SAP’s goal is equally clear: enhancing our sustainability impact to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. The question is how do we navigate this complex terrain without losing our way?

The challenge: from sustainability metrics to actionable insights

Corporate sustainability reporting has evolved significantly in recent years. However, many organizations still face the fundamental challenge of translating complex environmental and social data into insights that drive strategic change.

Sustainability metrics such as “0.15 micrograms of fine dust per cubic meter” or “five liters of water consumed” are scientifically accurate but difficult to interpret, especially for decision-makers without deep sustainability expertise. Just as hikers need a reliable navigation system, businesses need a common language to translate diverse sustainability indicators into comparable, actionable insights.

This is where impact measurement and valuation (IMV) comes into play.

The approach: how IMV translates complexity into business-relevant insights

SAP’s IMV approach encompasses three steps.

Step one: A language everyone understands—translating societal impacts into monetary units

The IMV framework quantifies the costs and benefits of corporate activities to society and the environment. It builds on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data that many companies already report and translates these into a single monetary metric, for example, Euros or U.S. dollars.

This is like moving from vague trail descriptions to precise GPS coordinates that everyone can understand. When sustainability indicators are expressed in a common unit, companies can clearly see where they stand, evaluate trade-offs between different sustainability dimensions, and compare them alongside financial impacts.

As a tangible example, the environmental impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be monetized by multiplying a company’s reported emissions by the social cost of carbon, . This converts abstract data into a clear, actionable signal, allowing companies to compare impacts across different ESG and financial indicators. With this clarity, businesses can focus on the most impactful sustainability initiatives—those that deliver the greatest contribution to GHG reduction goals while evaluating both financial and sustainability return on investment.

Step two: Determining relative position—comparing performance to peers

Once you know your exact position, you need a reference point to understand how well you’re performing. It’s like trail runners who want not only to reach the summit, but also to understand their performance along the way. Your GPS shows you where you are, but to improve, you need to compare your data against other runners.

Impact benchmarks complement IMV by providing reference values that show how a company’s sustainability performance compares to industry peers. These benchmarks act like performance markers, helping businesses identify where they are ahead, behind, or on par—guiding decisions to improve toward maximum positive impact.

Step three: Identifying hotspots—focusing on maximum impact

The global sustainability agenda demands urgent, focused action. IMV and impact benchmarks together provide data-driven insights that pinpoint where a business has the greatest leverage to amplify positive and reduce negative impacts.

For example, in SAP’s human rights risk assessment and double materiality analysis, these insights helped narrow down the most material sustainability topics, critical value chain stages, and high-risk countries or industries. This approach uncovers opportunities where improved sustainability performance drives long-term competitive advantage and highlights risks such as supply chain vulnerabilities and regulatory exposure.

Navigating together: collaboration for sustainable impact

51ˇçÁ÷has adopted this methodology as a founding member of the (VBA), a nonprofit coalition of multinational companies dedicated to establishing a globally accepted sustainability management accounting and steering system. In collaboration with the , a scientific research organization specializing in impact valuation, 51ˇçÁ÷has analyzed its societal impacts (step one), applied industry benchmarks to contextualize performance (step two), and integrated these insights into core reporting and steering processes (step three).Ěý

This collaborative approach ensures that the data guiding SAP’s sustainability strategy is independent, credible, and scientifically validated, enhancing both internal decision-making and transparency for investors and external stakeholders.

“Impact measurement and valuation provides the scientific foundation for sustainability steering, allowing organizations like 51ˇçÁ÷to understand their impacts holistically and prioritize decisions based on statistical evidence.”

Dr. Richard Scholz, Head of Impact Analysis at WifOR

The results: what SAP’s analysis reveals and how it drives strategic decision-making

The graphic below illustrates SAP’s sustainability performance compared to industry benchmarks, the result of step two. The analysis covers SAP’s entire supply chain from direct suppliers to sub-suppliers as well as SAP’s own operations. A methodology for quantifying downstream impacts, such as the effects of software in use, is currently under development.

The analysis identifies both positive and negative impacts. Areas where 51ˇçÁ÷shows a higher negative impact than the industry average are highlighted in red, indicating priority areas for mitigation. In contrast, smaller negative or larger positive impacts indicate stronger ESG performance.

Key findings

• Social performance: Supply chain data reveal mixed results regarding living wages. While most supply chain workers earn above living wage thresholds, reflecting positive impacts, the analysis also identified risk hotspots, enabling 51ˇçÁ÷to take targeted action. In response, the Human Rights team at 51ˇçÁ÷partnered with procurement, suppliers, and multi-stakeholder initiatives to develop and implement risk mitigation strategies. IMV data allowed these efforts to focus on the countries, industries, and vendors with the highest risk, ensuring that improvements are driven where they matter most.
• Environmental performance: GHG emissions results reflect strong progress toward SAP’s , with positive results across both direct operations and upstream activities. While water consumption is not considered material for 51ˇçÁ÷at the group level, we address identified local hotspots through local environmental management programs, including site-specific water management measures to ensure responsible resource use.

Leading by example

As a global technology company supporting the majority of the world’s business transactions, next to enabling our customers on their positive impact journey through our solutions, we want to lead by example.

Our corporate sustainability approach creates positive economic, social, and environmental impact while respecting planetary boundaries and human rights.

To achieve these goals, 51ˇçÁ÷relies on tools such as IMV that help us assess and prioritize the measures with the greatest leverage—maximizing positive impacts and minimizing negative ones.

“Sustainable transformation is only possible when we base our decisions on reliable data. With IMV, we make sustainability measurable, comparable, and actionable. This enables us to create transparency, set clear priorities, and take responsibility. By focusing on areas where we can achieve the greatest positive business and sustainability impact, we ensure that our actions are both meaningful and effective.”

Matthias Medert, Global Head of Sustainability at SAP

The journey ahead

The climb toward impact-based decision-making continues. Just as hikers rely on navigation tools to traverse challenging terrain, we use IMV as our guide to ensure every step brings us closer to our sustainability goals.

Looking ahead, we aim to expand the methodology, contribute to cross-industry standardization, and foster multi-stakeholder collaboration to accelerate the adoption of impact-based decision-making across global value chains. Through 51ˇçÁ÷cloud solutions for sustainable enterprises, we support our customers in their own impact management journeys.

Our climb is guided by more than metrics; it’s driven by purpose. Clear insights from IMV keep us on the right path toward a future where sustainability and business success go hand in hand.

Iris Konrad is a senior sustainability specialist at SAP.

Yet a curious trend has emerged: many companies are pursuing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals more discreetly, a phenomenon known as “green-hushing.” In fact, found that while some companies have pulled back, about 84% are either maintaining or strengthening their climate commitments, even as they become less vocal about them. This demonstrates that despite shifting political winds, businesses recognize that sustainability initiatives remain fundamentally good for business.

A comprehensive and conducted by Economist Impact confirms this shifting landscape, revealing growing confidence in procurement’s capacity to deliver on ESG performance indicators. While risk factors are rising, so is readiness—a shift that is especially encouraging for procurement executives overseeing ESG performance. The data shows approximately 90% of respondents report strong internal collaboration between procurement and other departments, up from 75% last year.

The external picture is equally promising: over 90% of executives report that deeper supplier partnerships are yielding benefits, particularly in driving innovation and sustainability outcomes. For procurement leaders, the data tells a clear story: collaboration may be the new currency of success.

Collaboration: The silent engine of progress

Procurement’s strategic influence is expanding through tighter integration with internal stakeholders. As teams become more embedded across business functions, they’re unlocking new value through improved orchestration and proactive planning. Specialized business partner groups that bridge strategy and execution are helping meet cross-functional needs.

This enhanced collaboration has yielded key benefits, including cost savings (74%) and improved digital adoption (61%). However, a gap remains between these immediate gains and longer-term value drivers like innovation and agility. As procurement operations continue to digitize, talent development must adapt. AI proficiency and ethical technology have emerged as the top skill priorities for procurement hires over the next 12-18 months (68%), followed by sustainability expertise (55%).

Enabled by digital tools that deliver “360-degree visibility,” procurement executives are seeing alignment between category strategies and broader enterprise objectives, helping them spot risks, understand market shifts, and manage supplier performance more effectively.

Supplier partnerships: Accelerating ESG progress and innovation

Forward-thinking procurement organizations are now partnering with suppliers to introduce solutions like recyclable packaging, greener materials, and low-emission logistics. These collaborations are accelerating decarbonization efforts while helping future-proof supply chains.

Despite decreased governmental prioritization of sustainability in some regions, smart companies continue pursuing ESG goals when they align with business objectives. Nearly half (48%) of executives report improved sustainability performance from closer supplier ties, and 38% cite more supplier-driven innovation.

Many procurement teams are navigating uncertainty around their ESG approach, questioning whether to lead sustainability initiatives boldly or keep their efforts under the radar amid regulatory shifts. Regardless of this strategic tension, the value of supplier collaboration remains undeniable, particularly as these efforts often improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.

Procurement can strengthen this momentum by investing in platforms that track emissions, monitor regulatory developments, and support compliance. Many organizations are expanding efforts to address Scope 3 emissions—typically the most challenging to measure—with increasing sophistication around supplier data collection and performance expectations. This shift reflects increased accountability across the value chain and reinforces procurement’s pivotal role in advancing ESG objectives.    

While public sentiment and political consensus may fluctuate, regulators continue to advance mandatory disclosure requirements and climate accountability measures. Preparation is especially urgent as new policies—from the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive to Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act—impose stricter requirements on businesses.

Even if some regulations face delays or deprioritization, they are not disappearing. Organizations that act now will be best positioned to lead when enforcement inevitably intensifies.

Meeting elevated standards through supplier collaboration

The evolution of procurement’s influence rests on one fundamental capability: collaboration.

Internally, effective collaboration drives digital adoption, reduces costs, and breaks down organizational silos. Externally, it powers sustainability initiatives and fosters innovation. Without it, even the most sophisticated ESG strategies risk faltering. Poorly structured collaboration leads to critical data gaps, duplicated effort, and supplier fatigue. Today’s procurement executives must ensure their ESG and risk management approaches don’t overburden suppliers, or they risk disengagement precisely when long-term innovation is needed most.

Increased collaboration is consistently cited as the primary driver of accelerated ESG progress. Maintaining this momentum requires balance: bold action tempered by operational pragmatism, and clear expectations paired with tools that support supplier compliance and success.

Procurement’s moment of opportunity

Procurement is uniquely positioned to translate sustainability ambitions into measurable, scalable outcomes. By fostering collaboration across business units and with suppliers, it can shape the future of responsible business.

Even when ESG ambitions are pursued discreetly, the business case for action remains compelling—both for organizational performance and broader societal benefit. Companies that maintain sustainability initiatives despite changing political priorities position themselves advantageously for the future while capturing immediate operational benefits. Procurement’s ability to embed sustainability considerations into core decisions consistently and collaboratively will define its impact in the years ahead.

solutions can integrate seamlessly with and to help businesses better track, manage, and reduce their environmental impact across the supply chain. These solutions can enable organizations to incorporate sustainability metrics into procurement decisions, improve transparency with trading partners, and help ensure compliance with evolving environmental regulations.

Many of the insights above were explored during the following Economist Impact webinar, “Measuring up: Balancing risks and goals for strategic procurement.” To delve further into these topics and hear expert perspectives, . For those eager to continue the conversation and engage directly with leaders in the field, the upcoming 51ˇçÁ÷Connect event—October 6-8 in Las Vegas, Nevada—offers an excellent opportunity to join on-site and gain deeper insights into strategic procurement, ESG initiatives, and innovation. .

Baber Farooq is senior vice president and head of Market Strategy for 51ˇçÁ÷Ariba.

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

“Sustainability 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.”

