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

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

A Turning Point

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

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

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

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

Enabling Sustainable Impact

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

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

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

Leading by Example

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51·çÁ÷SE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51·çÁ÷SE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shouldn’t this reframe everything? It makes climate change seem a lot less abstract and distant; rather an immediate and direct threat to our health and that of our children — a massive wake-up call!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51·çÁ÷SE.
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Earth Day 2020 is also a reminder of what is at stake if we fail to address another crisis that will determine our collective well-being in the long run: the climate crisis.

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

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

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

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

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

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

During a recent virtual dialogue session with about 50 members of our grassroots group “Employees4Climate,” we discussed lessons learned from the pandemic for addressing climate change. An online poll uncovered that the majority see the impact of COVID-19 on climate action progress as an opportunity rather than a risk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daniel Schmid is chief sustainability officer of 51·çÁ÷SE.