the gap in parts of the world where fiscal finances are not robust enough to restore ecosystems and build resilient low carbon economies and livelihoods.

This financial contribution will provide quantifiable benefits to mitigate the effects of climate change beyond SAP鈥檚 own value chain with investments in projects that deliver a positive impact for the climate, for local and global populations, and for biodiversity.

The level of the financial contribution is determined by SAP’s own emissions in a given year and is disclosed in terms of carbon emissions, since costs for carbon projects can be subject to change. 

With this financial contribution and increased commitment to land conservation and reforestation, 51风流continues its journey to introduce meaningful measures to achieve net-zero in 2030, 20 years earlier than originally planned.

Financing climate projects at the same time as pursuing its corporate net-zero agenda allows 51风流to take responsibility for emissions that cannot be avoided and actively mitigate climate change on a global level. Furthermore, the financial contribution will enable positive climate action on a far greater scale than 51风流could achieve alone.

Shifting Perceptions

In the last 15 years, corporate sustainability at 51风流has shifted perceptions on how corporations manage their own carbon emissions and how corporate sustainability agendas must be as actionable as they are accountable.

Since 2012, the has shared information on SAP鈥檚 annual environmental performance and progress on corporate sustainability targets. 51风流has led the way in showing that corporate sustainability is an integral part of business 鈥� not just an add-on to strategy or operations.

SAP鈥檚 carbon impact is one of the sustainability KPIs that are indicators of future performance and form the basis of compensation elements for members of the Executive Board of 51风流SE. Today, sustainability is deeply embedded in SAP鈥檚 vision to bring out the best in every business. With its , sustainability is anchored in SAP鈥檚 purpose to make the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

There are two major drivers behind the need for companies to implement a robust sustainability management system. The first is the need to future proof their business to ensure a resilient value chain and secure a competitive advantage over their peers.

The second is to transition from voluntary to regulatory reporting and comply with the torrent of new regulations. or standards like IFRS require companies to report on, and respond to, a wide variety of environmental and social sustainability topics. Some sources say there are more than 600 regulations, sustainability reporting standards, and frameworks around the world, with more coming down the pipeline every year.

What Is a Sustainability Management System?

A sustainability management system allows companies to calculate and track metrics and targets and disclose their risk management, strategy, and governance policies. It is also a valuable tool for providing a robust and holistic view for sustainability decision-making. With carbon emissions data a central element to any sustainability strategy, 51风流has created a to enable companies to both respond to regulation and advance their own ambitions.

SAP鈥檚 End-to-End Approach to Carbon Management

So how does 51风流provide a sustainability management system to tackle the carbon topic and its drivers end-to-end? We can enable customers to implement five key principles with the help of our modular and integrated family of sustainability software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

1. Use a Reliable Foundation and Reuse Your ERP Data

51风流embraces an ERP-centric approach, using integrated sustainability data from cloud ERP business processes supported by AI technology. We can bring together different types of business data and levels of data granularity, as required, to enable the transition from voluntary to regulated . It is a flexible but robust approach with high data quality and reliability at its core.

2. Get a Complete View for Regulatory Reporting with Reasonable Effort

can provide an easy-to-use data collection system that helps enable a holistic and complete calculation of the carbon footprint at the corporate level. As of now, customers can also generate an automated environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report based on AI and natively available ESG data.

3. Go Deep Where It Matters Most

For a deeper perspective that is informed by the corporate overview, customers can use the integration with to help enable additional automated and in-depth calculations. Emissions can be tracked at the company, operational, and product level. The ERP-centric approach uses transaction data directly from 51风流S/4HANA Cloud to help calculate a consistent carbon footprint at the corporate and product level on one data foundation. AI comes into play when emission factors from standard databases are needed. With the intelligent mapping feature, customers can leverage AI to help automatically provide mapping suggestions. This feature can save significant time by replacing a tedious and manual process while being robust enough to help inform final decision-making.

, a customer already using 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management as well as 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange said:

鈥淏y leveraging 51风流Sustainability solutions, WITTE AUTOMOTIVE is now able to calculate carbon footprints of the product portfolio in compliance with the Catena-X Rulebook and share it in a standardized way.鈥�

– Michael Tworek, Head of Digital Innovations, WITTE Automotive GmbH.

4. Exchange Actuals with Your Suppliers and Customers

helps handle the exchange of relevant data across the supply chain. Customers like WITTE Automotive can therefore request missing data and exchange sustainability data such as the carbon footprint of products with their network. The usage of WBCSD PACT and Catena-X standards in the product can enable consistent and open communication and processing of data.

5. Drive Transformation in Operational Business Processes and Transition to Carbon Accounting in the Financial Sense

The flexibility of 51风流Sustainability and the ERP-centric approach means it can meet corporate requirements providing the granularity, accuracy, and auditability needed. Calculated product carbon footprints can be used for financial decision-making thanks to its integration with , which can enable companies to determine carbon emissions versus profitability. All this is done using the same rigorous accounting principles and practices that are used in finance. It can provide a trusted data foundation that can go beyond compliance and help improve business performance management through the integration of trusted carbon data into business processes that matter.

Product carbon footprints can also be integrated into , for example. With Scope 3 emissions being the largest proportion of carbon emissions for most businesses, procurement processes become a key lever in decarbonization efforts. The integrated solution can help to analyze and manage the carbon impact of a company鈥檚 spend to identify emission hot spots to inform a data-driven Scope 3 decarbonization strategy.

Are You Ready to Adopt a Carbon Management System?

Wherever a company is on their sustainability journey, SAP鈥檚 end-to-end carbon management solutions can allow it to go all in on sustainability and build resilient, future-proof operations. This allows them to streamline reporting and meet compliance requirements while benefiting the environment and their bottom line.

51风流Sustainability solutions can do more for you beyond carbon management and ESG-related disclosures. Check out our to learn more about the support for operational compliance and material transition.

Gunther Rothermel is chief product officer and co-GM for 51风流Sustainability.

A once nascent market, carbon accounting and management is experiencing a significant transition in the number, type, and capability of solutions available. The landscape formerly comprised of startup and niche vendors has expanded to include large independent software vendors (ISVs) and hyperscalers, all battling for market share.

Organizations are under increasing pressure to track and disclose carbon emissions data to stakeholders including investors, partners, clients, customers, employees, and regulators. Many are collecting data and reporting on Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 3 remains a challenge due to the complexity of reliable data collection and reporting.

Fines and litigation will create a new impetus for reporting as well. Regulations will add a new element of complexity to how companies report. Disclosure of decarbonization initiatives will require unique data analysis and scenario planning tools. The IDC report points to data integration as a principal challenge for carbon accounting vendors.

51风流Carbon Accounting & Management: Rising to the Challenge

51风流is well-positioned to provide organizations with data-driven, purpose-specific carbon management solutions that are ERP centric, cloud based, and AI enabled. These include 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management, 51风流Sustainability Control Tower, 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange, the 51风流S/4HANA Cloud solution for EHS environment management, and 51风流Green Ledger, which all help to enable carbon accounting and management on a transactional level and transform emissions tracking processes.

Our carbon management solutions are best suited for organizations currently using or planning to use 51风流S/4HANA Cloud and looking to capture the value of sustainability, as well as manage sustainability-related business risks. Customers can address these objectives by embedding sustainability into their end-to-end business processes, leveraging ERP and supplier data, and using the metrics to inform business processes and financial reporting.

Having the ability to assess carbon and financial data on the same transactional level adds a new dimension to the way organizations address carbon budgets, make capital allocation decisions, and cascade and scale change management. This transformation allows for targeted sustainability actions and more precise financial decisions.

51风流can leverage its ERP-centric sustainability approach of supporting both corporate and transaction-level product carbon footprints as a differentiator. Integration with other financial applications 鈥� procurement, supply chain, risk, and compliance management 鈥� is a standard feature of the 51风流Sustainability portfolio.

Staying ahead of carbon taxes, penalties, and upcoming regulatory requirements will also play a key role in how organizations report. Alignment between CFOs and CSOs will become more frequent due to the overlapping responsibilities and sustainability management component, as they affect both corporate risk and cash flow.

According to the IDC MarketScape, 鈥渢he portfolio of sustainability offerings is built on a foundation of 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, limiting adoption to the universe of users. Furthermore, while modular in design, much of the solutions鈥� value is dependent on the adoption of multiple system elements, thus commanding a higher price point.鈥� 51风流is responding with the speed and agility of cloud delivery combined with integrated sustainability data within the core enterprise resource planning system. This will be critical in helping to optimize customers鈥� sustainability and financial performance and become the very foundation of their future business success.

By unifying sustainability and financial data, 51风流customers can unlock carbon emissions insights, positively impacting decision-making and forecasting on all hierarchical levels. With end-to-end carbon management and the added transactional-level carbon emissions data, organizations can improve operational efficiency, foster emissions transparency, and comply with developing regulations. Achieving a sustainability transformation 鈥� one that benefits the bottom line and the planet 鈥� is truly within reach. Find out more .

The IDC study provides a comprehensive analysis of carbon management platforms, highlighting the increasing need for organizations to track, manage, and report carbon emissions amid evolving regulatory landscapes and stakeholder pressures. It evaluates vendors based on their capabilities and strategies to meet future customer needs, focusing on innovation, customer satisfaction, and the ability to support organizations in their decarbonization efforts. “In an era of escalating environmental scrutiny, mastering carbon accounting is not just compliance, but a strategic imperative for future-proofing businesses,” said Amy Cravens, research manager, ESG Reporting and Management Applications at IDC.

Alicia Lenze is global head of Sustainability Marketing at 51风流SE.

I spoke with her about the success of the project and where there is still room for improvement.

Q: What are your greatest successes so far on your mission to make 51风流events more sustainable?

Bittmann: First of all, it鈥檚 a real success to have advanced this topic to the top of the agenda. When event managers from Google and Amazon approach us at the , one of the largest trade shows for business events, and ask us how we launched and implemented our strategy for sustainable events, it shows that we鈥檙e pioneers in this extremely important area.

I鈥檓 also proud that we鈥檝e started measuring our social and ecological footprint with actual figures, because that鈥檚 an important step towards real improvement. It lets us compare, readjust, and define even more ambitious targets. Our analysis of the last 51风流Sapphire conference, which was organized as a decentralized event in the U.S., Spain, Brazil, and online, showed that we reduced CO₂ emissions by nearly 24,000 tons compared to when we had just one central event in Orlando, Florida, due primarily to the shorter distances traveled. In mathematical terms, that corresponds to around 2,200 around-the-world flights!