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

Emission Factor Mapping in 51ˇçÁ÷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, 51ˇçÁ÷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, 51ˇçÁ÷generates embeddings for both, emission factors from LCA databases and product data from the ERP system. Embeddings are vector representations – numerical representations of textual information to provide context and meaning of a text. Both sets of embeddings are saved in 51ˇçÁ÷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 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower

In addition, 51ˇçÁ÷embedded a generative AI-powered reporting capability within 51ˇçÁ÷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’s why SAP’s AI capability helps generate comprehensive ESG report drafts based on best-practice templates and the company’s 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’s 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’s potential to transform sustainability management is enormous, and at 51ˇçÁ÷we are accelerating the creation of use cases to be at the forefront of our customers’ sustainable transformation journeys. For example, users will be able to interact through natural language with SAP’s 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’s ERP-centric, cloud-based, AI-enabled approach, we’re working to ensure AI’s 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 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability.

In the Economist Impact report, titled “” and sponsored by SAP, surveyed executives share increased confidence in procurement to deliver against risk-mitigation objectives. Particularly when it comes to internal risk, which involves stakeholder management and strategic alignment, confidence levels rose to 83% this year, from 64% last year. This illustrates that procurement is becoming more aligned with key stakeholders across the organization.

However, a “state of permanent crisis” has shaken executives’ confidence in procurement’s ability to manage external risks such as geopolitical shifts, supplier threats, and liquidity risks.

Procurement’s role in business strategies is ever-growing, but it is imperative to maintain agility.

Heightened Attention to Risk Management

Ongoing inflation, global conflicts, and fluctuating commodity prices have placed risk management at the center of business strategies. Procurement plays a pivotal role in this effort by identifying high-quality alternative products and services while limiting costs.

Yet, respondents noted concerns over procurement’s ability to manage external risk factors, as only 41% of respondents said they are highly confident in its ability to control vulnerabilities. Comparatively, in 2023, 62% of business leaders expressed assurance in procurement’s handling of these factors, like supplier shortages, market fluctuations, and supply chain disruptions. Several drivers are pushing this trend, as the report notes that organizations experience four supply chain disruptions every day. Also, inflation continues to influence organizational decision-making, as monetary uncertainty was listed as the top organizational risk priority for procurement. Additional key external factors impacting organizational strategy over the next 12 to 18 months are macroeconomic (71%) and legal and regulatory risks (70%).

Diversifying Supplier Relationships

Businesses have looked to ease fears of shortages by moving away from sole sourcing suppliers. According to the survey, 40% of executives aim to prioritize supply chain diversification to build trusted and long-lasting relationships. In fact, three of the top five strategies listed in the survey are focused on mitigating risk, including reshoring/nearshoring and multi-sourcing.

Visibility has also been listed as one of the highest two priorities for a second consecutive year, proof that it is an urgent need for organizations to invest in technology that increases access to supply chain metrics, develops connections with suppliers, and identifies alternative sellers. Platforms that utilize automation, AI, and advanced analytics are another way to enable procurement teams to make data-driven decisions that improve efficiency and reduce risk.

Sustainability: Procurement’s Green Thumb

ESG ranked second on the list of priorities for the next 12 to 18 months, an increase from fifth in 2023.

“Procurement’s work at the convergence between the business and wider supply-chain ecosystem thus offers it a unique strategic opportunity to lead the sustainability agenda,” the report states. By engaging with sourcing and suppliers, two critical stakeholders in achieving sustainability KPIs, procurement can use its role to translate companies’ green ambitions into tangible results.

New regulations such as the (ESRS) and (CSRD) have driven companies to enhance their sustainability practices. ĚýAccording to the Economist Impact report, procurement has capitalized on this opportunity to gain the confidence of executives across the C-suite, with 68% of business leaders expressing belief in procurement’s abilities to deliver against ESG objectives. This is an increase from 49% in 2023, signaling that procurement’s remit has expanded beyond cost management.

Sustainability has also become a critical risk category, as 39% of respondents listed compliance as a driver to becoming greener. A failure to conform to governmental policy can lead to penalties and fines that limit growth.

to discuss strategies that leading companies are using to develop sustainable supply. The discussion also includes insights into how procurement can add value to ESG initiatives beyond compliance and reporting.

Leveraging Technology for Sustainable Sourcing

Procurement’s role in engaging buyers and suppliers to drive sustainability is pivotal. CPOs can set standards for sustainable sourcing and supplier practices, reducing carbon footprints and helping reach ESG benchmarks.

The increasing alignment of procurement with C-suite priorities is seen through the increased focus on sustainability and risk management. The shift in reporting lines toward COOs and the greater involvement in strategic discussions highlight the growing influence of procurement in organizational decision-making.

The expanded role of procurement has placed it at an inflection point, with heightened expectations to deliver results beyond cost mitigation. How will procurement leaders meet these new demands? Investing in technology offers a solution for uncovering valuable insights that to demonstrate procurement’s value. Coupled with developing people and processes, this approach allows procurement leaders to successfully fulfill their increasing remit.

Utilizing 51ˇçÁ÷Business Network for Strategic Priorities

Business leaders should look for a platform to bridge the gap between companies and buyers and suppliers, enhancing visibility, collaboration, efficiency, and compliance. By leveraging such a comprehensive solution, companies can streamline their procurement processes, reduce silos, mitigate risk, and achieve substantial time and cost savings.

can align these benefits with the strategic priorities of risk management and sustainability. The technology has facilitated 780 million B2B transactions and $5.8 trillion in annual commerce, highlighting its vast influence across 190 countries. There has also been a 13% growth in transacting relationships and a 7.3% increase in B2B transactions over the past 12 months, a testament to our growing global community.

Embracing the Future of Procurement

With growing confidence from executives and risk-focused strategies, procurement is well-positioned to lead organizations through today’s complex business environment. The Economist Impact report underscores this belief, but procurement teams must aim to ensure long-term success by leveraging digital transformation.

Through in-depth interviews and targeted research, the Economist Impact report provides a broad analysis of the state of procurement.

View the and download the .

Gordon Donovan is global vice president of Research, Procurement & External Workforce at SAP.

The 2024 sustainability study measures how organizations are tracking against climate programs, such as the 1.5°C Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) target or the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and looks at scope 1 and 2 emissions and energy consumption, or proportion of renewable energy utilized in a company’s operations.

For years, 51ˇçÁ÷has been putting sustainability at the very core of its vision and operations. Via a comprehensive portfolio of ERP-centric, cloud-based, and AI-enabled sustainability services and solutions, 51ˇçÁ÷helps customers across 26 industries become more sustainable. This is achieved by building long-term sustainability strategies around climate, resources, and people; powering businesses and their value chains with sustainable practices; and driving long-term business value. 51ˇçÁ÷is also committed to achieving net-zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2030 – 20 years earlier than originally planned.

“Together with our customers, which generate 87% of total global commerce, 51ˇçÁ÷has the unique opportunity to create a more sustainable world,” Daniel Schmid, chief sustainability officer at SAP, said. “We are regularly recognized by world-renowned sustainability rating providers for the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts and achievements. Our ranking in TIME magazine underscores SAP’s role as a leader in sustainable business practices, setting a benchmark for others in the industry.”

Check out the list below for the full collection of ratings, rankings and reports of SAP’s sustainability performance globally.

Corporate Knights

In Corporate Knights’ 20^th annual ranking of the 100 most sustainable corporations worldwide in 2024, 51ˇçÁ÷secured the 48^th position. is highly significant, as the Global 100 companies represent the upper 1% of firms globally in terms of sustainability performance. The ranking was formulated by the Toronto-based media, research, and financial information products firm, which analyzed more than 6,000 companies with revenues exceeding US$1 billion, using 25 key performance indicators.

Corporate Sustainability Assessment by S&P (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices)

Since its inception in 1999, the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) has been conducting an annual evaluation of companies’ sustainability practices, covering over 7,000 firms worldwide. The CSA emphasizes sustainability criteria that is both industry specific and financially significant. In the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, within the top 5% of the software industry, scoring 71 out of a possible 100.

CDP

In the latest CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) assessment, . This means that 51ˇçÁ÷was recognized by CDP as taking coordinated action on climate issues.

EcoVadis

In the last sustainability assessment of in October 2023, 51ˇçÁ÷was again awarded a gold medal with a score of 70 of 100, ranking in the 94^th percentile* of all assessed companies. With more than 100,000 rated companies, EcoVadis is one of the world’s most trusted business sustainability rating providers. Its assessment covers a broad range of non-financial management systems, including environments, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement impacts.

Gartner

Gartner, a trustworthy analyst firm, has published a new report titled “Sustainability Assessment: SAP®”. Read more about Gartner’s assessment of SAP’s sustainability performance in this offered to all Gartner readers.   

FTSE4Good

Administered by the Financial Times Stock Exchange-Russell Group (FTSE), the is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong ESG practices. Transparent management and clearly defined ESG criteria make FTSE4Good indices suitable tools to be used by a wide variety of market participants when creating or assessing sustainable investment products.

As in previous years, 51ˇçÁ÷continues to be listed in the FTSE4Good indices based on assessment questions in areas such as environment, climate change, human rights, community and labor standards, tax transparency, and anti-corruption. Due to its good scoring, 51ˇçÁ÷remains a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series following the June 2024 review.

IDC

IDC Sustainablity Index for Software Providers reviews the ESG impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) players, focusing on three pillars: Technology as an Enabler, Vendor Performance, and Technology for Good. 51ˇçÁ÷was awarded 3^rd place** in an assessment of 23 software vendors. This position highlights SAP’s exceptional performance, especially in the Technology as an Enabler pillar, where 51ˇçÁ÷excels in monetization, sustainable features, ESG reporting, operational optimization, and advisory services. SAP’s success is attributed to its commitment to sustainability, as well as to efficient internal product standards that prioritize cost and resource efficiency. Additionally, 51ˇçÁ÷has been named a leader among 18 vendors in the first-ever IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Carbon Accounting and Management Applications 2024 Vendor Assessment.

ISS ESG

The provides an assessment of companies’ sustainability performance based on high-quality and in-depth research and up to 100 sector-specific rating criteria that are regularly reviewed and developed. With its B rating, 51ˇçÁ÷has been acknowledged with prime status and is among the top decile. The score was confirmed in January 2023. ISS ESG is expected to update its score in the summer of 2024.

MSCI

MSCI ESG Research provides in-depth research, ratings, and analysis of the ESG-related business practices of thousands of companies worldwide. Its research is designed to provide critical insights that can help institutional investors identify risks and opportunities that traditional investment research may overlook. The are also used in the construction of the MSCI ESG Indexes produced by MSCI, Inc. 51ˇçÁ÷upholds the highest rating of AAA*** and is an ESG leader in human capital development, corporate governance, privacy and data security, and clean tech as of the last assessment in May 2024.

Sustainalytics

51ˇçÁ÷received a low-risk ESG Risk Rating of 10.9 from , a leading provider of ESG research, ratings, and data. This rating reflects SAP’s commitment to sustainability and its efforts to minimize the financial impact of environmental, social, and governance factors. Sustainalytics, founded in 1992 and now a Morningstar company, is a trusted source for institutional investors and companies seeking to understand and manage ESG risks.

TIME

of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies for 2024 recognized 51ˇçÁ÷for demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability. 51ˇçÁ÷was ranked the 15^th most sustainable company worldwide. This reflects SAP’s dedication to areas such as climate change, human rights, and anti-corruption and underscores SAP’s role as a leader in sustainable business practice.

*SAP’s score is higher than or equal to the score of 94% of all companies rated by EcoVadis.
**Doc #EUR147190121, May 2023
***Scale: AAA (leader) to CCC (laggard). The use by 51ˇçÁ÷SE of any MSCI ESG Research LLC or its affiliates (‘MSCI”) data, and the use of MSCI logos, trademarks or index names herein, do not constitute a sponsorship, endorsement, recommendation or promotion of 51ˇçÁ÷SE by MSCI. MSCI Services and Data are the property of MSCI or its information providers and are provided “as-is” and without warranty. MSCI names and logos are trademarks or service marks of MSCI.

Copyright Š2022 Sustainalytics. All rights reserved. This article contains information developed by Sustainalytics (). Such information and data are proprietary of Sustainalytics and/or its third party suppliers (Third Party Data) and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not constitute an endorsement of any product or project, nor an investment advice and are not warranted to be complete, timely, accurate or suitable for a particular purpose. Their use is subject to conditions available at . 

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

In a broad study sponsored by SAP, , interviewing 2,307 C-suite executives from January to March 2024, spanning multiple countries, regions, and industries. The report finds that external pressures have compelled procurement teams to break down silos and collaborate with other departments to deliver value toward organizational goals. This is not only enhancing cross-functional collaboration but also positioning procurement as a key function in shaping and executing business strategies.

The report, “,” touches on what trends are impacting the growing expectations for procurement.

“The 2024 survey results unmistakably point to an expanding role for procurement in businesses and a growing perception of the function as a value generator,” the report states. Interviewees cite lasting effects from the pandemic, inflation rates, and other supply chain disruptions as reasons for the increasing reliance on procurement.

Effective Collaboration with Chief Operating Officers

With macroeconomic conditions constantly fluctuating, procurement teams are increasingly reporting to chief operating officers (COOs) rather than chief financial officers (CFOs), reflecting the expanding scope of procurement beyond just cost reduction to operational risk management. According to the Economist Impact survey, 75% of respondents agree that procurement collaborates effectively with the rest of the organization to achieve the company vision, a significant increase from the previous year.

However, with only 18% of strongly agreeing, there is still room for improvement in procurement’s collaboration and value creation. “Procurement has often operated in this bubble that was in service of its own goals as opposed to in service of the goals of the wider business,” the report states.

Fortunately, the survey suggests that procurement executives are increasingly focusing on generating insights that align with the needs of various stakeholders, fostering cross-functional collaboration to improve outcomes across the organization.

AI as a Driver for Digitalization

AI has shown that it can increase efficiency across many business use cases. Within procurement, AI and generative AI can optimize spend, enhance supplier management, create cost savings opportunities, and allow procurement professionals to focus on value-adding activities.

The Economist Impact data suggests that AI is a significant driver of digital transformation. Accelerating digitalization is tied as the top procurement priority over the next 12-18 months, with 44% of respondents identifying AI as a crucial technology focus. Respondents anticipate that AI would bring about significant enhancements in two areas: the automation of procurement processes (48%) and improved guidance and optimization (45%).

Chief procurement officers (CPOs) are seeing direct impacts on business outcomes through increased technology investment. However, to realize the value of AI, procurement executives must create a road map for change management, adopt new ways of working, and invest in developing new skills for their workforce. The survey cites that 69% of respondents believe a lack of vision and business alignment poses a major change management challenge in procurement transformation.

Inflation’s Lasting Impact

Cost management continues to remain a high priority on procurement’s agenda, especially as high inflation rates become a growing concern for CPOs, with 49% of executives citing monetary uncertainty as their top priority compared to other procurement risks – a 29% jump from 2023. Even while inflation rates have dipped, costs for materials and items remain high.

It is no surprise that 71% of the CPO respondents identify macroeconomic risks as one of the primary external factors influencing their organizations’ strategic priorities over the next 12-18 months.

It is difficult to predict when and if the economic turbulence we are all experiencing will settle down. But, once it does, procurement executives expect to shift their attention to risk management, as 40% cite supplier diversification as a priority over the next three to five years. However, “diversifying from suppliers is not as easy, especially if the supplier is the sole provider of the goods or service, or if they are deeply embedded in the supply chain,” the report states.

Technology can help procurement teams easily identify alternative sources of materials, ensuring supply chain resilience and minimizing the risk of disruptions.

The Sustainable Buyer

As external pressure mounts from internal stakeholders and regulators for companies to act on environmental issues, procurement teams have placed a larger emphasis on sustainability.

In fact, 70% of executives say legal and regulatory non-compliance is a key external risk. Procurement teams have responded accordingly, as 32% of executives list sustainability as a top priority, a 7% increase from 2023. Additionally, the top priority for sustainability among executives is compliance, demonstrating an increased focus on regulatory risks.

The increased attention on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has been successful, as 68% of executives express confidence in procurement consistently meeting ESG goals, an increase of 21% from the 2023 survey. With long-term sustainability measures in place, procurement teams may serve as a model for regulatory compliance.

Shaping the Procurement Function of the Future

The Economist Impact research indicates procurement’s growing value within organizations, with CPOs and their teams gaining a seat at the table. However, to maintain this position, procurement must address critical areas for improvement, such as spend management and cost control capabilities, where a third of C-suite executives lack confidence in procurement’s abilities.

The survey points to deeper issues, including gaps in procurement’s visibility into stakeholder risks and priorities, limitations in creating accurate spend data, developing clear road maps, and forging deeper relationships with stakeholders. Collaboration and improved communication are crucial for building trust and sustaining engagement with procurement’s insights.

Investing in procurement technology, such as , can help address priorities and enhance the procurement function. These solutions can span various aspects of procurement and include new integrations and generative AI features to help automate and streamline processes. Additionally, enhancements to aim to reduce silos between and within organizations and can result in significant time and cost savings.

Through in-depth interviews and targeted research, the Economist Impact report provides a broad analysis of the state of procurement. View the and download the .

Baber Farooq is senior vice president for Market Strategy Procurement Solutions at SAP.

The Burning Platform

Around 10% of the world’s forests – an area larger than the European Union – have been lost over the past 30 years due to deforestation and another approximately 10% of forests globally are severely fragmented with little or no connectivity. While this is not a new phenomenon, the current scale and pace of destruction is alarming, causing significant social, economic, and environmental impacts, locally and globally.

Deforestation is one of the main drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss, and countries across the EU contribute to it by demanding and consuming a significant share of products associated with deforestation. In an effort to take accountability for this, the EU is determined to help end the issues by protecting and improving the health of existing forests, especially primary forests, while significantly increasing sustainable, biodiverse forest coverage worldwide. To achieve this goal, the EU has developed the Regulation on Deforestation-free products, scheduled to go into effect in December 2024.

To improve the health of existing forests and significantly increase sustainable, biodiverse forest coverage worldwide, the EUDR spans five main priorities:

• Reduce the footprint of EU consumption and encourage consumption of products from deforestation-free supply chains
• Work in partnership with producer countries to reduce pressures on forests
• Strengthen international cooperation to halt deforestation and encourage forest restoration
• Redirect finance to support more sustainable land-use practices
• Support availability and access to information on forests and commodity supply chains and support research and innovation

What’s at Stake

A number of industries and market segments are impacted by this new regulation, including consumer products, chemicals, pharma, agriculture, energy, retail, automotive, and mill and forestry industries covering paper, lumber, and wood. The regulation impacts seven commodities, which primarily consist of agricultural or raw materials, including cocoa, coffee, soy, wood, palm oil, rubber, and cattle, that are directly linked to deforestation and forest degradation. It also impacts derivatives, which are the products made using these commodities, such as chocolate from cocoa, furniture from wood, or fresh chicken meat made by feeding soya-based feed to poultry.

Companies such as manufacturers and exporters of these commodities and their derivatives are the ones most impacted by the regulation. Large companies in these categories must adhere to the regulation by December 2024, while small or mid-sized ones have until June 2025 to comply. To be approved for use in the EU, products must be covered by a due diligence statement (DDS) per delivery linked to a traceability system with evidence of chain-of-custody from the source of origin demonstrating that the product is deforestation-free and produced in accordance with relevant legislations.

Main Impact on Operators

The legislation has two broad ramifications:

• Companies must carry out supplier risk assessments to ensure their suppliers of these seven commodities meet requirements, have mapped the land areas (shape files) of sourcing, and that their production does not violate local laws and regulations. If necessary, they must implement remedial action plans.
• Companies must do day-to-day DDS reporting per delivery to the EUDR portal, including the geolocation shape file of all plots of land where the relevant commodities or their derivates were produced, which requires supply chain traceability.

Responding to these impacts is an onerous task and for a typical large EU operator could involve hundreds of thousands of due diligence statements being created and sent to the EU annually. Due diligence statements must be kept for five years and must be auditable, making these tasks ripe for automation.

How to Get Started

Non-conformance to the EUDR may lead to fines, lack of market access, reputational risk, and other repercussions. Companies need an inexpensive, efficient solution to help meet their immediate reporting requirements, and sustainability tracking software is being upgraded to fit the bill.

The out-of-the-box 51ˇçÁ÷Green Token solution currently includes DDS reporting capabilities and can cover the majority of technical requirements for customers. It can share information for commingled commodities in segregated supply chains with downstream partners and generate declarations.

51ˇçÁ÷Green Token is being developed to help support automated EUDR DDS reporting and meet the audit history requirements. Also in the works is integration with data providers for standardized location information and integration with the EUDR reporting platform, called TRACES, for importing operators. Further expansions will enable a connection to SAP‘s sustainability business networks and end-to-end user experience scenarios.

Are You Equipped to Deal with the Upcoming Changes?

There is no better time than the present to prepare for the new regulatory landscape that is scheduled to take effect by the end of the year.

Companies can begin preparations by collaborating with suppliers to initiate the due diligence process, which includes three steps. It begins with collecting relevant data on types of products that are impacted and ensuring that they are being produced in accordance with regulations. If not, remedial steps can be taken in collaboration with partners and suppliers.

Next, companies must conduct risk assessments that address country-specific issues that can range from human right violations to tracing product origins. Again, remedial steps can be initiated collaboratively. And finally, the right technology is key to achieving compliance.

51ˇçÁ÷Green Token can provide companies with the capability to track commingled materials in products using digital twins, segregated accounting, and blockchain technology to help prove sustainability. Not only can 51ˇçÁ÷Green Token help tackle this new regulation, but it can help demonstrate progress towards environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments in general and create a streamlined, transparent process for tracking and tracing materials to help drive a more sustainable, circular approach to business – one that benefits people and our planet while still driving profit.

Gloria Figaroa is part of Product Marketing for 51ˇçÁ÷Green Token at SAP.

“With one integrated platform that connects data from farmers through processing, warehouses, and retail, we are transforming the traditional food chain from supplier-driven to demand-driven,” said Karthik Jayaraman, co-founder and managing director at WayCool. “We selected because it is a flexible, cloud-based foundation for our growing business. provides a single source of truth company-wide and across our ecosystem, helping us produce and deliver the delicious food that consumers want on their table.”  

The company has already reduced food wastage by up to 96% while improving the average income of farmers by over 13%.

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Data Insights Align Food Supply with Demand

Putting predictability and farming in the same sentence might seem like a stretch in a world rocked by disruptions like extreme weather and geopolitical conflicts. However, WayCool orchestrates a groundbreaking collaborative effort. It starts with farmers who produce the fruits, vegetables, and other staples that feed the Indian population and extends to partners, warehouse operations, distribution, and retailers.

“Sharing information with our partners in procurement who run processing and warehouse facilities, along with transportation logistics and retail, we can align supply with the right pricing for greater efficiencies and governance that produces the highest quality products,” said Avinash Kasinathan, chief technology officer at WayCool. “Data transparency also means that farmers can base field production on actual market demand and consumption.”

Farmer Income Grows with Data-Driven Strategy

WayCool’s ability to trace products from farm to end consumer provides the company and its ecosystem with forecasting and planning insights based on real-time customer feedback and market demands. Using this connected data, WayCool makes recommendations to farmers on what fruits and vegetables to grow for the highest yields and uptake at the best prices.