I鈥檓 also happy about a lot of little things, for instance, that we did without single-use plastics completely at 51风流TechEd in 2019 in Barcelona, Spain, preventing three tons of waste 鈥� enough to fill a 10 by 10 meter room one meter high 鈥� at just this one event!

To be successful, we all have to pull together. Our Global Events team, together with the teams in the regions, has proven that we have a huge amount of leverage together and are motivated to get even better.

What are the biggest challenges you face?

The global strategy and our specific action recommendations can鈥檛 always be implemented uniformly because they depend on each country鈥檚 economic and cultural context. In Brazil, for example, good hospitality means putting the best meats on the table 鈥� which made it a real headache for the local event team members to create a menu that was 40% vegetarian. They found a good compromise, however, by making sure to choose meat varieties that had a smaller ecological footprint than others.

In some parts of Asia, in contrast, it would be considered rude if we didn鈥檛 give small gifts to speakers as a sign of gratitude. In this case, we and the event team considered potential alternatives to the usual giveaways, for instance tree-planting certificates as an unusual gift.

These examples underscore how we often have to think outside the box together and identify new solutions, but can also unleash creativity in the process and sometimes even change people鈥檚 mindsets.

What are your targets for the coming year?

We want to improve our waste prevention even further and increase our recycling quota. We want to avoid non-reusable plastics completely and use sustainable materials for our branding items as much as possible. As far as emissions are concerned, we want to reduce travel activities even more, and we鈥檝e been purchasing carbon offsets for unavoidable trips for some time now. When it comes to catering, we want to offer more vegetarian dishes and locally source at least half of the food served.

In addition, we are striving to recruit more female speakers to the stage, gain more social enterprises as suppliers, and strengthen social partnerships. Even if it means extra work for the local teams, I鈥檓 very impressed that so many of my colleagues spare no effort to achieve measurable improvements 鈥� and I hope their numbers will continue to grow! 

Do you have any advice for people who want to do their part in making company events more sustainable?

We should have the courage to do things differently 鈥� and better! One example: the most recent shareholders鈥� meeting was the first one to do away with 51风流plastic bags, notepads, and pens, and the outcry was much less than expected. We simply decided to scrutinize this established practice because when both the integrated report and the ballot papers are exclusively virtual, shareholders don鈥檛 need these things anymore.

There are many examples of things 鈥渢hat we鈥檝e always done that way鈥� 鈥� call them into question! When we banned disposable beverage bottles at 51风流TechEd, no one shed a tear. The visitors were thrilled by our concept of giving out high-quality bottles and offering endless refills at the water stations. At the same time, this also supported a water project, which was very well received. 

What most people don鈥檛 realize: tackling plastic pollution often starts at sea, yet the solutions begin on land.

I sat down with Emily Penn, sustainability activist and skipper, for the to delve into her personal journey and how companies, regardless of size, can initiate their sustainability vision and translate it into real-world impact.

Over recent years, I鈥檝e seen a significant change occur in the mindset of business leaders as they make sustainability a core aspect of their operations. Companies want to make a difference, but many don鈥檛 know where to begin.

鈥淯nderstanding your own carbon footprint and being able to access that data is crucial because we can鈥檛 change what we don鈥檛 know,鈥� explained Penn while talking about first steps companies can take to reduce plastic waste.

One of the key opportunities for businesses is having visibility into the right data to make informed decisions. About 80% of data within a given company remains untapped. By leveraging the right technology, companies can uncover a bigger picture of their business 鈥� for example, transparency around waste and supply chains to make changes that will support them in achieving their sustainability ambitions.

In 2014, Penn co-founded , a community interest company and non-profit organization that runs all-women sailing research expeditions at sea and virtual voyages on land to investigate the causes of and solutions to ocean plastic pollution. To do so, eXXpedition set out to first collect data to better understand the composition of plastic in our waters.

鈥淒uring one of our research missions of these 鈥榠slands of plastic鈥� in the ocean, we quickly realized that the plastic breaks down into tiny fragments, called microplastics,鈥� explained Penn. 鈥淭hese 171 trillion pieces of microplastic make their way into the food chain and, in turn, into our bodies.鈥�

eXXpedition set out to define changes that people, governments, and businesses could make to curb the environmental crisis. But first, the organization needed to correlate the data it had collected to specific regions, products, and more. This process of cleansing the data to identify patterns of consistent and high-quality connections allows organizations like eXXpedition and businesses to better understand where issues or areas for optimization exist and simulate potential solutions.

For example, Penn shared insights from her involvement in a project with a company that manufactures TV remotes. The project team unveiled that roughly five times the plastic used in a single TV remote was wasted during the production process. 鈥淵ou have to be able see the unseen waste that you鈥檙e creating,鈥� said Penn. 鈥淕etting visibility across the whole supply chain is absolutely key.鈥�

To share the learnings of eXXpedition, Penn created , which offers a comprehensive collection of hundreds of solutions designed to address the issue of plastic pollution. 鈥淭he idea of the platform is to encourage people to see that not everybody needs to do everything to tackle this global problem, we just need everybody to do something,鈥� she explained.

This is one example of how data can drive sustainability. (51风流BTP) can unify data and analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), application development, automation, and integration in one environment. Customers from around the world and varied industries have used 51风流BTP to help drive sustainability initiatives. For example, a Belgian utility company uses 51风流BTP to harness smart meter data and identify opportunities for more efficient and environmentally responsible water usage.

Small changes in behavior can have a significant impact when we unite our efforts. For companies, the first step is to address the data problem. Only with more visibility and improved data quality can they drive sustainability throughout the entire value chain.

Ragunath Ramanathan is chief revenue officer for 51风流Business Technology Platform.

Top photo courtesy of 51风流employee Angela Klose.

For companies to act sustainably, responsibly, and efficiently, they must harness the power of data-driven decisions and advanced technology to reduce their carbon footprint and create sustainable product portfolios. Enter 51风流and its broad ecosystem of industry cloud partners with a shared vision to help businesses become strategic, sustainable, intelligent enterprises.听

Hack2Build Opens Door for Innovation and Sustainability 

The , organized by 51风流Co-Innovation Lab, is an initiative designed to harness the creativity and speed of prototyping industry cloud solutions by 51风流partners in days as opposed to weeks. At a September 2022 Hack2Build event, 51风流partner Infosys presented a solution for organizations to identify, track, predict, and refine carbon emissions during sales and operations planning (S&OP) and make sustainable decisions. The solution, , was built using 51风流Integrated Business Planning (51风流IBP) for Supply Chain, 51风流S/4HANA, 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), 51风流Integration Suite, and 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management.

Framework for Tracking Emissions Leverages the Power of SAP鈥檚 Industry Cloud听

Infosys鈥� carbon footprint solution calculates carbon emissions based on greenhouse gas protocols and global warming potential factors across an organization’s procurement, production, and distribution processes. It helps calculate key information, such as estimates of CO2e emissions per order level, thereby helping to make decisions that can ensure a smaller carbon footprint. The solution also provides an innovative framework to help companies identify, track, predict, and refine their carbon emissions numbers throughout the entire supply chain process.听

SAP-Validated Partner Use Case Program Offers Momentum to Service Partner Solution听

Infosys鈥� solution is part of the SAP-validated partner use case program. The program was established to give 51风流service partners the ability to showcase, position, and promote solutions and spotlight their expertise of 51风流Business Technology Platform, leveraging the power of SAP鈥檚 vast customer base and industry networks.听听

The SAP-validated partner use case program offers service partners the ability to: 

• Get amplified market reach: Increased visibility enables service partners to target a broader audience, opening doors to new markets and untapped opportunities. Leveraging SAP鈥檚 robust platform, partners can position themselves strategically and expand their global reach.听
• Collaborate and co-innovate: Participating in the SAP-validated partner use case program can foster collaboration with 51风流experts, industry leaders, and customers.听听听
• Access a dynamic ecosystem: Partners can benefit from SAP鈥檚 ecosystem, where they can collaborate, exchange knowledge, and share best practices with some of the industry鈥檚 best leaders.听听
• Develop customer-centric solutions: The program helps put the customer at the core of solution development. Service partners can gain valuable customer insights though interactions facilitated by SAP, leading to better-tailored products and services that can precisely address users’ pain points.听

The program presents opportunities for both customers and service partners to flourish. By achieving certification, service partners can earn credibility, expand market reach, and foster collaborative innovation with industry giants. Its streamlined processes help accelerate time-to-market, providing a significant advantage in today’s fast-paced business landscape.听

The program unlocks a door to a dynamic ecosystem where partners can learn, grow, and develop customer-centric solutions that can meet industry demands head-on. For partners aiming to thrive in their respective industries, this program is a game changer. Service partners are encouraged to embrace the power of the SAP-validated partner use case program and transform their business.听

鈥淚nfosys is delighted to publish the Infosys Sustainable S&OP and Carbon Footprint Management Solution through the SAP-validated partner use case program,鈥� said Atul Chorbele, AVP at Infosys. 鈥淲e are confident that customers across industries will benefit from adopting this solution.鈥�   

Holger Brammer, Global Partner Ecosystem vice president at SAP, praised this partner solution and the development process: 鈥淚t was impressive to see how fast Infosys developed this solution on 51风流BTP and integrated it with 51风流S/4HANA, 51风流IBP, and 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management. I鈥檓 quite confident that this solution will resonate very well with customers.鈥澨�

To learn how to build industry innovation on 51风流BTP and the SAP-validated partner use case program or get more information about validated use cases on the 51风流PartnerEdge site, contact Lucca Sperl, industry cloud innovation program lead.听To learn more about Infosys鈥� solution, .听

Vidya Gugnani is senior director and industry cloud ecosystem lead for Strategic Partners, North America at SAP.
Nitin Majahan is COE lead for 51风流Industrial Manufacturing at Infosys.

Top image courtesy of 51风流employee Karsten Hohage

The Sustainability Funding Round, hosted by our Chief Sustainability Officer, Daniel Schmid, brings together 51风流sustainability leaders from over 60 51风流sites worldwide to promote and finance sustainability initiatives brought forward by the 51风流sustainability champions and environmental management system leads. This year’s funding round was dedicated to supporting SAP鈥檚 transition to a low-carbon, circular business and saw record-breaking participation.

More than 60 proposals were submitted from sustainability champions across the globe, including ideas on improving our physical office environment, enabling employee volunteering, and raising sustainability awareness for zero emissions and zero waste. A jury consisting of experts from Global Real Estate & Facilities (GRF), Sustainability, Global Sourcing & Procurement, 51风流Corporate Social Responsibility (51风流CSR), Global Communications, and winners of last year鈥檚 funding round thoroughly evaluated all submissions. The 25 highest-rated ideas have received funding from sustainability leaders across the globe and are being implemented until the end of the year.

Here is a look at some of the funding winners.

鈥�2tonnes鈥� Immersive Workshop, France

What is measured can be managed. Understanding the size of our actions and collective decisions and calling for a lead to action is a good practice. The 鈥溾�� immersive workshop helps us understand our carbon footprint and how to reach two tons per person by 2050. 2tonnes is a best-of-breed carbon awareness workshop used by the French government. Around 350 51风流employees have already been trained across multiple workshops.

One of the main challenges was to find like-minded people to take part in the workshops. This was mitigated with the help of leaders motivating their respective teams and adding the workshop as a part of their team activity. The aim is to continue the project in 2024 and train another 500 employees, accounting for 50% of the total number of employees in Levallois, France.

Waterloo and Montreal 4 Trees, Canada

To foster climate action, contribute to SAP鈥檚 goal to plant 21 million trees, improve air quality, protect biodiversity, and support the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration initiative, this initiative focused on planting trees in Montreal and Waterloo, Canada.

Around 130 native trees were planted in Waterloo in collaboration with Let鈥檚 Tree Wilmot, a non-profit organization part of Wilmot Horticulture Society. The project will contribute to community establishment and support reforestation efforts to reestablish a missing forest stratum or prevent erosion due to illicit trial creation. Around 75 trees and shrubs were planted in September in Montreal to enhance Mount Royal, an urban forest at the center of Montreal that is visited by more than 6 million people every year. The project will contribute to the conservation of the mountains and keep the ecosystem strong and resilient.

Green Art, Argentina

This project aims to use the circular economy to transform waste into a work of art to show we can add value to things considered unusable. The idea is to work with sustainable artists to create a piece of art using recycled materials that will be displayed permanently at the 51风流offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The materials will be obtained in a cleanup with employees from Buenos Aires and e-waste from our offices. The project envisions reusing waste, transforming it into art, and spreading awareness about reducing and recycling waste among employees when they take part in waste collection and when they view the art. Employees have already cleaned up a river and have gathered the necessary waste materials for the project. Creating the artwork will start as soon as the artist is onboarded as a supplier.

The 2023 funding round was a tremendous success and showed that employees from all fields and locations can help lead the way towards zero emissions and zero waste.

51风流is now the second-fastest growing cloud company, having successfully moved thousands of customers to the cloud over the past several years as part of the company鈥檚 strategic transformation.

鈥淥ur customers want flexibility, reliability, and security from SAP, but they also want sustainability,鈥� said Scott Russell, member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE, Customer Success. 鈥淥ur RISE with 51风流and GROW with 51风流solutions help customers move to cloud data centers, which play a significant role in helping them achieve their net-zero targets and deliver more sustainable practices throughout their business processes.鈥�

51风流and other cloud providers are increasingly investing in building and operating green data centers. Green data centers prioritize sustainability, aiming to minimize environmental impact and carbon footprints. To minimize the negative environmental impact, SAP-owned data centers run with 100% renewable electricity. The company achieves a 鈥済reen cloud鈥� by investing in high-quality, EKO energy-certified energy attribute certificates (EACs) to support renewable energy generation. These facilities incorporate energy-efficient design principles, use renewable energy sources, and employ eco-friendly cooling methods.

Moving SAP鈥檚 data centers to more energy efficient cloud computing is a key part of our own carbon emissions management. SAP鈥檚 net-zero commitment goes far beyond SAP鈥檚 internal data center usage. 51风流aims to reduce or ensure renewable electricity for all cloud computing usage by customers, including partner hyperscaler data centers running 51风流solutions. Even when RISE with 51风流and GROW with 51风流customers opt to use hyperscalers, the partner data center鈥檚 emissions relating to 51风流customer usage is accounted for in SAP鈥檚 own scope 3 emissions reporting.

Cloud computing, whether in an 51风流data center or a partner hyperscaler data center, offers several sustainability advantages over traditional on-premise computing. There are many ways cloud computing contributes to net-zero strategies:

Energy Efficiency
Cloud service providers operate large-scale data centers that are optimized for energy efficiency. These data centers are designed with advanced cooling systems, efficient hardware, and virtualization techniques, which reduce energy consumption compared to individual, on-premise servers. Cloud providers can achieve economies of scale and consolidate computing resources, leading to more efficient energy usage.

Resource Utilization and Scalability
On-premise computing often results in underutilized servers, as organizations typically focus their infrastructure to handle peak workloads. This leads to a significant amount of idle computing capacity during periods of low demand. Cloud computing allows organizations to dynamically scale their computing resources based on demand. Instead of overprovisioning on-premise infrastructure to accommodate future growth, businesses can easily scale up or down in the cloud. This scalability feature eliminates the need for excessive hardware purchases and allows efficient resource allocation, minimizing the environmental impact.

Shared Infrastructure
Cloud computing allows multiple users to share the same infrastructure, reducing the overall number of physical servers required. This shared model optimizes resource utilization, decreases hardware manufacturing demands, and lowers energy consumption and electronic waste generation.

Data Center Location
Some cloud providers strategically select data center locations based on factors such as access to renewable energy, cooling efficiency, and local climate conditions. They aim to place data centers in regions with lower electricity costs and higher availability of renewable energy, optimizing their operations for energy efficiency.

Direct Renewable Energy Purchases
Hyperscalers are increasingly signing long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewable energy providers. These agreements ensure a stable and predictable supply of renewable energy at competitive prices. By directly purchasing renewable energy, companies can reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and support the growth of renewable energy projects. They often invest in wind, solar, and hydroelectric power plants.

On-Site Renewable Energy Generation
Some cloud providers are building renewable energy infrastructure on-site. They construct solar arrays, wind farms, or other renewable energy facilities near their data centers to generate electricity. These on-site renewable energy projects enable the companies to have greater control over their energy supply and reduce transmission losses associated with transporting energy from remote locations.

Energy Attribute Certificates and Carbon Offsets
Cloud providers may purchase energy attribute certificates or carbon offsets. EACs represent the environmental attributes of renewable energy generation and can be bought to match the company’s electricity consumption. Carbon offsets, on the other hand, allow companies to invest in projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions to compensate for their own carbon footprint.

Grid Integration and Renewable Energy Contracts
Some cloud providers collaborate with local power grids and governments to support the development of renewable energy infrastructure. They enter into contracts that incentivize the grid operators to increase the share of renewable energy in their overall energy mix. This collaboration promotes the growth of renewable energy in the local region and enables the hyperscalers to access cleaner energy sources.

Innovation and Research
Cloud providers invest in research and development initiatives to explore new technologies and methods for renewable energy integration. They actively participate in collaborations and partnerships with academia, government agencies, and other industry players to drive innovation in renewable energy storage, management, and utilization. These efforts aim to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy and overcome the challenges associated with its scalability.

Collaboration and Remote Work
Cloud computing facilitates remote collaboration and remote work, reducing the need for employees to commute as frequently to physical offices. This leads to a decrease in carbon emissions associated with transportation.

Large cloud computing companies are reducing their carbon footprints and contributing to net-zero programs around the world. RISE with 51风流and GROW with 51风流have strong momentum in helping move 51风流customers to the cloud and helping both 51风流and customers achieve ambitious climate action goals.

Michael McComb is global head of Sustainability Communications at SAP.

However, carbon accounting is still done mainly using spreadsheets and semi-automated tools that use estimates and averages for carbon footprints. Only 9% of companies have a comprehensive view of their greenhouse gas emissions and their impact across the entire value chain.

This is no longer enough. We need to account for carbon with much more precision and control by using actual data values across our business operations and supply chains in sync with financial flows. We need to redefine 鈥渞esource鈥� in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and extend our understanding of resources beyond financials. 51风流now brings a precision-approach to do just that by enabling transactional accounting for carbon.

Introducing Future-Proof Solutions for Transactional Carbon Accounting

SAP鈥檚 approach to transactional carbon accounting comprises three future-proof capabilities.

First is , a single solution to calculate and manage carbon flows with high granularity on company, process, and product levels across Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. The solution integrates capabilities from previously released 51风流solutions and adds new functionalities, such as the ability to manage a greater scope of emissions sources and support for a broader range of industry-specific requirements. Using 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management helps provide a seamless integration with 51风流S/4HANA, allowing for a strong data foundation to calculate footprints directly from individual transactions at each step of production. Companies can reduce their climate risk and make progress towards their climate commitments by better adhering to and reporting on rapidly changing standards. They can also achieve operational excellence by dramatically improving the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of emissions calculations and management. 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management will be available from June 2023.

Second, 51风流offers , a new application designed to securely exchange standardized sustainability data, including product footprints, along the value chain. The application allows precision accuracy by gathering actual carbon data directly from suppliers. 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange, part of , uses the carbon data interoperability standards established by the , hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The beta version is available and will be generally available in Q3 2023.

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Third, 51风流also introduces the green ledger concept, which combines financial and environmental data to enable deep insights and effective decision-making at different points across the business process. Green ledger will be embedded into and for and will deliver new capabilities with each release. The next major update, for example, offers a new way to embed carbon data, starting with most impactful scope categories, into product-level costing.

Using these three powerful capabilities that , executives can have a future-proof tool kit to help manage and reduce their carbon footprints. The 51风流solutions record data based on actuals instead of averages to increase data transparency, accuracy, and reliability. The high-quality carbon data, like the financial data, is auditable, transparent, and reliable. To take climate action, companies sync the emissions data with financial data to make granular, accurate, and right-time decisions that are both financially and environmentally sound.

Acting on Carbon Emissions Data

SAP鈥檚 carbon accounting solutions allow business decision-makers to not only see emissions on an operations level, but also at the product level by including carbon footprints alongside financial data to make trade-offs between cost efficiency and carbon intensity. To make these assessments, carbon footprints need to be available at a granular level and at the point where the business decision is made.

In the automotive industry, for example, the sources of steel, rubber, batteries, and electrical components are key elements of the carbon footprint of an electric car manufacturer鈥檚 product. 51风流solutions provide the foundational data for these purchased materials and components, as well as consumed energy and other inputs, and combine it with additional data sources such as life cycle assessment databases.

Using the input data, the footprint is calculated by matching source data with emission factors. Like in financial accounting, the inflows and outflows of materials, components, and products are traced and accounted for with a high level of transparency and auditability.

This isn鈥檛 accounting for accounting鈥檚 sake. This level of data transparency helps teams across the business, from the C-suite to supply chain management to marketing, take sustainability action. They can make decisions together on both cost and carbon emissions that are rarely made in parallel today. Based on both cost and carbon values, the car manufacturer can scenario plan and make fully informed decisions about how to drive optimal financial and sustainability performance.