Fourth-generation farmer Hari Prasad, located in a village called Karnataka on the outskirts of East Bangalore, is one of the over 200,000 farmers that WayCool provides with detailed cultivation plans.

“Unlike traditional farming, WayCool recommends what to plant, when, and where, letting us know up front what they’ll purchase at fair prices based on harvest time frames and factoring in staggered market demands,” he said. “We don’t have to worry about whether or not we’ll sell our yield, and we can calculate continuous earnings in a more predictable and consistent manner.” 

Although farmers may have smaller yields, harvesting crops on a more consistent basis throughout the year levels out supply and demand spikes and downturns. If crop prices fall one week and rise the next, farmers can average out major risks with a steadier stream of income over time.

AI-Based Technologies Reduce Waste and Boost Crop Yields

WayCool has infused AI capabilities across its digitalized supply chain to increase quality yield and decrease waste. AI is built into the recommendation engine that tells retailers which products on their shelves will sell faster according to store location demographics. In the field, farmers use AI-based image recognition to quickly identify plant diseases and set up treatment plans. Internet of Things (IoT)-based sensors in the soil send farmers alerts on weather patterns to guide more cost-efficient and sustainable irrigation decisions. The company is exploring generative AI use cases as well.

Sustainable Agriculture Vision for the World

For WayCool and its partners, sustainable business encompasses the full range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. Digitalization has an important role, for example, in regenerative farming practices. Farmers can use data-driven insights to produce stronger seeds for biodiversity, growing crops that are more climate-resilient and use less water and fertilizer in healthier soil.

Looking ahead, Jayaraman is eager to bring WayCool’s digitalized business model from India to other regions such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

“The food supply chain is a huge global market, yet agribusiness is one of the least digitized industries,” said Jayaraman. “We’ve experienced how technology is revolutionizing food chains in India, and we’re excited about bringing people in other parts of the world greater access to affordable, quality food for the next generation of sustainable agriculture.”

Across industries, accurate data is the foundation for both auditable disclosures and reliable insights to steer sustainable transformation. But environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data aggregation and validation can be a daunting challenge given that most companies have not fully integrated their ESG data recording and control into their core financial, procurement, supply chain management, and human resources systems.

For over 50 years, 51ˇçÁ÷has helped businesses master complexity. With today’s evolving ESG regulatory landscape, including the arrival of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), 51ˇçÁ÷is again rising to the complex challenges of enabling customers to record, report, and act on their sustainability obligations. This includes the difficulties in collecting accurate emissions data across internal operations and global supply chains.

Achieving Competitive Advantage with 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Solutions Powered by 51ˇçÁ÷Business AI

By integrating sustainability data with cloud ERP, 51ˇçÁ÷can uniquely enable businesses with the agility to keep pace with rapidly evolving ESG standards; link disparate data sources to share trusted, real-time insights with sustainability decision-makers; and achieve their net-zero ambitions.

Companies can start today by adopting – integrated with – for ESG data management and reporting. They can extend sustainability management with and to help accelerate their journey to the , managing the carbon entering and leaving their systems and balancing their “carbon books” the same way they balance their financial books.

51ˇçÁ÷Business AI can take the value of our sustainability solutions to the next level by helping our customers set data-driven ESG and net-zero strategies, increase the transparency of supply chain emissions, automate sustainability reporting, achieve regulatory compliance, find and mitigate ESG-related risks, and better communicate the value of sustainability to their customers – all powered by the world’s largest and most comprehensive pool of foundational business data.

Combined with partner services for customer-specific data and reporting requirements, 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability solutions can offer new levels of business insight for executive-level decision-making to help businesses reach their sustainability goals and comply with CSRD and other regulatory frameworks.

CSRD Toolbox

Companies operating in the EU face pressure from the expanding ESG regulations under CSRD to disclose their sustainability performance with a data granularity and auditability that – over time – will bring sustainability reporting on par with financial reporting. CSRD requirements will first impact large public-interest companies with over 500 employees that need to report in 2025 on 2024 ESG performance. Requirements cascade to small and midsize enterprises in coming years.

Under CSRD, companies will need to report based on the requirements of both the EU Taxonomy, which classifies sustainability disclosures for investors, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the disclosure rules set by the European Financial Reporting Financial Group (EFRAG), a standard-setting body of the EU. With 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower, companies can comply with both the EU Taxonomy and ESRS, gaining agility through the convergence of ESG data management and cloud ERP – and soon AI-driven business process optimization.

51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower: A Trusted ESG Data Foundation for EU Taxonomy and ESRS

With 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower, you can assess activities in line with the EU Taxonomy, reporting on KPIs for eligibility and alignment.

• Enable a holistic view of EU Taxonomy reporting through shared use of data  
• Kick-start EU Taxonomy data management and reporting with pre-built and adaptable templates  
• Simplify the EU Taxonomy process with integration with 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud 
• Integrate customer or partner extensions via APIs 

You can also streamline ESRS disclosures, integrating ESG data across systems and extending content and functionality.

• Gather ESG data and determine KPIs 
• Meet evolving ESG and financial disclosure requirements including ESRS 
• Set, track, and achieve targets to support sustainable business 
• Obtain a limited external assurance and prepare for reasonable assurance 

Act Now

Businesses need to start now to be prepared not only for CSRD compliance, but for gaining the insights to steer sustainability investments and future-proof long-term value. 

For over 50 years, 51ˇçÁ÷has been enabling the world’s leading businesses to master complexity, delivering the integration and innovation needed for industry-leading performance. With 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower and other cloud-driven innovations, 51ˇçÁ÷and its partners can help companies master CSRD as well and build the foundation for the evolution of their long-term sustainability strategies.  

To learn more, visit .

Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer and co-GM for 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability. 

51ˇçÁ÷understands this urgency and is ready to help. Our daily conversations with customers have shown us what they need and expect when managing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data and emissions footprints. One thing is clear: the speed and agility of cloud delivery combined with the ability to integrate sustainability data into the core enterprise resource planning (ERP) system will optimize customers’ sustainability and financial performance and form the foundation for their future business success.

Sustainability Footprint and ESG Data Management Now Available in RISE with SAP  

With the new premium plus edition for RISE with 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, customers can accelerate innovation, infuse artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, adapt to market changes, and address complex, evolving ESG regulations and reporting requirements. With the inclusion of and in the premium plus edition, organizations can gain significantly enhanced sustainability outcomes. 

51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Footprint Management allows organizations to get highly granular footprint calculations on product and corporate emissions across scope 1, 2, and 3, gaining detailed carbon footprint insights. With emissions data embedded beside operational and financial data in 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud, business functions including procurement, supply chain, operations, and finance can see the broader context of their sustainability impacts, enabling better business decisions.  

With 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower, organizations can combine different data sources for one trusted view of their ESG data. By automating the collection and integration of sustainability data, companies can set targets to steer their business to achieve sustainability goals holistically, monitor progress and gain actionable insights from dependable data, and enhance trust by establishing robust and auditable ESG reporting to global standards.  
 
51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Footprint Management and 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower are built on 51ˇçÁ÷Business Technology Platform (51ˇçÁ÷BTP) and can seamlessly integrate with 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud. With a cloud deployment, both solutions receive ongoing innovation updates, a critical benefit particularly when facing a global set of evolving ESG regulatory standards. Other benefits include leveraging automation – and soon AI – to help simplify compliance, reporting, and auditability.  

The Foundations of a Green Ledger in the Cloud 

51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud, 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Footprint Management, and 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower are the building blocks of your sustainability stack. They can provide a path to the concept, where companies can treat carbon like money, managing the carbon entering and leaving their systems and balancing their “carbon books” the same way they balance their financial books. 

Harnessing quality data worthy of the green ledger will take time. But organizations need to start now to be prepared. By integrating sustainability data in the cloud, they can gain insights to steer towards a low-carbon business model, avoiding manual reliance on spreadsheets across differing sources of data and disparate lines of business. 

Future-Proofing Agile Innovation with the Cloud 

It is our mission to support customers in pursuing sustainability-focused opportunities and innovation, preparing to mitigate climate and social-related risks, and driving long-term business value. With our cloud-driven innovations, we help customers build the foundation for the evolution of their long-term sustainability strategies by giving them the tools to be agile and responsive, maintain control of integration and data flows, and master the complexity of sustainability challenges – and to achieve our collective goal of creating a more sustainable world.  

To learn more, read “51ˇçÁ÷Diversifies Cloud Offerings to Accelerate Customer Innovation” and visit .

Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer and co-GM for 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability.
Gunther Rothermel is chief product officer and co-GM for 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability.

“We do that by using the biodiversity of this region, the Cerrado in Brazil,” Francisco de Blanco, S.Oleum co-founder and CEO, told 51ˇçÁ÷at the company’s headquarters, an innovative farm just outside JoĂŁo Pinheiro.

Why the Brazilian outback? This tropical savanna is home to the macaúba, a highly adaptable oil-producing tree with a penchant for scrubbing harmful CO2 from the air. Macaúba fruit yields advanced vegetable oils (AVOs) and high-protein food – and it can be 15 times more productive than soybeans.

“We are restoring the landscape that was deforested…Macaúba was native here many, many years ago,” Felipe Morbi, S.Oleum co-founder and Agroforestry VP,Ěý said. “Now we are bringing back these trees, and also all the other species, to restore this biodiversity.”

S.Oleum seeks to accomplish this scientifically, using macaúba and other crops in an integrated crop-livestock-forest approach, according to Morbi. The goal is to create working farms that rejuvenate degraded, low-yielding soil – and that sequester into the soil more carbon than they generate.

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Science-Based Approach to Reforesting the Cerrado

“We are looking for the balance of the system,” Morbi said in a new . “We will measure the amount of carbon in the soil, the moisture, the biodiversity in terms of the plants we have, and also native animals coming back to the area.”

Toward that end, S.Oleum is starting small, but aiming big. Most of the current crop grows on a 700-hectare, or more than 1,700-acre, pilot farm. But S.Oleum intends to plant more than 65 million additional macaúba trees by 2029, which would reforest 180,00 hectares – about 444,800 acres – in Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

Over time, macaĂşba trees also help improve the nutrient and moisture capacity of the soil, making it easier to grow other crops, according to de Blanco. And S.Oleum increases farm productivity by growing carefully chosen crops in between rows of macaĂşba trees, such as sunflowers, peanuts, and yucas.

“If you do it right, agriculture as a system is positive for the environment,” de Blanco said. “Plants that were deforested a few decades ago, they are currently in a poor state because they were depleted by poor management…We believe there are better ways, and that’s what we are pursuing here.”

An innovative case in point: macaúba trees increase a biome’s carbon sequestration levels. Removing this greenhouse gas helps more than the planet; S.Oleum also generates revenue by selling carbon credits and building trust via its data.

Any Little Bit of Data

“Any little thing, any generation of data that R&D is currently developing, is extremely important,” Mirelle Santos, S.Oleum Agroforestry R&D manager, said. “We want to deploy technologies as dictated by those urgent needs.”

This could include remote sensing via drones that run fruit-recognition software, according to Santos. This would help S.Oleum gather and compile data quickly, without human error – and without sending workers, who must dress in personal protective equipment (PPE) to defend against snakes, mosquitos, the brutal Cerrado sun (even in winter), and dangerous macaúba thorns, which grow even on seedlings.

S.Oleum’s intricate business model combines agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, and carbon offsetting – and that leads to a lot of complexity. 51ˇçÁ÷technology will be an important differentiator for this small enterprise, as well as a foundation for its future growth.