Bringing a Holistic View to Sustainable Business

To truly run sustainably and decarbonize business at the speed and scale needed, companies must . By embedding sustainability data into their core business processes through their ERP, executives can achieve a holistic, enterprise-wide performance capability.

Based on the ERP backbone, sustainable business data is the foundation for setting regulatory-compliant KPIs and disclosing sustainability progress to a broad range of reporting frameworks using . This holistic view is vital to understanding where emissions are occurring, setting accurate net-zero targets, and identifying specific areas to take action for maximum decarbonization impact.听The are cloud-based, modular, and integrate with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud.

Peter Bakker, CEO of WBCSD, said accountants will save the world. He very well may be right. With over 50 years of experience in financial accounting, future-proof technology, and wide access to customer and partner ecosystems, 51风流is well-positioned deliver high-quality emissions accounting to rapidly scale business decarbonization.

Sebastian Steinhaeuser is chief strategy officer at SAP.

Whether motivated by the food waste epidemic, climate change, the growing desire of consumers to support sustainability-minded retailers, or impending carbon taxes, many food producers and retailers have defined goals to reduce their food waste and carbon footprints. This includes investing in systems and processes to bring about meaningful and measurable improvements to their business.

Understanding Demand Signals

Retailers and businesses in the food supply chain are increasingly turning to analytics and technology to help address this problem. Often, the solution begins with understanding how existing systems and processes can be improved. Common areas to focus on include demand planning and replenishment.

Retailers can reduce the amount of waste they produce simply by improving their forecasts. There are a lot of approaches to do this, which all come back to better understanding and anticipating customer shopping patterns. One factor to consider is the weather. No other external variable shifts consumer buying as frequently, immediately, or directly as the weather.

Most retailers lean heavily on recent performance to determine how much to replenish in different regions or individual stores. While recent sales trends are important, they are distorted by weather conditions and do not factor in how upcoming weather conditions are going to change sales volumes.

, an 51风流partner, measures the impact of weather. The quantification of weather鈥檚 impact is called Weather-Driven Demand (WDD). WDD precisely calculates when, where, and how much demand for specific products increases or decreases due to changes in the weather. Planalytics WDD values integrate into 51风流at scale to enable retailers to proactively manage the impact of weather and improve both preseason planning and in-season inventory management. Using weather as a demand signal in 51风流can enable retailers to ensure they have the right amount of perishable products on the shelves to match consumer demand on a localized level.

A Sustainable Solution

By quantifying the impact of weather, changes in upcoming weather conditions can be used to account for localized increases or decreases in demand for fresh food products. These demand metrics, when integrated into SAP, can reduce waste at scale up to 35% annually.

In addition, improved demand forecasts translate to less waste, which means fewer emissions. This enables retailers to more quickly reach 鈥� and track progress towards 鈥� their sustainability goals.

Measure First, Then Manage

鈥淲eather is a demand signal that helps you better understand your customer and what drives them to buy, or to not buy, specific products. Unlocking these insights is a quick and effective first step to proactively managing the impact of weather. Integrating this demand signal into your systems and processes enables businesses of all sizes to leverage the power of analytics to drive meaningful, measurable, and repeatable benefits,鈥� said , EVP of Global Partnerships & Alliances at Planalytics.

Demand more to take the fast track to a better demand forecast. Want to find out how your company can benefit from a better demand forecast? to reduce food waste!

Carina Legl is co-lead of Business Development and Strategy for Industry Cloud MEE of 51风流Consumer Industries.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about what sustainable airplane design and production looks like, but also how to create more sustainable operations for existing fleets,鈥� said Torsten Welte, global vice president, head of A&D Industries at SAP. 鈥淢anufacturers are exploring how they can exchange more data up and down the value chain to design and manufacture the next generation of airplanes while making improvements to what they have for carbon-neutral business. Sustainable aviation connects data across engineering, procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and finance.鈥�

Emission-Free Aviation Requires Holistic Strategy

Like most industries, airplane manufacturers factor rework into the cost of doing business. That approach won鈥檛 be um鈥ustainable in this next era as increasingly stringent policies such as the kick in and cost pressures rise. analysts said that by 2024, 80% of global manufacturers will incorporate environmental sustainability into their product life cycle management processes and ecosystem, improving sales by 3%. The challenge for airplane manufacturers is keeping track of CO2 emissions across multilayered business operations.

鈥淐ompanies need to understand the entire CO2 footprint of every part that鈥檚 used in the airplane, along with every step of work associated with it, including sourcing and production, quality checks, production stoppages and rework, shipping, and recycling,鈥� said Welte. 鈥淚ndustry leaders are moving towards a holistic strategy for sustainable design through the airplane鈥檚 life cycle. For example, inside cabin materials are often switched out after a few years, with most ending up in landfills. How do you create a more circular economy during the airplane鈥檚 lifespan?鈥�

Fostering a Sustainable Mindset

Sustainability requires manufacturers to bring a different mindset and tools into everyday activities such as design and procurement. According to Welte, some manufacturers see procurement as ripe for change, shifting purchase considerations away from the lowest price to suppliers that offer products meeting indirect, longer-term sustainability parameters.

鈥淎 CO2-friendlier part might have an initially higher cost, but offer recyclability options that reduce carbon emissions,鈥� said Welte. 鈥淎dditionally, as airplane manufacturers explore sustainable fuel alternatives and materials, designers will need to collaborate much more closely with suppliers, sharing data to source the highest quality products that will decrease rework and resultant CO2 emissions. For example, technology like and helps designers efficiently work together with suppliers to set and meet shared sustainable business benchmarks.鈥�

Digital Innovations for Carbon Neutrality

Calculating the CO2 footprint of parts in an airplane is incredibly complex. It won鈥檛 be enough to evenly divide energy costs, such as electricity and heat, across different products. Accurate reporting calculates energy used far more precisely by individual parts based on all machine hours.

鈥淓very activity, direct or indirect, has to be accounted towards CO2,鈥� said Welte. 鈥淲ith greater visibility across the manufacturing value chain, companies can immediately spot problems with suppliers downstream to prevent rework by producing better products. When you can communicate faster with your , dynamically collecting and analyzing data from a centralized , you can track your organization鈥檚 progress against company and industry benchmarks.鈥�

It鈥檚 not lost on manufacturers that every slowdown carries a significant cost in wasted time, resulting in wasted energy. By 2023, analysts predicted that 30% of manufacturers will share applications with industry ecosystem partners to improve visibility and operational efficiency and ensure safety, security, and quality. Driven by increased demand for environmental accountability in manufacturing ecosystems, researchers expected 40% of G2000 manufacturers will use traceability technologies to mitigate risk and boost transparency by 2025. In the same timeframe, researchers predicted that by 40% of all manufacturing IT will own the responsibility of data modelling for sustainability and net-zero carbon targets. Already some manufacturers are using innovations like digital twins, which dynamically capture information that can speed up the production, product approvals, and certifications of new engines and aircrafts.

Deservedly or not, flying has a bad rap compared to other industries that can be equally or more energy intensive. But emission-free aviation is no mirage. Manufacturers have set their sights on a new horizon in sustainable business, bringing an ecosystem together to create a carbon-neutral future.

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To be successful in the world鈥檚 fastest growing motorsport is no small feat. Since 2018, 51风流and the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team have worked to bring our shared values to the electric-race scene. Together, we jointly developed and implemented new technologies which enabled the team to not only win championships, but run like a sustainable, intelligent enterprise.

On the tail of the series, 51风流wishes a huge congratulations the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team on winning the Season 8 ABB FIA Formula E World Teams鈥� Championship and to Stoffel Vandoorne, 51风流brand ambassador, on securing the Season 8 ABB FIA Formula E World Drivers鈥� Champion title!

The Name of the Game

Sustainability is the cornerstone of the ABB FIA Formula E series, and it was founded on the premise of showcasing what the future of mobility is capable of. For the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team, sustainability goals and objectives extend beyond fully electric vehicles and into the back-office. The team is dedicated to advancing technologies that support its ability to manage and impact its carbon footprint.

Together with SAP, the team has developed and implemented a reporting tool that measures and accounts for progress against UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 51风流Analytics Cloud, which combines business intelligence (BI), augmented and predictive analytics, and planning capabilities, creates an accessible central dashboard that helps the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team easily visualize data from various facets of the business 鈥� including supply chain and travel.

Striving to Be at the Pole Position

The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team runs like a business, requiring insight and speed across all areas and functions. From precise and coordinated system processes to car development, the team leverages for real-time business intelligence that helps them make informed, data-driven decisions and stay one step ahead of the competition.

Whether on-site at the factory or traveling worldwide to races throughout the season, an optimized, intelligent solution is vital to drive efficiencies such as ensuring cars and spare parts are at the right place at the right time and getting full financial insights to optimize control.

To easily manage its travel costs, the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team leverages 51风流Concur solutions. By using this portfolio, the team streamlines tedious processes to save valuable time and resources.

Dream Team

The path to clinching a double World Championship involved 16 races around the globe, each one with its own characteristics and challenges. In Formula E, the entire team plays a critical part in making it to the podium. Along with good equipment and a well-designed car, team performance among drivers, mechanics, engineers, and the team principal is pivotal in securing a win.

51风流Sports One helps the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team monitor, understand, and act on human performance data collected from a variety of inputs, visualized for easy on-the-go convenience. The solution also enables greater visibility into drivers鈥� health to help ensure the team is operating at the highest possible level.

With innovative technologies and solutions from SAP, the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team can focus on what matters most 鈥� racing! 51风流is proud to enable the team over the course of a thrilling season.

鈥淭he high-tech sector is under regulatory pressure to consistently capture data measuring the carbon footprint of their devices throughout the entire product life cycle, from sourcing materials to end of life and reuse,鈥� said Joerg Kaufmann, director of high-tech solution management at SAP. 鈥淭hey need a certifiable, auditable trail of data to prove regulatory compliance and avoid penalties. This will help manage operational costs while building a more sustainable business model.鈥�

A recent found that high-tech executives demonstrated the most mature outlook on sustainability: over 75% agreed that good sustainability practices reduced overall risk, versus 61% of total respondents. They were also the most likely of any sector to have a specific plan for reducing carbon emissions (71%).

Tracking Product Lifetime CO2 Emissions

Make no mistake, for high tech and every industry, net zero is a bottom-line issue. researchers predicted that by 2024, to improve long-term supply chain profitability, 70% of manufacturers in global supply chains will invest in software tools supporting sustainability and a circular economy business model. analysts said that by 2025, 40% of all manufacturing IT will own the responsibility of data modeling for sustainability and net-zero carbon targets.