“We have a big project to run; so, a lot of people, a lot of machines, a lot of suppliers,” Morbi said. “And we need everything in the right moment, in the right way.”

How to Best Manage ESG Metrics

“51ˇçÁ÷is different because it is recognized as one of the most reliable ERP systems on the market, not only based on the technology,” de Blanco said. “Also, because it has well-established and well-defined processes.”

Standardizing processes was “extremely important” for S.Oleum both internally and to inspire customer, stakeholder, and regulatory confidence, according to de Blanco. 51ˇçÁ÷will also enable S.Oleum to run its circular enterprise as well as record, report, and act on its sustainability data.

“We have a very integrated system, and a very circular way to produce things,” de Blanco said. “Finding out where waste is generated – and where it’s being used – is very important to ensure the carbon intensity and the circularity of our systems at our entire site…This is where 51ˇçÁ÷helps us.”

51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA, 51ˇçÁ÷Ariba solutions, 51ˇçÁ÷Concur solutions, and 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors solutions will help standardize all of S.Oleum’s processes, which will improve transparency and compliance, according to S.Oleum IT Director Marcio Propp. To help better manage and understand its myriad environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics, the company has also begun implementation of and .

“It is super important that we have a very robust core system in place because it will serve as the basis for all our other processes…and practically all niche applications focused on digital agriculture connect with this core with SAP,” Propp said. “51ˇçÁ÷is an agribusiness market standard, and it makes perfect sense for S.Oleum to be part of this ecosystem.”

That’s a big deal because compliant, transparent ESG metrics are crucial to S.Oleum’s success, according to de Blanco.

A Matter of Trust

“Somewhere around one-third of our revenues come from carbon credits,” de Blanco said. “This is our, let’s say, core business…to convert sustainability into revenues and financial results.”

That will require trust. 51ˇçÁ÷core technologies, such as 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud and , will help S.Oleum keep that trust, thanks to a reliable foundation of sustainability data and robust, auditable ESG metrics for reporting.

“My advice for companies that are starting their sustainability endeavor: do it as quick as you can,” de Blanco said. “And do it attached to science.”

For more information on how 51ˇçÁ÷helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visitĚý.

Top photo credit S.Oleum

Today, only such as bio- and circular components. Bio-components are feedstock that comes from organic, bio-based origins, such as used cooking oil. Circular components are feedstock that is recycled from waste plastic, such as post-consumer recycled waste.

A viable and efficient way to use such sustainable feedstock is integrating it into existing, large-scale production systems to avoid the additional cost, energy, and carbon emissions of segregated production facilities. But, when bio- and circular feedstock is blended with conventional fossil feedstock, how can consumers, regulators, and supply chains have confidence in bio- and circular-attributed plastic product claims? And how can these claims be leveraged to encourage informed choices when industries and consumers purchase products that are certified sustainable?

Digital Tracking for Total Traceability and Transparency

The solution is a mass balance management solution from 51ˇçÁ÷that leverages tokenization and blockchain for chain of custody to help create traceability and transparency. In September 2022, 51ˇçÁ÷Green Token became an official part of the 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability portfolio.

In a successful pilot, a group of 51ˇçÁ÷customers – including SKGC, Korea; Elantas, Italy; Westlake Vinnolit, Germany; Berry Global, U.S.; and Unilever R&D, the Netherlands – reviewed the ability of 51ˇçÁ÷Green Token to enable traceability and transparency of bio- and circular waste inputs to bio- and circular-attributed products across the chemical and plastics supply chain.

51ˇçÁ÷Green Token enables organizations to create tokens that serve as digital twins of the bio- and circular chemical feedstock material flows throughout the entire supply chain and capture the unique sustainability attributes linked to the bio- and circular feedstock origin. As a result, the solution allows organizations to verify their certified sustainable material usage in their processes. What’s more, the green credentials encapsulated in the tokens can be passed from one business partner to another via blockchain as the material moves along the supply chain, helping to ensure that important environmental, social, and governance (ESG) attributes are preserved. Also, an auditable record can be documented to prove the product is sustainable in accordance with recognized product standards, such as ISCC PLUS and REDcert2, and hence better for the environment.

“This successful trial of 51ˇçÁ÷Green Token represents another key milestone on our mission to establish the ‘green line’ alongside the top and bottom lines as key performance dimensions,” says Gunther Rothermel, head of Sustainability Engineering at SAP. “This solution offers our customers an easy way to have complete visibility into the origin and chain of custody of their bio- and circular-based feedstock and allows them to prove to their customers, international standard agencies, and their board that they have a concrete, auditable way of proving their circular performance against their sustainability KPIs.”

The blockchain technology helps prevent double counting of claims and create trust; it can make the production of sustainable plastic easier to verify and thus certifiable, which is particularly important in terms of customer demand, regulatory compliance, and the ability to charge a price premium.

Rapid Adoption Crucial for Sustainable Plastics

“Accelerating the circular economy requires driving demand for circular plastics,” said Diane Marret, sustainability director for Consumer Packaging North America at Berry Global. “Integrating mass balance-accounted materials into 51ˇçÁ÷Green Token’s centralized, global IT system helps reduce risk in our reporting accuracy, minimize manual efforts through automation, and build confidence and trust in our ability to manage circular materials.”

Read more about this pilot in the newly published . For more information on how 51ˇçÁ÷helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visit and the .

Gloria Figaroa is a solution advisor for 51ˇçÁ÷Green Token.

At a time when the wealthiest 10% of the global population earns more than half of the world’s income* and when only a handful of countries have the right conditions in place for genuine upward mobility, people are losing faith that the political and economic systems businesses depend on will deliver for them and their families.

The Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is unequivocal that inequities linked to gender, ethnicity, income, and other factors increase vulnerability to climate risks and impacts. It also calls for action to tackle inequality as a key lever in achieving climate resilience and adaptation.

Companies have powerful levers at their disposal to be part of this critical effort – and meaningful reasons to use them.

There is a profound business case for a holistic and interconnected agenda to mitigate both the systemic and business risks created by inequality. Tackling inequality in the corporate value chain is a journey that all companies must begin, creating a ripple effect for positive impact.

• Mitigate: To prevent and minimize negative impact, it is necessary to stay ahead of regulatory change by implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Start with your own operations and build robust corporate governance to reinforce and support commitments and practices. Then, expand the scope up- and downstream.
• Remediate: Build needed capacity, trust, and accountability across the value chain and drive positive output. Mobilize resources and measure and disclose responsible business practices.
• Advance: Promote social equity and gender equality. Extend the scope to n-tier suppliers and workers in the value chain and track measures of effectiveness for positive outcome and informed decisions, securing license to operate by building trust amongst employees, consumers, and society at large.

You Are Not Alone

Global obligations are not easily managed. Regulations are complex, increasing in severity, and varying by market. Data is distributed across multiple systems and is largely a manual effort to collect and process, and there is often a lack of insight to support collaboration between stakeholders towards equality.

Your business is not alone in facing these challenges. We need to work collectively to solve these complex challenges.

51ˇçÁ÷can enable your supplier due diligence processes with human rights risk assessment and insights integrated into sourcing and contract workflows in . The supplier self-assessment questionnaire on human rights compliance is available for any supplier in as a one-to-many data exchange in which a supplier can freely share the questionnaire with any buyer that requests it. This helps build trust in human rights due diligence and can lower time, effort, and cost for both supplier and buyer.

can enable critical interventions in areas such as occupational safety and health. can support the creation of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace and provide education and training to help prepare people for the future of work. can positively impact consumers and the community by securing safe products and services, for example, via product and material compliance with human rights. These are just a few examples of how 51ˇçÁ÷technology can support your company’s transformation to realize a just transition to a net-zero and inclusive green economy.

Holistic and Interconnected Business Agenda

We are all on a journey towards a holistic and interconnected business agenda, and we must act to reinforce the “S” in ESG (environment, social, and governance) – a critical pillar of action that has been overlooked for too long. In the report “,” the Business Commission to Tackle Inequality (BCTI) set up by World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) presents 10 clear actions that companies can take to address mounting inequality.

Tackling inequality is an important driver for long-term, sustainable economic growth and many leading companies are already embracing this role by working to level the playing field. The call to action now is for all businesses to maximize their potential to head off the risks posed by mounting inequality and ensure that equal opportunities and better outcomes are available for all.

Gitte Winther Bruhn is global head of Social Responsibility Solutions at SAP.

*Source: “” by The Business Commission to Tackle Inequality (BCTI) set up by World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Published May 3, 2023.

Leveraging the Power of Data with 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower

Companies across industries are responding to rapidly increasing sustainability and and setting ambitious sustainability targets. Yet, many face the challenge of gaining transparency into the data needed for effective and actionable sustainability management. They need ways to monitor and manage their green lines as meticulously as their top and bottom lines.

Current sustainability management relies heavily on data averages and estimates. The inability to track, manage, and gain insights from live data and embed it into core business processes can cripple even the most well-intentioned sustainability efforts. Worse, it can mislead investors, create compliance issues, and misguide transformation efforts. Unifying sustainability data provides significant gains in capabilities and competitive performance.

can offer organizations a robust tool for delivering audit-ready sustainability data that aligns with various sustainability and ESG standards. As part of the 51ˇçÁ÷Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises solution, 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower helps enable organizations to unlock the power of data to record, report, and act on their sustainability goals – at scale. Companies can drive holistic steering by setting targets; monitor progress and gain actionable insights from dependable sustainability data; and gain trust by establishing robust and auditable sustainability and ESG reporting.

Developing a Systematic Approach to Sustainability

51ˇçÁ÷customer and partner msg global is a consulting, implementation, and managed services provider committed to enhancing operational efficiency and decision-making capabilities through the utilization of 51ˇçÁ÷technology. As the company set its sights on becoming a sustainable enterprise, it implemented 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower to help enable the data transparency and actionable insights needed to steer holistically towards its sustainability goals.

Cooke oversees msg global’s sustainability business and technology consulting practice, in addition to collaborating with Ulrich Pilsl, chief financial officer at msg global, on its internal sustainability strategy. At 51ˇçÁ÷Sapphire, Cooke shared insights on msg global’s experience with 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower, highlighting both achievements and challenges of msg global’s sustainability journey.

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As a midsized company, msg global is still navigating its path to sustainability. Over the years, it has undertaken several corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. However, it recently shifted its focus to sustainability by adopting a more structured approach to sustainability. This approach integrates sustainability into core business processes through transparent reporting and goal setting.

With 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower, msg global published its in 2022, tracking key sustainability performance indicators. 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower allows msg global to consolidate data from its 51ˇçÁ÷systems across HR and finance departments, as well as its non-51ˇçÁ÷systems. With improved visibility into sustainability data across core business operations, company leaders can make informed sustainability decisions based on real-time insights.

Cooke states that the implementation of 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower enables msg global to establish baselines, generate reports, and set future-oriented targets and objectives. With this solution, msg global can effectively record, report, and act on sustainability.

Embarking on the Journey

Every business on a sustainability journey encounters obstacles along the way. msg global continues to explore ways to enhance data quality and availability. The company plans to implement and to help gather seamless, scalable, mission-critical business data and connect and automate business processes. msg global is also implementing to help gain a better understanding of travel management. Access to more comprehensive travel data is essential for a professional services company committed to sustainable business operations.

Cooke encourages businesses undergoing sustainability transformations to simply take the first step. She believes msg global is on the right track. She and her fellow sustainability leaders continually monitor progress with insights from 51ˇçÁ÷and make ongoing improvements along the way.

For more information on how 51ˇçÁ÷helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visit .

Kelly Cannon is part of Content Creation & Strategy for the Content Lab at SAP.