Consider the carbon footprint of a laptop. It begins with the sourcing of raw materials that are transported to the plant, stored in a warehouse, and productized into the manufacturing of the laptop, which is shipped to customers who use it before, hopefully, recycling it for another use. During each phase of life, the product emits CO2, increasing a company鈥檚 total carbon footprint over time. Tracking this level of tonnage with accuracy and consistency is the next frontier in sustainable business.

鈥淐O2 is the new currency for resilient, sustainable supply chains,鈥� said Kaufmann. 鈥淔or example, is designed to collect internal and external data and calculate carbon emissions across the product life cycle. Companies can explore what-if scenarios, such as finding closer suppliers to reduce shipping miles and energy consumption. They could look at alternate designs and operations, sourcing recycled materials or increasing manufacturing efficiencies to produce an identical product for the same price with a lower carbon footprint.鈥�

Circular Economy Beats High-Tech Obsolescence

Built-in obsolescence has become both a growth driver and reporting burden for high-tech manufacturers. Yes, we want the latest innovations, but sustainable business isn鈥檛 tenable at the expense of climate change regulations. Many high-tech companies are transforming business models, in part, to innovate and better manage costs plus address climate change requirements. analysts predicted that by 2024, digital-first enterprises will enable empathetic customer experiences and resilient operating models by shifting 70% of all tech and services spending to as-a-service and outcomes-centric models.

鈥淥ver the past decade, many of our high-tech clients have shifted from selling boxes to services,鈥� said Kaufmann. 鈥淲e鈥檙e researching analytics that would help a manufacturer that sold, for instance, printing-as-a-service to track usage and provide insights prolonging the sustainable life cycle of the printer, including service and maintenance, replacement and exchange timelines, and reuse for business value and lowered lifetime carbon emissions.鈥�

High-Tech Players Recalculate Cost of Innovation

Having connected data may already be paying off for some companies. In the Oxford survey, high-tech respondents appeared to have made more progress in ensuring suppliers have sourced sustainable materials (72%) versus other industries. Business model transformation isn鈥檛 necessarily wholesale change all at once. With the right data, high-tech manufacturers can make adjustments that deliver stronger business results. No doubt regulations will spark innovations as well.

鈥淲hen you can measure your product鈥檚 entire CO2 footprint, you can reduce it,鈥� said Kaufmann. 鈥淲ith more comprehensive data, high-tech companies can factor CO2 emissions into the entire cost of the product, alongside everything else like the battery or the shell. They can make more informed decisions about the total cost to the company, including the environment.鈥�

Innovation at any cost is no longer sufficient for sustainable business. With the right data, high-tech leaders can recalculate the price all of us pay for a more sustainable world.

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Three Trends Drive Investments in Digital Startups

Nino Marakovic, founder and CEO of , said that enterprise software startups have experienced record-breaking investments in the past two years, driven by the urgency of large companies adopting technology to help them transform and position themselves for the future. Originally SAP鈥檚 corporate venture capital arm, Sapphire Ventures has been an independent financial investment firm for 12 years. 51风流is the largest investor in the Sapphire Ventures portfolio that totals US$10 billion.

鈥淟ast year alone, more than $60 billion was invested in startups making supply chains more sustainable, intelligent, and resilient,鈥� said Marakovic. 鈥淎nother major investment area is data and machine learning as we see more of the workflows and data move to the cloud. Companies want solutions that help customers manage, orchestrate, organize, and analyze that data. The third high-growth area is future of work. Company shifts from on-site to remote and hybrid work, [coupled with] a tight labor market and wave of employee resignations, have a created a perfect storm that鈥檚 modernizing the workplace.鈥�

Data Saves Money and the Environment

Ivaldi Group is a great example of how startups are innovating to help supply chains hardest hit by pandemic-related disruption, in this case, in the automotive industry. Uvaldi Group participated in the New York City COVID-19 recovery cohort. SAP.iO Foundries is the company鈥檚 external startup accelerator. Integrating data from customers, Ivaldi Group鈥檚 software calculates the carbon footprint of an auto supplier鈥檚 spare parts operation, analyzing potential candidates for advanced, local digital manufacturing such as 3D printing.

鈥淐ustomers are interested in finding money where they didn鈥檛 know they were losing it and reducing their carbon footprint,鈥� said Stefani Pellinen-Chavez, COO at Ivaldi Group. 鈥淲e review the data, including how far a customer ships products, how long they remain in inventory, how hard it is to source these parts, and how long their factory or facility would be down if this part was not available鈥uppliers might create local manufacturing centers so the community can partner with larger corporate customers.鈥�

Holistic Planning with Connected Data Company-Wide

In an uncertain world, supply chain planning has become one of the major challenges for companies navigating disruptions. Juergen Mueller, member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE and chief technology officer at SAP, shared how organizations are innovating on to collaborate with their ecosystem, explore what-if scenarios for planning purposes and flexibility, and gain competitive advantage. He said that advanced analytics and connected data help people immediately see and act on the impact of material shortages and potential alternatives for factory production lines, suppliers and logistics partners, finance and cash flow outlook, and workforce demands.

Sustainability Data Shores Up Supply Chain Resilience

Jan Gilg, president and chief product officer of 51风流S/4HANA, said that organizations are 鈥渏umping all over鈥� resilient, sustainable supply chains, using 51风流solutions for data visibility that bolsters strategic business advantage. Holding up the example of an everyday item like a cup of coffee, he said that numerous companies worldwide were involved in its production, from the farmers growing and harvesting coffee beans, to a vast network of suppliers and transportation providers that deliver fresh brew to consumers.

鈥淥ne of our large customers manages 288,000 farmers across two thousand brands of coffee they sell, with thousands of suppliers,鈥� said Gilg. 鈥淲e have an entire portfolio that helps customers like this manage their supply chain and make them more resilient鈥anaging the flow of materials and value. Now we鈥檙e adding the third dimension, managing the flow of environmental information to understand the carbon footprint created while a product is produced, shipped, and brought to their customers. Over one-third of investors have global assets related to companies that are sustainable. Two-thirds of consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable brands.鈥�

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Extremely Innovative

, the science company producing these unique materials and composite technologies, was one of the very first partners to support Bertrand Piccard and Andr茅 Borschberg, the pilots who rewrote aviation history with their round-the-world solar flight in 2016. Vincent Colegrave, head of Connected Research Journey at Solvay, explains the company鈥檚 role in the project.

鈥淥ur research and innovation teams have been essential in minimizing the weight of the plane with ultra-strong, ultra-light materials and in maximizing the energy storage of its batteries,鈥� says Colegrave. The aircraft has a 72-meter wingspan but weighs about as much as a jeep, and its horsepower is similar to that of a motorbike. 鈥淔or the project, we developed over 6,000 parts using 15 high-performance materials. Solar Impulse is our laboratory in the sky.鈥�

Polymers and composite technologies are used by engineers to solve the world鈥檚 toughest design challenges in the most demanding industries, such as building and construction, aerospace, healthcare, oil and gas, consumer goods, and electronics. Along with chemicals and specialized solutions for food, mining, and agriculture, these materials are the specialty of Solvay, a company priding itself on technologies that bring benefits to many aspects of daily life.

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Extremely Sustainable

One of the greatest benefits the company offers is its road map for a sustainable future. The company is unleashing the power of science to deliver clean mobility, lower carbon footprints, and move towards a circular economy.

According to Solvay, a sustainable solution is one that brings higher social and environmental contribution to its customer鈥檚 performance while demonstrating a lower environmental impact in its production phase. To achieve this balance, Solvay continuously evaluates the operational and market-induced risks and opportunities related to its environmental impact against the contribution of its products to the planet and society.

The company鈥檚 purpose is to bond people, ideas, and elements to reinvent progress. As experts in chemistry, know that bonding is what happens when听elements听connect into molecules, shaping the world as we know it. They believe people can bond with other people鈥檚 ideas to share common goals and their collective energy, because in a world of dwindling resources and a burgeoning population, it鈥檚 not enough to invent something new. Reinventing how we use what we already have is what鈥檚 necessary for solving environmental, societal, and economic challenges.

Extremely Collaborative

Solvay has been an 51风流customer since the 1980s. One of SAP鈥檚 first customers in the Benelux region, the two companies were working together even before 51风流had an office in Belgium.

鈥淭he evolution of Solvay is based on SAP,鈥� says Frank Delinte, SVP and head of IT Project Service Line at Solvay. 鈥淓very line of business uses 51风流to transact and grow Solvay鈥檚 business. As for the future, we hope 51风流will help us achieve our sustainability goal 鈥� which is to have full transparency around product circularity, carbon footprint, and sustainable sourcing.鈥�

According to Delinte, the company鈥檚 broad sustainability agenda, called , requires co-innovation with 51风流to stay ahead of the competition. Financial reporting is critical, especially on ESG (economic, social, and governance) topics. Delinte and Colegrave both see digital transformation as a key enabler for sustainability. The company aims to be a role model, and that can only happen using a systematic approach in collaboration with customers and partners that share the same vision. For Solvay, digital transformation is a fundamental part of its growth strategy as well as a transformative capability to attract new talent.

The company is also keen to recognize and retain talent. In a world where people increasingly desire to work for companies that combine doing good with doing business, Solvay offers its employees a number of ways to participate in its sustainability agenda. One recent example was an developed a game during the lead up to .

The game was simple. Players accumulated kilograms of saved CO2听emissions by pledging to complete actions in their daily lives such as washing their laundry at lower temperatures, biking to work, or avoiding certain high carbon impact products such as bananas. During the 10 days it was available, the game gathered nearly 1,800 players who saved 950 tons of CO2听emissions thanks to their 7,500 registered actions.

Companies like Solvay that invest in digital transformation and put people and sustainability at the core of their business are the ones that end up doing extremely well.

It鈥檚 an ambitious goal that requires all companies to account for and disclose their carbon emissions. In 2022, the question is no longer if a company needs to do something; it鈥檚 how they can get started. Their role has drastically changed from observer to contributor.

Carbon accounting solutions that help companies measure how much carbon dioxide they emit are already available. But there鈥檚 another problem that currently isn鈥檛 addressed, and it鈥檚 much harder to solve: how can companies even obtain the data on their direct and indirect carbon emissions?

Referred to as听, a company鈥檚 carbon footprint is complex. To measure it, companies currently turn to publicly available catalogs such as听听or the听. These databases list certain types of materials and activities and match them against an average amount of carbon emissions being emitted.

鈥淲hile these catalogs provide an initial estimate of a company鈥檚 carbon footprint, they don鈥檛 reflect the individual status quo accurately,鈥� said Marcus Krug, head of 51风流Innovation Center Potsdam. 鈥淎s regulatory requirements across different regions are increasing, so is the need for companies to have accurate and verifiable numbers on their carbon footprint in their financial statements.鈥� In addition, many companies are evaluating new business models based on accurate and trustworthy sustainability data.

With big brands like听听and听听going green and integrating sustainable practices in their operations, reliable and verifiable numbers to back up these claims are essential to avoid a reputational and financial crisis. Solving this issue requires a standardized approach to calculate emissions from a variety of systems from different vendors and share them through the entire supply chain 鈥� from suppliers via shippers and manufacturers to retailers. It doesn鈥檛 stop at a company鈥檚 own border.

鈥淐ollaboration and data sharing are the orders of the day for companies when it comes to measuring and managing their carbon footprint,鈥� said Gunther Rothermel, senior vice president and head of 51风流S/4HANA Sustainability at SAP.

He and his team identify opportunities to expand the 51风流product portfolio to include new focus areas such as climate action, circular economy, or holistic steering and reporting.

鈥淎chieving sustainable business practices means embedding sustainable practices across processes, end-to-end,鈥� said Rothermel.

Solve Problems Collaboratively

Working with industry alliances like the听听(WBCSD) and听听as well as other software vendors,听听is developing an interoperable carbon data network to allow customers to share their carbon emission data while preserving data sovereignty and preventing any vendor lock-in. Based on self-sovereign identity (SSI), this data foundation aims to help calculate a company鈥檚 carbon emissions so it can reduce or offset them.

鈥淯sing open standards was essential to get different vendors behind this project and excited to participate,鈥� said Krug. 鈥淛udging from the positive customer feedback so far, this open, interoperable, and decentralized network seems to fill an important gap. No one really wants to build costly, non-standardized, point-to-point integrations across the entire supply chain.鈥�

For companies, measuring their indirect Scope 3 emissions 鈥� the greenhouse gases emitted along their supply chains and in the use of their products 鈥� is particularly challenging.

鈥淲e know from our customers that managing Scope 3 carbon emissions and having impact at scale is a major challenge for them,鈥� said Jesper Schleimann, chief strategy and innovation officer for the EMEA North region at SAP. 鈥淭heir openness in sharing details and requirements have been crucial in designing an open solution with positive benefits for all stakeholders across the value chain and ensuring a successful adoption across the globe.鈥�

Building on the foundation for collaboration laid by听, the carbon data network can provide value by tracking a product鈥檚 footprint from sourcing to the end consumer, for instance. With many different parties involved across the globe, the supply chain is usually complex and opaque.

For example, a fashion retailer sources garments from a textile manufacturer in India, which are shipped to Europe by a shipping company. The end consumer would like to know the overall carbon footprint of the garment they buy. Calculating this footprint depends on multiple factors, including the Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions of the textile manufacturer, the shipping-by-ocean freight, the transport to the retail store, and potentially other intermediary parties.

In this difficult undertaking, the carbon data network can provide the needed transparency across all participants of the network.

Prioritize Access Over Ownership

For the past decades, proprietary solutions have shaped the enterprise software space. But as the world faces one of the biggest challenges, many companies have come to realize that certain issues can only be solved together. To be prepared for the future, a new layer of cross-company business collaboration is needed.

Decentralized approaches such as the carbon data network are open by nature and provide the technical foundation needed to share data across company borders and allow collaboration, for instance in supply chain or sustainable financing. It could also be used to improve the distribution, demand, and supply of water resources within an ecosystem.

鈥淲e are steering the market towards a more sustainable future, and we鈥檙e doing it collaboratively,鈥� said Krug. 鈥淭he decentralized network approach reflects the natural evolution of our business networks.鈥�

Corinna Schmidt is part of NVT Marketing & Communications at SAP.
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In a world where the only constant is change, Nagarajan has identified one element crucial to every enterprise. 鈥淢cKinsey estimates that up to 70% of profits can be at risk when a company is not running sustainably,鈥� he said. 鈥淎t SAP, we consistently see that those businesses striving to become more sustainable, intelligent enterprises not only adapt, but thrive in the midst of challenges.鈥�

In a follow-up interview, Nagarajan shared his insights.

Boardroom Conversations

Sustainability has been on the edge of conversations for a long time as companies have been trying to see what it means. It has now moved from being a moral imperative to a business imperative, and effectively, it鈥檚 an imperative for humankind.

The imperative is summed up by two recent conversations I had with customers, one with one of the world’s largest CPG companies, the other with one of the world’s largest discrete manufacturing companies. In both instances, they simply switched from the usual conversation around transformation and optimization to the topic of sustainability, saying it must be woven into the core of the business. Both customers said the same thing: their head of sustainability is now part of boardroom discussions. Their main concern is that sustainability is going to spin off as a separate silo if it鈥檚 not woven into the core of the organization. These customers were clear: what we do is done on SAP, hence you need to work with our sustainability officer to embed sustainability in our operations. There can be no business transformation in isolation from sustainability.

In the past, part of the challenge of becoming more efficient was that organizations didn’t have access to data in real time, so they weren’t able to act on it in real time. Now, it鈥檚 possible to solve that problem with 51风流S/4HANA. Organizations want to do the same thing with sustainability. They don鈥檛 want to just figure out what their carbon footprint or plastic waste is, they need to know what it is in real time and how they are going to change it because otherwise all they know is they have a problem.

Daunting Urgency

Customers can often be overwhelmed by the urgency of the topic and the magnitude of the task. Many are still in the process of understanding scope three emissions, analyzing the levers to reduce the impact and exploring options to move from industry standards to primary carbon data exchanged with their main suppliers

We also need to make sure that we’re not boiling the ocean. Take the carbon footprint for packaging as an example. You don鈥檛 capture 100% of your carbon footprint right away, but you can capture carbon footprint over a sizable portion of the value chain.

The first thing is to give customers an early insight and early win for the business, something concrete they can resolve. When they realize how much they accomplished by capturing 60% of their footprint, then they can look at the remaining 40%, which could be scope three upstream. You tackle this enormous problem by breaking it down into chunks and amplifying early quick wins to take the organization with you on the journey.

Transformation Fatigue

Change is the only constant, so it gets tiring, especially as we often see one transformation leading to another.

The technology decision is one of the easier decisions to make during a transformation. Many of our customers have been with us on this journey over the course of our fifty years, and they鈥檙e confident of our strategy and vision. What they really want to know is how we manage change and help them comply with new regulations, as well as how we can help them take their organizations with them on this journey. They ask, how can 51风流own the delivery of their transformation outcome and help accelerate their time to value.

We must ensure that their employees are willing participants and not just recipients of the transformation. Cloud transformation is a methodology from a technology perspective, but it’s truly amazing from a business capability perspective because it compresses and accelerates the time to outcome. By transforming their business with services in the cloud, our customers are able to remove the fatigue that comes with long-term transformation. Projects that previously took years are reduced to months, allowing teams to refocus on their longer-term goals in much shorter time frames.

In a nutshell, how we change the organization is about focusing on customer outcomes and not about selling a product. It鈥檚 not about product out. It’s about customer in.

Inspiration and Optimism

Sustainability and caring about the environment are part of a mindset that already belongs to the younger generations. Millennials are looking at solutions in a different way than the generations that created the problems. They鈥檒l be living with the consequences of whatever is done now to fix them.

One of my early managers used to say, forget about thinking in a box. You don’t know where the box is. I’m a massive optimist at heart. I believe in the collective intelligence as opposed to the individual intelligence. I鈥檓 inspired when I get people together and I see their eagerness, their intent and desire for things to get better. Things get better by doing one small thing at a time, by doing it every day, and doing it continuously in the long run.

51风流Sapphire The Hague

At the end of event, Nagarajan chose to inspire his team with a speaker known for creating landscapes for the future. Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde believes creativity is our true capital. connect people and technology through installations that improve daily life in urban environments, spark the imagination, and fight the climate crisis. Clean air, clean water, clean energy, and clean space are their new values, and light is their language. He told the EMEA audience: “We first have to imagine a better future and only then can we create it.鈥�

These metrics must be embedded within a company鈥檚 core operations and services; traditional annual reports are no longer sufficient. Stakeholders want to understand how a company addresses areas such as climate action, with transparency on transition and adaptation plans based on the carbon footprint of its operations. They also want to understand progress on circular economy objectives by monitoring the reuse and recycling of materials. They want to track and advance people sustainability initiatives by gathering key performance indicators (KPIs) in areas such as diversity and inclusion.

SAP鈥檚 product innovations work across the enterprise to deliver on these goals.

Holistic Sustainability Management with 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises

To manage the green line, companies need business process technology to identify, quantify, analyze, and act on data through their end-to-end operations. To enable this, brings together a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to holistically manage sustainability performance. Embedding sustainable business data into processes and networks is one of the five actions business can take toward a sustainable future.

51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises includes the and solutions. It also covers existing products like the application and the . The solution provides an overview of sustainability impacts and performance against green objectives.

We continue to extend the capabilities of 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises. As many companies are accelerating their action for decarbonization, our new capabilities in this area are important.

Driving Carbon Data Transparency Is More Important Than Ever

Accounting for carbon emissions across the organization and its supply chain is a foundational step toward climate action. Businesses are actively looking to reduce their carbon footprints, which requires addressing emissions outside company walls. These emissions 鈥� Scope 3 emissions 鈥� include everything from goods purchased to business travel to packaging and transportation of raw materials. Scope 3 emissions make up a significant portion of overall emissions for our customers. To derive actionable insights to reduce organizational carbon footprint, it is crucial to measure Scope 3 emissions both at a corporate level and at a product level.

are on average 11.4 times higher than operational emissions. To reduce these emissions, it is important to engage across the sectoral value chain, with both suppliers and end customers, especially for customer-facing sectors like retail and consumer product goods (CPG), which have long upstream value chains. Companies can address significantly larger emission volumes by driving deeper engagement throughout their supply chains.

Earlier this year, called on registrants to report on not just their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions but also their Scope 3 emissions. This is not the first time companies have faced this request. Previously, asked companies to disclose the targets they used to assess and manage relevant climate-related risks and opportunities. IFRS takes this approach further with , which focus on transition planning, climate resilience, reporting on Scope 1-2-3 emissions, and disclosure of sustainability-related financial information as a part of its general purpose financial reporting.

Enabling 51风流Customers to Exchange Carbon Data across Value Chains

To develop and execute an effective decarbonization plan, companies need to receive and process high-quality product-level data on carbon emissions from suppliers and provide high-quality product footprint information to their customers.