On the Journey to Net Zero by 2030, Daniel Schmid, SAP’s chief sustainability officer, said, “Through our journey to net zero 2030, we at SAPĚýstrive to be clear about what being net zero means to usĚýand to be transparent about what actions we are taking to get there.ĚýUntil now, we have been focusing on our operations and achieved major milestones, which is terrific.ĚýHowever, the challenge becomes much greater when we consider becoming net zeroĚýacross our entire value chain, including suppliers and customers.ĚýWe will address this challenge by accelerating our customers’ journeyĚýto the cloud, using best-in-class data centers, getting suppliers to deliver carbon-neutral products and services, changing our fleet to become emission-free,Ěýand investing in renewable electricityĚýand nature-based solutions.ĚýWe are 100% committed to achieving our goal.ĚýIt’s a journey all of us at 51ˇçÁ÷will help deliver.”

Likewise, 51ˇçÁ÷is paving the way to a sustainable world. aim to help our customers record, report, and act on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ambitions while incorporating sustainability in their businesses.

At SAP, there is a sustainable business strategy. Sustainable business means focusing on and improving social and economic performance. Therefore, these three global goals are reflected in SAP’s strategic focus areas: holistic steering and reporting, climate action, circular economy, and social responsibility. 51ˇçÁ÷is committed to ensuring digital technologies help companies manage and improve their business processes along their entire value chain and embed sustainability into their business models.

Today, the link between sustainability and profitability is clear. Companies are embedding sustainability and regulatory-complaint KPIs into their core financials. One clear example is the need for a carbon accounting system that mirrors their financial accounting system. Disclosing sustainability progress allows business leaders to act on waste management, deforestation, and social responsibility.

Selected Rankings and Ratings

CDP |

In addition to anĚýA- in CDP’s last climate change assessment, 51ˇçÁ÷has been recognized by CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) as a 2022 CDP Supplier Engagement Leader. CDP’s annual Supplier Engagement Rating assesses companies on their performance­­ on governance, targets, ambition, and Scope 3 emissions. 51ˇçÁ÷was also recognized as a CDP Supplier Engagement Leader in 2020 and 2021. This recognition for the third consecutive year acknowledges SAP’s commitment to raising the level of climate action across its value chain and to measure and reduce climate risk within its supply chain.

Corporate Sustainability Assessment by S&P (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices) |

S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) is an annual evaluation of companies’ sustainability practices. It covers over 7,000 companies from around the world. The CSA focuses on sustainability criteria that’s both industry-specific and financially material. As of January 1, 2023, 51ˇçÁ÷maintained industry leadership as one of two companies in the software industry in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment for the 16^th consecutive year, scoring 80 out of 100. This placed 51ˇçÁ÷in the top 1% of S&P’s ESG scores and qualified us as a Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) constituent.

MSCI |

MSCI ESG Ratings aim to measure a company’s management of financially relevant ESG risks and opportunities using the rules-based methodology to identify industry leaders and laggards according to their exposure to ESG risks and how well they manage those risks relative to their peers. 51ˇçÁ÷upholds the highest rating of AAA and is an ESG leader in human capital development, corporate governance, privacy and data security, and clean tech as of the last assessment in April 2023. The MSCI ESG Ratings are also used to construct the MSCI ESG Indexes produced by MSCI, Inc.

FTSE4Good |

Administered by the Financial Times Stock Exchange-Russell Group (FTSE), the FTSE4Good Index Series measures the performance of companies demonstrating strong ESG practices. Transparent management and clearly defined ESG criteria make FTSE4Good indices suitable tools to be used by a wide variety of market participants when creating or assessing sustainable investment products. With an ESG score of 4.1 out of 5, 51ˇçÁ÷is in the top 9% of analyzed companies – based on assessment questions in areas such as environment, climate change, human rights, community and labor standards, tax transparency, and anti-corruption. Due to its good scoring, 51ˇçÁ÷remains a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series following the June 2022 review.

Sustainalytics |

As of October 2022, of 10.9 from Sustainalytics and was assessed to be at low risk of experiencing material financial impacts from ESG factors. Founded in 1992, Sustainalytics, a Morningstar company, provides analytical ESG research, ratings, and data to institutional investors and companies.

EcoVadis |

In the last sustainability assessment of EcoVadis in December 2022, 51ˇçÁ÷was awarded a gold medal again with a score of 74 of 100, ranked in the 98th percentile of all companies scored, meaning SAP’s score is higher than or equal to the score of 98% of all companies rated by EcoVadis. With more than 100,000 rated companies, EcoVadis is one of the world’s most trusted business sustainability rating providers. Its assessment covers a broad range of non-financial management systems, including environments, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement impacts.

ISS ESG |

The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ESG Corporate Rating assesses companies’ sustainability performance based on high-quality and in-depth research and up to 100 sector-specific rating criteria that’s regularly reviewed and developed. With its B rating, 51ˇçÁ÷has been acknowledged with prime status and is among the top deciles. The score was confirmed in January 2023.

Corporate Knights |

51ˇçÁ÷ranked 41st in the 19th annual ranking of Corporate Knights’ 2023 100 most sustainable corporations in the world. This award has a special significance as Global 100 companies represent the top 1% in the world for sustainability performance. To determine the ranking, the Toronto-based media, research, and financial information products company analyzed over 6,000 companies with more than US$1 billion in revenues against 25 key performance indicators. “Global 100 companies are providing the products and services needed for the sustainability transition, and that will form the basis of the emerging 21st-century economy,” says Ralph Torrie, director of Research at Corporate Knights.

Moody’s ESG Solution |

In the last assessment in January 2022, 51ˇçÁ÷maintained the highest of four performance levels (“advanced”) and ranked second of 83 in its sector, acknowledging its strength in managing material ESG factors, mitigating risks, and creating sustainable value. Due to its good performance, 51ˇçÁ÷remained a constituent in the Euronext Vigeo Eiris indices Europe120 and Eurozone120. These indices are composed of the highest-ranking listed companies according to their evaluation of companies’ ESG performance based on 38 criteria, including industry weightings and monitoring of company-related ESG controversies.

“There have always been regulations, rules, and expectations on how companies operate in order to make sure there isn’t a negative impact on the environment,” says Michael Censurato, global solution manager for at SAP. “What’s changed in the last couple of years is that there’s a lot more focus and scrutiny. It’s in the news. It’s on consumers’ minds. It’s on investors’ minds.”

A by the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment found that in 2022 climate change was the top environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issue, in asset-weighted terms, for money managers and institutional investors alike. SAP’s own research shows that, between 2021 and 2022, the importance of customer demand as a motivator for sustainable action increased sevenfold.

Joining the Green Vanguard

While executives now consider ESG initiatives integral to the future success of their businesses, they’re also acutely aware of the difficulty in measuring the progress of these initiatives and of translating their successes to regulators. In research conducted by Oxford Economics and SAP, had established policies for working with regulators to ensure the implementation of sustainable practices. For businesses of all sizes, the risks and costs of non-compliance are high – ranging from penalties and fines to suspended operations, loss of business, and even personal liability on the part of executives.

Among the most significant difficulties in ESG reporting is ensuring that environmental metrics are both transparent and accurate – reflecting actual values, rather than averages. In many organizations, environmental compliance strategies have historically required a highly manual effort, relying on spreadsheets and weeks of data aggregation and processing across multiple time zones and working structures, often leading to oversights and delays.

Finding a solution that offers a better route towards ESG reporting and compliance is a critical step in the broader business strategies and outcomes of teams big and small. As the imperative to establish a carbon-neutral bottom line becomes stronger than ever, those companies that are able to meet these challenges will emerge as market leaders.

End-to-End Environmental Management

Since 2003, SAP’s EHS team has been helping enterprises comply with environmental regulations through a range of solutions, including 51ˇçÁ÷Environment, Health, and Safety Management. This application can provide the consistency, auditability, risk reduction, and transparency that companies require. It can also supply environmental managers and technicians with an easily navigable platform, helping to unlock in-depth insight into their operation’s environmental impact.

Powered by 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA, 51ˇçÁ÷EHS Management helps support teams throughout the process of aggregating, preparing, and analyzing their environmental data. The application’s advanced capabilities can also allow for early detection of deviations from target emissions values – so that if, for example, carcinogenic compounds released during a particular production process exceed their environmental limit, a plan can be instantly put into action, giving teams plenty of time to adjust and remain compliant.

The Emissions Declaration Challenge

Within the broader category of EHS compliance, emissions declarations in particular are notorious for the time and diligence they require. Companies based in Germany, for example, must file detailed reports every four years for the BImSchV ordinance on emissions declarations, while European companies at large must file annually for The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). There are more regulations on the way: earlier this year, the International Finance Reporting Standard’s (IFRS) International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) the development of a standardized language for disclosing ESG-related risks and opportunities. The new criteria will come online in January 2024.

And for companies in heavy-emitting industries, such as chemical, oil and gas, or steel and iron production, the diversity of emissions that need to be recorded and included in these declarations range from the dust and exhaust released during the transportation and processing of raw materials to passive emissions such as fuel tank venting. As a result, the extent of the reporting itself – and the challenge of remaining compliant – is immense, particularly for global operations operating across jurisdictions.

In the past, the burden of these emission reports fell on the shoulders of environmental and operations managers, who have had to struggle with the inefficiencies built into the highly manual procedure of gathering, calculating, and reporting the necessary information, all within a strict timeline.

Reporting Made Easy

Addressing this bottleneck, the new 51ˇçÁ÷Fiori app “My Emissions Declarations” is designed not only to help fast-track the creation and completion of emissions declarations but also to help establish a governed backbone to the process itself. My Emissions Declarations is currently designed specifically for the filing requirements of the BImSchV ordinance, but additional filing procedures, triggered by legal requirements, will soon be featured as part of the app’s offering.

The My Emissions Declarations app helps emissions reporting stay on track from the very beginning of the process. Plant managers are in charge of ensuring that the required reports are started and filed on time. When plant managers need to initiate a declaration, the app sends a notification directly to the manager’s e-mail and automatically creates a task on the homepage.

Once the task has been successfully opened, the plant manager can hand over responsibility to others, like plant operators or environmental technicians, who will typically take charge of entering all necessary data into the app for each emissions source. The flexibility of the My Emissions Declarations app can support automatic data collection, by way of sensors, meters, operational systems, and data historians.

After data has been entered, the app takes the lead, running the complex calculations required to generate accurate emissions data. “Within the app, the respective experts are able to simply input the minimum information required by the calculation formula,” explains Mariya Krasteva, area product owner for 51ˇçÁ÷EHS Management. “Then, as soon as the concentration of a specific emitted substance is entered, all other parameters are calculated automatically.” Whereas some solutions store these equations in a database or in the software coding, making them difficult to validate and edit, the My Emissions Declarations app allows end users to easily view, edit, and maintain these equations all within the platform.

Crucially, My Emissions Declarations can also enable plant managers to quickly validate the data’s accuracy, helping to ensure its quality throughout the process. And, with seamless integration to 51ˇçÁ÷EHS Management as a whole – and by extension, to the 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA digital core – the app can allow teams to establish a holistic understanding of their operation’s footprint. After all, enterprise-wide sustainability management does not exist in a vacuum. Companies must juggle a wealth of other compliance, monitoring, and maintenance procedures. In many operations, compliance processes overlap with plant maintenance because the manufacturing equipment also needs to be maintained and monitored for any pollutants it produces.

“Our solutions help to tie these pieces together, making the handoff to other processes much more seamless,” explains Hitesh Patel, product manager for 51ˇçÁ÷EHS Management. Integrating the My Emissions Declarations app into the broader management system helps teams utilize company data previously defined in the software’s asset management feature, creating a comprehensive view of emissions sources – including scope 3 emissions, such as those related to facilities and assets. By calculating actual emission amounts, rather than averages, teams are now able to make even more accurate, data-driven decisions.