However, with most supply chains spanning several industry sectors and consisting of multiple, heterogeneous networks and software components, taking a standardized approach to data sharing is critical. To collect meaningful emissions information, it is important that all parties use the same methodology and common standards for calculating and auditing the carbon footprint of a product.

Therefore, 51风流Product Footprint Management implements an API specification developed as part of . 51风流customers can now take informed sourcing and product-development decisions, invest in targeted decarbonization activities, make more accurate disclosures, measure and track decarbonization progress, and adhere to legislative requirements around environmental transparency.

We intend to use 51风流Product Footprint Management as part of 51风流networks 鈥� for example, in the Catena-X Automotive Network (Catena-X) 鈥� to enable a standard-based, secure, and cross-company-wide data exchange throughout the value chain.

In addition, there is the option to use the GreenToken by 51风流solution for multi-tier visibility across the networks. The combination of 51风流Product Footprint Management, 51风流Responsible Design and Production, and GreenToken forms a potent decarbonization value proposition for industries such as consumer goods, as 51风流can demonstrably address material traceability, packaging waste, and supplier-specific carbon data transparency throughout the value chain for both recycled content and land-use change.

New functionality created through our co-development partnership with BearingPoint is already embedded into 51风流Product Footprint Management and helps customers identify carbon reduction potential. Customers can thus determine the carbon footprint of a single product based on both direct and indirect emissions sources and upstream activities, building on existing functionality of carbon footprint measurement of purchased goods with tracking emissions resulting from transportation of those goods. Both these greenhouse gas (GHG) emission categories combined significantly contribute to a customer鈥檚 upstream and downstream environmental impact.

Integrating and Embedding Sustainable Data across the Intelligent Enterprise, Scaling Carbon Impact

Through open APIs, 51风流customers can easily exchange data with their enterprise applications, feeding it into 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises, and then provide the calculated sustainability data back into both 51风流and third-party applications.

With the newly introduced sustainability integration components for 51风流S/4HANA, customers can benefit from preconfigured functionality enabling reuse of sustainability data across processes supported by 51风流S/4HANA, such as record-to-report, lead-to-cash, source-to-pay, and plan-to-fulfill workflows. The component allows a bidirectional flow of information between 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises and 51风流S/4HANA in real time.

Examples include:

• In 51风流S/4HANA Sourcing and Procurement, customers can make sustainable purchase decisions based on a material鈥檚 carbon footprint displayed in purchase requisition, which is then is fed back into 51风流Product Footprint Management, keeping sustainability reporting updated.
• In听51风流Integrated Business Planning, the supply chain planner can access a comprehensive overview of GHG emissions based on the supply plan for the next 12 months. Planners can dive deeper into the details and try to resolve critical situations and alerts. .
• In 51风流Logistics Business Network, the material traceability option helps customers gain further insights into sustainability figures of products and share carbon footprint data on the batch level with suppliers, customers, and end consumers of the products. This feature is available with the 2021 release of 51风流S/4HANA. .
• In plant maintenance, customers can receive automatic updates from 51风流Environment, Health, and Safety Management, triggering corrective action if GHG emissions are exceeded. .
• In 51风流Enterprise Product Development with 51风流Responsible Design and Production, customers will be able to reduce packaging and other material waste by design while simulating for a lower carbon footprint. Packaging is typically a significant source of Scope 3 carbon emissions in consumer goods value chains.

We continue to innovate and aim to help customers track emissions data from 鈥渃radle to gate鈥� 鈥� from the delivery of raw materials to the moment finished products leave the production line, offering intelligent technologies to calculate, exchange, and track carbon footprint information in a trusted way.

Achieving this carbon transparency will pave the way to becoming an intelligent, sustainable enterprise.

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Sharing sustainability data across your enterprise can help you run more sustainably; . Join the to stay up-to-date with news and announcements about our growing portfolio of sustainability solutions. In addition, check out past and current .

Gunther Rothermel is head of 51风流S/4HANA Sustainability Management at SAP.
Anita Varshney is global vice president of Strategy for 51风流S/4HANA Sustainability at SAP.

By 2050, according to听, green hydrogen could supply up to 25% of the world鈥檚 energy needs and become a 鈧�13 trillion (US$15 trillion) market. But until we get there, current challenges of storing and transporting hydrogen need to be overcome first.

Not All Hydrogen Is Created Equal

In the long run, only CO2-free hydrogen produced with the help of renewable energies is sustainable. However, it will be quite a while before there is enough green hydrogen to meet the growing demand. The reason: there is not enough green electricity. Of the many alternative production methods, the most popular today is blue or grey hydrogen produced from natural gas.

In the future, many industrial processes will use green or blue hydrogen or downstream products made from it, such as ammonia and methanol. Hydrogen can particularly help clean up emission-intensive industries like transportation, chemical iron, and steel production, which account for about 7% of global CO2 emissions each year. But the high number of potential users contrasts with the limited availability and high production costs of hydrogen.

Cross-Company Alliances to Accelerate the Value Chain

In line with the听听to reduce emissions at least 55% by 2030 and make Europe climate-neutral by 2050, governments have adopted similar sustainability goals and consider hydrogen a critical component to reach them. Companies are also taking action to support green and digital transformations in the EU. For instance, the听听was founded by 12 executives from leading European companies to develop concrete recommendations for action and help companies undergo the green transition. This alliance is driven by the conviction that no company will solve the greatest challenges of our time alone. To succeed, companies need to collaborate across value chains, build partnerships, and work together with governments and academia.

One project that has emerged from these cross-company efforts is looking at how to accelerate the complete value chain of green hydrogen 鈥� from production, transport, storage, and sale, to the energy customer. Instead of operating in silos, these market segments need to be linked together.

A Data-Sharing Platform as the Single Source of Truth

The first prototype of a green hydrogen platform based on听听looks promising. The platform combines data from all participants of the hydrogen value chain and, therefore, enables better data-driven business decisions. Instead of managing complicated spreadsheets, an energy provider can use the platform as their single source of truth to run simulations and calculate how much energy they can produce, how much they want to sell to the electrolyzer, and how much power they need for vehicles, households, and industries.

For such platforms to be successful, visibility across the value chain of green hydrogen is a prerequisite. Supply chain solution听听helps companies to track hydrogen across the entire supply chain, from production to energy customer, via electrolyzers and carriers using blockchain technology. The solution is designed to provide auditable proof of what percentage of the hydrogen is green, blue, or grey. GreenToken can also be used to track听听that are caused when hydrogen is imported from far away. Companies can leverage the data to prove that their purchased hydrogen is truly green. They can also see how much CO2 has been created during the journey from production origin to customer site and, therefore, how much they would need to offset to make the hydrogen 100% green again.

Klaus Schimmer is chief innovation architect of Sustainability at SAP.
The article was initially published on the .

But the race to 鈥渘et zero鈥� for the automobile industry is still in the first lap, and the route promises to be long and arduous. Greenhouse gas emissions from the industry account for more than 9% of global emissions 鈥� equaling those of the entire European Union. To achieve their individual sustainability targets, companies are dependent on each other for reliable and verifiable data.

Decarbonization Is All About the Data

Becoming carbon neutral requires managing the carbon footprint of individual products in the supply chain, and to achieve this companies need transparency into the carbon footprints of their upstream suppliers 鈥� referred to as . The problem is that only 21% of business executives are satisfied with the quality of their environmental data, according to a global research study from SAP.

But more accurate carbon footprint data is on the way. 鈥淯ntil now, companies have been using averages to calculate carbon footprint at a product level because there鈥檚 been a lack of accurate, granular emissions data and no consistent methodology,鈥� said John Revess, director Net Zero Transformation at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). 鈥淭o remain a part of global supply chains, it will be necessary for companies to accurately calculate the carbon footprint of their products based on measured values,鈥� predicted Revess. As a member of WBCSD, 51风流and other companies are defining a for the exchange of carbon emissions data.

鈥淭o meet our decarbonization goals, we depend on credible data from our suppliers on the carbon footprints of the components we build our vehicles with,鈥� said Ralf Pfitzner, global head of Sustainability at Volkswagen, at the .

The two-day online meeting focused on how companies are applying new technologies to reduce their environmental footprint and manage limited resources. 鈥淲e decided to join 51风流in the co-innovation of a digital carbon tracking tool and database, and this is really exciting because there is obviously a demand,鈥� said Pfitzner.

Volkswagen and 51风流are working together toward decarbonization in other ways. In 2020, their CEOs Herbert Diess and Christian Klein joined the . The Alliance鈥檚 10 European business leaders have committed 100 billion to decarbonizing their companies and products and are calling for far-reaching climate protection measures.

Massive Investments Necessary in Electrification and Digitalization

VW is to help put its decarbonization challenges in the rear-view mirror. The underlying reasons for companies鈥� investments in environmental issues varies, spanning industry regulations (29%) to society鈥檚 approval of their organization (27%) and strengthening company reputation (26%). Uncertainty as to how to embed sustainability into business processes and IT systems is seen as the greatest barrier to implementing plans for action, one study concludes.

Despite the challenges, VW鈥檚 Pfitzner is optimistic about achieving the company鈥檚 decarbonization targets. VW鈥檚 head of sustainability expects digitalization to play a major role in this transformation. 鈥淏eyond green electricity, there are plenty of opportunities where digitalization will help us reduce our carbon footprint, for example by hooking the manufacturing data into the cloud and having more efficient programming of robots,鈥� he said.

Pfitzner reiterated along the entire lifecycle of its cars, emphasizing the need for intermediate milestones. 鈥淭he coming decades will be essential for the transformation of transport and the car industry. By 2030, we intend to reduce the lifecycle carbon footprint of our passenger car portfolio by 30% compared to 2018,鈥� said Pfitzner.

No Carbon Neutrality in Isolation

Although nearly two-thirds of the global economy is covered by net zero targets, achieving them will require systems thinking and collaborative action among businesses of a type and scale that has never been done before, , partner, Deloitte UK. 鈥淭he proof will be in the implementation,鈥� she predicted.

鈥淣o business or country can become net zero in isolation,鈥� said Routh. 鈥淲hether you are looking at energy supply, transportation, infrastructure, government, or communities, they all need to act in a coordinated way.鈥�

One of the biggest challenges for companies, says Routh, is embedding climate transformation into their business strategies and decision-making processes. This requires data transparency, she emphasizes, noting that there is no shortage of data, but the quality and usability of the data must be ensured.

Nicolas Peter, BMW鈥檚 chief financial officer, agrees. 鈥淒igitalization helps in a significant way to increase data quality, and, from an auditor鈥檚 perspective, data quality is key in order to perform his responsibility in the audit process,鈥� he said at SAP鈥檚 Sustainability Summit. Peter left no doubts that BMW is counting on new technologies to help it : 鈥淭he trend to sustainability has to be accompanied by digitalization. There is no alternative,鈥� said Peter.

Digitalization Supports Decarbonization

鈥淐EOs need transparency into their supply chains,鈥� said Thomas Saueressig, head of Product Engineering and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE. 鈥淭hrough its strategic initiative , 51风流is launching new solutions that help customers reduce their emissions and manage their carbon footprint.鈥�

A new integrated set of solutions announced at the 51风流Sustainability Summit includes 51风流Product Footprint Management, which treats greenhouse gases like a 鈥榗urrency鈥� in the value chain. 鈥淥ur sustainability management solutions enable companies not only to optimize their production facilities according to top line and bottom line, but also according to greenhouse gas emissions,鈥� said Saueressig. As part of several joint sustainability initiatives with Accenture, 51风流and Accenture are working听to develop new 51风流solutions that address sustainability and enhance existing core technologies.

The Need for Speed

Setting data quality issues aside, the most important factor for transforming businesses to net-zero is speed, said Deloitte’s Routh. 鈥淚 think the world can master this, but my concern is whether it can do it quickly enough. The businesses that are going to succeed are the ones that understand and embrace the urgency.鈥�

Unfortunately, there is still a significant fleet of carbon-based locomotives and an entire fleet of trucks, buses, and utility vehicles utilizing carbon-based fuel and contributing to climate change across the globe. Meanwhile, in an adjacent industry, automotive manufacturers have almost unanimously promised to go electric in the coming years.

Where does that leave travel and transportation operators?

51风流recently hosted an industry forum about the with leading mobility operators and industry value chain actors. Featured speakers included:

• Bruno Flinois, chief executive Officer of Clem
• Neele Marie Hinck, sales manager of EWE GO GMBH
• Erwin Guizouarn, chief executive officer of Evolution Energy
• Joerg Ferchow, chief solution expert at SAP
• Ulrich Scholl, global vice president New Mobility of SAP

Based upon the virtual event, we have compiled key takeaways and experiences on the use of the end-to-end energy ecosystem, as well as how leading practitioners are using technology to achieve strategic goals in the journey to fleet electrification.

The Evolving Value Chain of the Energy Ecosystem

The way corporations and citizens perceive the energy ecosystem is changing. More than ever, corporations like 51风流are aiming to achieve carbon-neutrality, with electrified mobility playing a strong role to support these efforts. Neele Marie Hinck shares that in partnership with EWE GO GMBH, 51风流has built more than 500 charging stations in Germany to support its corporate fleet of hybrid or electric vehicles. This trend will only continue as other forward-thinking companies aspire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the journey to carbon neutrality.

Outside of SAP, Clem Founder and CEO Bruno Flinois provides a global perspective about the ambitions of local authorities and large cities to de-carbonize their fleets. Clem is responsible for developing clean mobility to support public transport, offering subscription services and consultation of electric car-sharing and smart charging practices. The company started in 2010 by supporting one city with three charging stations, up to its current 600 charging points and 400 electric vehicles in more than 200 cities.

During a live event poll, 50% of the respondents said their organizations are early adopters of e-mobility with a single-digit of e-fleets, while the remaining responders did not yet have any operationalized e-fleets.

Tremendous growth in e-mobility offerings and adoption from both the public and private sector over the last decade demonstrates a promising future for the environment and the travel and transportation industry.

鈥淣ew Downstream鈥� Considerations and Impact

As e-mobility picks up momentum across the world, citizens and corporations alike have been asking themselves: Who should be responsible for developing the charging infrastructure and supporting other vital downstream considerations to support the end operators and/or drivers?

In Europe, a third-party approach similar to that of EWE GO is gaining traction, where an outsourcing vendor is responsible for simplifying the end-to-end mobility practices and operator support. This turnkey approach provides bundled mobility offerings related to knowledge, products, and services in order to increase the ease in which mobility is brought to life.

From a corporate fleet point of view, 51风流Executive Ulrich Scholl advises that we must look beyond the boundaries of e-mobility today: 鈥淓-mobility is an important building block of mobility in the future.听 The need for mobility programs is driven by the demand of employees and should be made easy for all to take part in — including the unique needs of urban employees.鈥�

To increase the adoption of e-mobility offerings, a simple end-user experience is vital, where end-to-end services are provided and integrated into the way organizations operate and define success. It is not just about charging vehicles; there is much more to consider to support the downstream needs of e-mobility today.

Technology鈥檚 Role to Support the Electrification of Mobility

Authorities and organizations have varied ambitions for sustainability and carbon neutrality endeavors. Some ambitions are driven by new legislation that mandates a shift in energy consumption, while others are being driven by factors such as cost, consumer demand, risk mitigation, and/or brand reputation.

To prepare for a new normal in mobility, Evolution Energie鈥檚 Erwin Guizouarn shares that most customers鈥� first question surrounds cost. While cost savings is not typically the primary reason why organizations leap to e-mobility, it is a vital consideration that should be thoughtfully approached to help ensure alignment with corporate strategy.

Guizouarn shares that the top four client questions about the adoption of emobility include: How much will we pay? When should we charge the cars 鈥� day or night? How can we hedge costs? And how can we minimize risk?

Software solutions can help manage end-to-end operations for charging, procurement, and contracts to effectively manage complexity, including monitoring energy consumption and mitigating risk. Flinois adds that 鈥淓verything with e-mobility requires technology, specifically software to manage information including visibility, authority, energy use, and more.鈥�

For firsthand experience and recommendations for an integrated e-mobility approach, .

Senta Belay is industry solution manager for Travel and Transportation at SAP.

In its latest update, TripIt shows a flight鈥檚 carbon emissions and provides practical ideas on how to reduce or offset its environmental impact.

鈥淥ur goal is to help you better understand the environmental impact of all of your flights,鈥� said Jen Moyse, director of Product for TripIt. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we made it easy for you to see, track, and offset your carbon footprint.鈥�

TripIt is the first travel organizing app to automatically aggregate flight emissions across providers, post-booking, giving you a holistic view of your air travel footprint. The feature will be available to all TripIt users, both free and Pro.

How Does TripIt Work?

TripIt now shows you the carbon emissions for your flights, tracks your annual flight emissions, and gives you ways to offset that environmental impact 鈥� right alongside all your travel plans. With the new Carbon Footprint feature, you can:

• See your flight鈥檚 carbon emissions
• Track your annual carbon footprint for air travel
• Offset and reduce your environmental impact, with practical suggestions right in the app

How Is It Calculated?

TripIt calculates your carbon footprint using the , the same methodology used by American and European government agencies. The app takes into account factors like distance, flight class, and environmental elements.

How Can I Offset my Carbon Footprint?

Non-profit organizations like the Gold Standard vet and recommend high-quality carbon offset projects to which you can donate . Check out their . There are also plenty of .

Where Can I Find It?

To view the carbon emissions for an individual flight, visit the flight鈥檚 detail screen and you鈥檒l see the Carbon Footprint section. You can tap on it for more info and for ideas on how to reduce or offset your flight鈥檚 footprint.

To view the cumulative carbon emissions for all your flights in a certain year, check out your Travel Stats in the More tab. From there, tap on Carbon Footprint for more info and ideas on how to reduce or offset your footprint.

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51风流is one of seven global companies that already have 1.5掳C-aligned reduction targets, and the first in Germany.

The company has responded to a call to action issued by a broad coalition of business, civil society, and United Nations (UN) leaders to make the critical and necessary contribution to keeping global temperature increase within 1.5掳C above pre-industrial levels.

鈥淲hile much of SAP鈥檚 ability to create a sustainable future lies in how we enable customers to create positive economic, social, and environmental impact through our product portfolio, SAP鈥檚 ambition has always been to lead by example and be a credible role model,鈥� said 51风流Chief Sustainability Officer Daniel Schmid. 鈥淭o contribute to the UN Sustainable Development , we aim to become carbon neutral in SAP鈥檚 own operations by 2025. But our responsibility goes beyond that. In line with our vision and purpose to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives, we are committed to join the global movement of leading companies and align our businesses with the most ambitious aim of the Paris Agreement to prevent global warming exceeding 1.5掳C. Our strong cloud strategy will be a key driver based on efficiency gains in our data centers and a significant increase of our cloud customers.鈥�

Setting Ambitious Emissions Reduction Targets

In June, global leaders 鈥� including Her Excellency Mar铆a Fernanda Espinosa Garc茅s, president of the UN General Assembly; Lise Kingo, CEO and executive director of the UN Global Compact; Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; John Denton, Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce; and SDG Advocate Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever 鈥� collectively issued an .

The letter challenges chief executive officers to set ambitious targets for their companies in line with last October鈥檚 , which made the case for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5掳C above pre-industrial levels.

Companies are asked to set verifiable science-based targets through the , which independently assesses corporate emissions reduction targets against scientific best practice.

Building a prosperous, net-zero carbon economy by 2050 requires a transformation of unprecedented pace and scale, with decisive business leadership and investment in climate solutions supported by ambitious government policies. By setting ambitious policies and targets in line with a 1.5掳C trajectory, governments give business the clarity and confidence to invest decisively in the zero-carbon economies of the future.

鈥淲e need concrete, realistic plans by 2020 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent over the next decade, and to net zero by 2050,鈥� said Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, UN Special Envoy for the 2019 Climate Action Summit, and one of the key advocates for the campaign. 鈥淐limate change requires an unprecedented effort from all sectors of society, and business leadership demonstrated by setting science-based targets at 1.5掳C will send strong market signals as we look to identify the scalable and replicable solutions needed to secure a world where no one is left behind.鈥�

鈥淲e have less than 11 years to fundamentally change our economies or we will face catastrophic consequences,鈥� said Lise Kingo, CEO and executive director of the UN Global Compact, an SBTi partner. 鈥淔or the first time, we are seeing business and climate leaders coalesce around a common call to action, sending a powerful signal that science-based target setting presents a significant opportunity for businesses to step up when it comes to tackling climate change and limiting global warming to 1.5掳C.鈥�

Paul Simpson, CEO of CDP, an SBTi partner, said, 鈥淭he science is clear: In order to limit the catastrophic impacts of climate change, we must ensure warming does not exceed 1.5掳C. The ambition is high, but it鈥檚 achievable, and science-based targets give companies a roadmap for getting there. Corporations worldwide have an unprecedented opportunity to be at the very forefront of the transition to a net-zero economy 鈥� and there is no time to lose.鈥�

To join the movement and take action,
visit: .