“The bottom line is that this is out-of-the-box compliance and an end-to-end solution, which allows auditability at anytime,” says Krasteva. “One precise emissions inventory, one source of truth.” And when, ultimately, the plant manager is ready to prepare the declaration itself, the app generates an XML report, which it can then directly submit to the relevant authorities before closing the task until next time.

Taking the Lead

Maintaining efficiency and diligence in compliance procedures is an indispensable step for companies looking to chart a more sustainable future for themselves and their industries. 51ˇçÁ÷EHS Management, as well as My Emissions Declaration, can give teams crucial support in charting that future and in reaching the sustainability goals and benchmarks that will help them get there.

about how 51ˇçÁ÷can guide your team in this journey today.

Sami Emory is a brand journalist for Sustainability Communications at SAP.

Pioneers in Circular Solutions

The German giant recently relaunched its brand to reflect its strategic vision to become the leader in circular economy solutions, hence the circular logo with a triad of people, steel, and technology in the center. Three elements – circular mindset, pioneering partnerships, and sustainability solutions – are needed to bring the strategy to life.

“Our mission is to transform the industry, so we can produce steel without emitting CO2,” says Gunnar Groebler, CEO and chairman of the Executive Board of Salzgitter AG. “Currently, about two tons of CO2 are emitted per ton of steel produced in the traditional way. We aim to replace coal with hydrogen, reducing emissions to virtually zero. We’ll be delivering green steel as of 2025.”

Steel is the world’s most important engineering and construction material. It is used in every aspect of our lives, from cars and cargo ships to surgical scalpels and spoons. It’s also one of the most sustainable materials because it can be recycled endlessly.

Salzgitter AG is in the process of redefining its business model, moving from the linear approach to a circular one that reduces, reuses, and recycles energy and materials – and, most importantly, continuously rethinks the process.

True circularity requires joint product lifecycle planning and holistic processes in full collaboration with partners and suppliers across the entire value chain. “We’ve been in a classic relationship with our customers, which ends when the product is handed over. We’re working with them to take back the products after use, so we can reuse them or reintroduce the material into the production cycle,” Groebler explains.

Partnerships across the Value Chain

The company and its subsidiaries have been producing steel for over 150 years. Peiner Träger, for example, is already melting around 1 million tons of crude steel from steel scrap in one of its electric steelworks in an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient manner. Its high-quality products are a clear testimony that steel can be recycled without any loss of quality.

“I worked in the utilities industry for over 20 years, so I’ve witnessed the move from lignite, or soft coal, to offshore wind – a massive transformation. Seeing what was possible within a decade or so is highly motivating for me,” says Groebler. “I realize that by driving this transformation at Salzgitter AG, we are ultimately moving the entire industry to a more sustainable way of production.”

He is amazed at how many companies are redefining their role from being customers to partners.

“We’re all transforming together,” he explains. “Our customers need to fulfill their own targets. Take the automotive industry: not only do they have to decarbonize the vehicle itself, but they also decarbonize its use throughout its lifetime. Considering that steel is a prominent part of the vehicle, our automotive partners expect us to decarbonize steel.”

Groebler thinks a lot about the expectations of society. Today, Salzgitter AG emits roughly 1% of the German CO2 footprint, about 8 million tons per year. The good thing is that most of it is generated in one spot, making it easier to manage reduction efforts, versus the effort that goes into reducing emissions generated by combustion engines in cars, which are all over the place. With the strategy and funding already in place, Groebler is confident Salzgitter AG can reach net zero in the next 10 years.

Sustainability Tools and Solutions

Groebler is also very mindful of how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors are impacting brand reputation. Sustainable business practices play a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving resources, and companies that actively pursue them benefit from increased trust and loyalty among customers and consumers, creating opportunities for improved market share.

“If you consider the way ESG is developing, we need to look at environmental data in the same way we look at financial data. We’re experts in steel production, but not in handling data,” says Groebler. “This is where 51ˇçÁ÷comes into play. 51ˇçÁ÷helps us really consolidate the in an easy way.”

Salzgitter Group is achieving greater ESG transparency with the data analytics and business logic functionality in . Along with and , the company uses to gain deeper insight into its environmental data and maintain safe and sustainable operations.

There have been some highly visible changes since Salzgitter Group embarked on its journey to circularity. Six massive wind power turbines, each 150 meters high, have reshaped the skyline over the steelworks. A lot of development is happening behind the scenes. Hydrogen production will not take place exclusively on-site, so the biggest challenge is sourcing it from other locations and creating the necessary infrastructure. During the transitional phase, the company will use a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen before switching exclusively to hydrogen.

Groebler is highly optimistic: “We’re seeing a sweeping cultural change within the Salzgitter Group. Employees are engaging proactively, from an employee cooperative to finance a photovoltaic system to our local tree-planting campaign – our sustainable business approach has a positive, far-reaching impact everywhere in our organization.”

Together with customers and suppliers, technology partners like SAP, and its people, Salzgitter AG is clearly leading the way to a circular future.

For more information on how 51ˇçÁ÷helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visitĚý.

Customers and partners alike can use this detailed experience and shared knowledge for their own purposes. Companies and organizations can get inspired, learn from other solutions, or improve their existing architectures to become future-ready.

To set expectations, Juergen Mueller, chief technology officer and member of the Executive Board of 51ˇçÁ÷SE, explains: “Businesses that use 51ˇçÁ÷Business Technology Platform do not have to start with a blank canvas. Our and pre-built business and industry content help customers understand what is possible to keep their business innovative and future-ready. One thing to remember is that pre-built business content may not get you 100% of what you need but is likely to get you 80% or more to where you need to be. You can then add the remaining specific features and functionalities required for your business.”

So, these actionable use cases and related missions can to help meet certain requirements and solve specific situations in their enterprise. As Mueller puts it, “They were prepared for business experts, software developers, and architects to show the art of the possible.”

Here are two concrete examples of customers working with repeatable use cases:

Pif Paf Alimentos Builds Mobile App for Maintenance Technicians

In less than three weeks, Pif Paf Alimentos launched a mobile application for its maintenance technicians. The new mobile app significantly reduces the use of paper, improves the efficiency and accuracy of administrative tasks, and does not require an Internet connection. Pif Paf Alimentos, having worked with 51ˇçÁ÷products like 51ˇçÁ÷Integration Suite and 51ˇçÁ÷ERP before, took advantage ofĚý to help resolve its technicians’ problems by building and deploying a working mobile app solution.

Why was the deployment process so fast? 51ˇçÁ÷Build Apps allows users to build apps in a low-code manner by providing drag-and-drop user interfaces (UI) for common app components. This successful implementation is now reflected in the 51ˇçÁ÷Discovery Center mission “.”

From a Sustainability App for Banking to a Repeatable Use Case at Novo Banco S.A.

Novo Banco S.A. wanted to encourage and enable its approximately 1.5 million customers to be more climate conscious while strengthening their loyalty to the bank. It focused on a target group of customers between the ages of 18 and 30 because young people are well aware of the global climate situation but not necessarily of their own carbon footprint.

Together with 51ˇçÁ÷and partner Connect Earth, the bank continued to build upon its SmartCO₂nverter idea, a concept that had won SAP’s “Save One Billion Lives” challenge in 2021. Since money movements and payments can give a goodĚýindication of an individual’s carbon footprint, it aimed at improving the customers’ carbon literacy by analyzing and using the users’ bank account transactions and spending behaviors in a meaningful and transparent way. While this project brought about a solution design at the proof-of-concept stage, 51ˇçÁ÷did not stop here and aimed at offering this solution approach on a broader scale.

Anirban Majumdar, vice president and head of 51ˇçÁ÷T&I Platform Adoption & Advisory, describes the journey: “Nothing gives us more joy than building 51ˇçÁ÷BTP use cases that solve business challenges for our customers. One new use case we’re particularly excited about is a banking sustainability calculator app we’ve built for Novo Banco, an innovative financial institution based out of Lisbon, Portugal, that is deeply (ESG). The mobile app itself is built using the reusable architecture principles of 51ˇçÁ÷Cloud Application Programming Model and React Native on 51ˇçÁ÷BTP. After the project, we extended the application architecture with a GPT scenario offered via the service. We are excited about the possibility of combining business context with the capabilities of large language models on 51ˇçÁ÷BTP without actually disclosing any critical data to third-party APIs. We will open-source our code on GitHub in time for 51ˇçÁ÷Sapphire in 2023, when you can check it out and let us know if you find the use case relevant for your business problem.”

Scaling via 51ˇçÁ÷Ecosystem

The concept of building upon best practices and experiences made by others is not new to 51ˇçÁ÷and its ecosystem. Repeatable use cases and solutions are built by 51ˇçÁ÷and its ecosystem alike.

To give an example, “, with its 20 partners globally, has developed more than 20 solutions that can be found in and offers more than five missions in ,” confirms Andreas Hauser, SVP and head of 51ˇçÁ÷AppHaus Network.

Seeing this level of enablement happening across the entire 51ˇçÁ÷ecosystem equals standing on the shoulders of giants and getting an impressive idea of what is possible.

Imke Vierjahn is communications lead of 51ˇçÁ÷AppHaus, T&I Integrated Communications.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has become a mandate for businesses around the globe. Across every industry, consumers, investors, and employees are demanding change. In response, governments are implementing new regulations – rightfully so. We all have a responsibility to minimize our impact on the environment and contribute positively to society.

Procurement leaders play an essential role in helping companies achieve their ESG goals. With access to nearly all business functions, procurement is not only critical to driving efficiency and resiliency, but it is also increasingly becoming a key business partner to tackle ESG commitments. In fact, according to a survey by the , 51% of global businesses have a sustainable procurement policy in place, contributing to the resilience of their value chains.

What’s more, while sustainable procurement has long been a priority for the private sector, we are now seeing major investment from the public sector – with U.S. policymakers proposing the to require major federal contractors to disclose their environmental data. In Germany, lawmakers passed the LkSG Act to regulate companies’ social and environmental responsibility.

With organizations across industries focused on defining and realizing their ESG commitments, it is evident that we are at a tipping point. As procurement leaders, we must act now to build a path towards more sustainable practices.

Consumers’ Buying Behavior Shows an Emphasis on Sustainability but Inflation Presents Challenges

We all know ESG is complex and multifaceted. One aspect that gets a high degree of visibility is sustainability, which is usually tied to the tracking and reduction of corporate carbon footprints. Given that visibility, we asked consumers how they are factoring sustainability into their buying decisions. 51ˇçÁ÷surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults to better understand how they are prioritizing sustainability in their purchasing decisions and what factors influence those decisions. Some interesting findings surfaced:

• Consumers are increasingly focused on making sustainable buying decisions. More than half of consumers (51%) said they made an effort to purchase from brands that practice sustainability during the past two years. This is an increase from 36% in our February 2022 survey. Moreover, more than one out of three consumers (36%) say that, when possible, they purchase from brands that practice ethical sourcing for their products.
• Inflation is affecting consumers’ willingness to buy more sustainably. Despite increasing their efforts to buy sustainably, 64% of consumers also say inflation has impacted their ability to prioritize sustainable and/or ethical products and services. The majority (85%) would prioritize making more sustainable purchases if the cost barrier to do so was lower.

Improving Procurement Practices to Drive a More Sustainable Future

Consumers are not only prioritizing buying sustainably, but they are demanding transparency. Many remain skeptical about the data companies provide on their ESG efforts. As a result, procurement will play an increasingly important role in finding, sourcing, and acquiring goods with sustainability in mind, and doing so in a way that is traceable with the ability to verify provenance.

Here is a closer look at what the survey revealed about what consumers are thinking:

• Growing skepticism about “greenwashing” may deter consumers from buying sustainably. When making purchasing decisions, only 22% of consumers rank a brand’s sustainability initiatives as their No. 1 factor. One cause for concern may be that a staggering half (50%) believe brands are exaggerating claims of sustainability to mislead customers. Another 34% are not sure.
• Consumers want to be informed on a company’s ESG initiatives, but a knowledge gap remains. Most consumers (40%) look for information about companies’ ESG initiatives on product packaging or with product information online. Other common places are the “About” section of their Web sites (34%) and social media (34%). More than one in four consumers (28%) do not know where to find the information.

Building a Path to Sustainable Procurement in 2023

The survey makes it clear that businesses need to reimagine existing business processes with sustainability in mind and provide more transparency to build trust with consumers.

Procurement leaders cannot tackle this challenge alone. However, they can lay the foundation for success by harnessing their unique position to pave the way for sustainable innovation across the supply chain. To get there requires a sustainable procurement plan that involves:

• Sourcing sustainably: Employ sustainable sourcing to help reduce your company’s carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Joining the circular economy: Collaborate with your suppliers to develop innovative ways to recycle and reuse materials to cut waste.
• Performing supplier due diligence: Make sure vendors follow ethical labor practices and protect the environment.
• Promoting social responsibility: Choose to work with ethical businesses, certified green businesses, and those that prioritize sustainability as a business outcome.

51ˇçÁ÷solutions can enable you to follow sustainable practices at every stage of the procurement process, from to to the . All of this can help you build trust with consumers while also meeting your organization’s sustainability objectives and protecting the planet. It is a win-win.

Etosha Thurman is chief marketing and solutions officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at SAP.

When combined with partner expertise and innovation, that reach across business domains and processes becomes a powerful tool for advancing key corporate agendas, including environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. It enables our customers to secure their business, uncover new opportunities, mitigate risks, and get ahead of operational turbulence while dismantling barriers that stand in the way of a healthier planet and more equitable society.

Whether fueled by environmental laws or consumer demand, increasing organizational focus on ESG-related goals is opening opportunities for partners – key junctures where their innovations can contribute. Implementation, content, and technology experts can take advantage of sustainability trends to help customers balance increased competitiveness with positive impacts under the new ESG principles.

A Vital Platform for Meaningful Change

Over the last few years,ĚýĚý(51ˇçÁ÷BTP) has empowered 51ˇçÁ÷partners to innovate, integrate, and extend solutions across lines of business and industries in the cloud. Now, they can turn their attention, knowledge, and ingenuity toward questions about sustainability, helping customers understand where to start, where to end up, and how to get there quickly.

51ˇçÁ÷partners can rapidly innovate on 51ˇçÁ÷BTP, thanks to the collaboration-driven nature of the partner ecosystem and access to enablement and support powered by 51ˇçÁ÷around ESG practices. In return, they can be well-equipped to deliver on expectations for revenue generation, efficiency improvement, and risk mitigation through emissions and waste reduction, circular business models, and sustainable and responsible leadership.

Take, for example, the digitalization of supply chains. Sustainability is now being infused into the business function’s DNA as companies pay more attention to lowering their carbon footprint, minimizing waste, and sourcing materials responsibly. But the greatest success comes from ESG initiatives combined with – not competing against – objectives for increasing system resilience, expanding logistics capacity, or protecting operations from disruptions that threaten customer fulfillment.

With climate change ranking as high as economic instability among top concerns for companies and their customers, more and more 51ˇçÁ÷partners – such asĚýĚý˛š˛ÔťĺĚýĚý– have come to understand that sustainability cannot continue to be placed on the back burner. Instead, they help customers see how ESG principles can help deliver goods and services sustainably, improve operational efficiency, reduce business costs, and overcome risks to help ensure supply chain resilience around the globe.

ESG Innovation Materializes through Strong Collaboration

Software such as theĚýĚýsolution, which is built on 51ˇçÁ÷BTP, demonstrates the strength of the collaboration between 51ˇçÁ÷partners and customers when bringing ESG innovation to market. Our partners can create a real-time, data-driven environment that empowers organizations to comply with reporting and auditability requirements imposed by national and regional governments, including the International Sustainability Standards Board and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

As a component of a unified platform connecting data and business processes, 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower enables partners to help customers combine accurate, auditable, and reliable financial and nonfinancial data. This approach provides the insights and transparency needed to make specific changes in how businesses operate. Additionally, since 51ˇçÁ÷software touches most of the world’s day-to-day commerce, the solution helps unlock the inherent power of existing data to record, report, and act on business and ESG goals.

But our partners’ use of 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower during customer engagements doesn’t stop there. They can build on the solution’s predefined integration capabilities with live 51ˇçÁ÷systems, such as , to instantly upgrade audit-ready data and connect HR, finance, and supply chain organizational structures to crucial sustainability metrics. This work brings the sustainability data layer to life, transporting new sustainability practices into their critical business processes and functions with actual data.

Furthermore, the presence of prebuilt content libraries in the solution allows partners to accelerate the realization of their customers’ sustainability visions. They can pinpoint which processes need to change to reduce emissions and where operations can benefit from being more circular and automated.

The Next Phase of Data Intelligence Transformation

We are reaching a fork in the road where businesses will have two key choices in their digital transformation journey. They can either invest in ESG efforts to gain the associated benefits of circularity, efficiency, and resilience or stray from the sustainability and process integrity that environmentally discerning customers demand.

This emerging reality is quickly pushing the boundaries of what it means to be competitive. And for most organizations, becoming experts in capturing and reporting on the correct data and connecting the necessary processes can be daunting without consistent guidance and support.

51ˇçÁ÷customers working with our partners can leverage the latest innovations in the field of sustainability as part of their data intelligence transformation powered by 51ˇçÁ÷BTP. And more importantly, they can realize new business opportunities and act as a positive force for sustainable business practices.

Learn more about , ,Ěý˛š˛ÔťĺĚý. If you’re interested in software partnership opportunities with SAP, check out theĚý. And if you’re already a partner, explore these resources available on the 51ˇçÁ÷Partner Portal site:

• ” webinar
• ” open51ˇçÁ÷course

Gabriele Goertz is vice president and global head of the Sustainability Ecosystem at SAP.

The time has come to deliver on the ambitious commitments and public goals that many companies have set to tackle climate change, safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and fight inequality. The “what” we need to do has never been clearer. The focus is now on “how” companies operationalize sustainability and turn ambition into results at the scale that aligns with the scope of their influence and global issues. In of sustainability leaders, experts around the world agree that action and impact are two of the defining features in this new area of leadership and rising expectations.

GlobeScan and 51ˇçÁ÷have developed – a new platform featuring real-world examples of how leading companies are operationalizing sustainability at scale. This initiative goes beyond the high-level narratives and digs into how leading companies are tackling and implementing solutions to specific sustainability challenges and opportunities. Drawing on the experience of some of the world’s most sustainable and innovative companies, these case examples share valuable insights and learnings to help advance the work of sustainability and business leaders at any point in their sustainability journey.

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Practical, Powerful Insights for Key Questions

The initiatives featured on Sustainable Business Now focus on timely challenges and opportunities that are top-of-mind for chief sustainability officers and business leaders across sectors and geographies. For many companies, these represent some of the most material issues and priorities for influential stakeholders, from investors and customers to governments and civil society. Our conversations with sustainable business leaders get at the heart of what it takes to embed sustainability into business strategy and operations, thereby integrating sustainability across a company’s value chain.

Key topics Sustainable Business Now explores include:

• How to decarbonize complex supply chains and tackle hard-to-transition sectors
• How to tackle the waste crisis and move towards a circular economy
• How to integrate sustainability into finance and decision-making
• How to advance inclusion and tackle inequality across the value chain
• How to promote inclusive local development by improving the impact and scale of social programs

Learnings from Leading Companies

Sustainable Business Now launches with a diverse set of case examples from some of the most innovative and sustainable companies around the world:

• Anglo American shares insights on how to improve the impact and scale of social programs: Jon Samuel, group head of Responsible Business Partnerships, and Mzila Mthenjane, Exxaro’s executive head, Stakeholder Affairs, discuss how the company and its partners have designed and adapted their Collaborative Regional Development (CRD) program to address the most compelling social needs and opportunities in each region. “We are pleased to be one of the first case studies featured on Sustainable Business Now,” says Samuel. “The challenges societies face in meeting the SDGs are so large and complex that only by working across sectors and organizations can we achieve the results we need. While CRD isn’t a silver bullet, our evidence shows that the approach has real potential to improve the impact of the private sector.”
• Natura shares advice on how to integrate sustainability into finance and decision-making: Natura developed its Integrated Profit & Loss (IP&L) model to translate the company’s environmental and social impacts into financial terms. Natura &Co Latin America’s Sustainability Director Denise Hills and Chief Financial Officer Silvia Vilas Boas explain how Natura’s IP&L model creates value across its businesses. “We believe that IP&L is a new breakthrough that will inform strategic thinking and decision-making across organizations. The more companies that take ownership of this methodology, the closer we get to a society that generates greater shared value for all. By sharing the framework and our learnings on Sustainable Business Now, we hope more companies will adopt this important approach,” says Hills.
• Ø°ů˛őłŮąđťĺ offers insight into how to decarbonize your supply chain: In 2021, Ø°ů˛őłŮąđťĺ became the first energy company to set a science-based goal to achieve net-zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2040. Senior Director and Head of Global Sustainability Ida Krabek and Chief Procurement Officer Virginie Van de Cotte share insights on the journey so far, the challenges, and their advice to others on how to decarbonize their supply chains. “Acknowledge that this is challenging and it’s challenging for everyone. That’s why we’ve chosen to take this very collaborative approach and to create these ripple effects,” says Krabek. “What is helpful in the whole sustainability space is that we collaborate, that we share, that we inspire, that we set expectations, and we follow up.”
• Unilever shares guidance on how to advance inclusion and tackle inequality across your value chain: Central to Unilever’s Compass business and sustainability strategy is an ambitious commitment to ensure that everyone who directly provides goods and services to Unilever will earn at least a living wage or income by 2030. Unilever’s Chief Sustainability Officer Rebecca Marmot explains why the business decided to make such a bold move and the steps it has taken to navigate this complex undertaking: “Living wages are an effective and measurable way to tackle inequality. A unified approach can unlock progress across the sustainable development goals and add US$4.56 trillion to global GDP every year.”

We are having many more conversations with others and plan to add more cases on an ongoing basis.

We hope you are as excited as we are about Sustainable Business Now and we look forward to working with the community and hearing your feedback. If you, your company, or someone you know may be interested in sharing insights from your work and contributing to the dialogue, please reach out to the team to learn more: contact@sustainablebusinessnow.org.

For more information on how 51ˇçÁ÷helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visit .

Chris Coulter is CEO of GlobeScan.
Michael McComb is global head of Sustainability Communications at SAP.

The new ESG strategy builds on the strength of the existing , which has successfully delivered business transformation solutions to clients in more than 80 countries.

The strategy includes co-innovated solutions, created with PwC’s , aimed at enabling businesses to apply ESG metrics through their operations that are trustworthy, auditable and verifiable. The solutions leverage the 51ˇçÁ÷Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises solution, along with the Ěýand the . Together, PwC and 51ˇçÁ÷help organizations leverage the solutions they need to fulfill compliance requirements and drive growth to support the ever-increasing expectations of customers and investors. They also assist customers in shaping the future of their net zero strategy and sustainability reporting.

PwC and SAP’s strategy includes solutions encompassing an enterprise-wide ESG strategy, ranging from trading optimization and tax credit recognition to third-party risk management and competitive analysis. Three top challenge areas for ESG, net zero and sustainability reporting will also be addressed:

• Reporting and disclosure helping to satisfy requirements to materially report and disclose investor-grade carbon measuring data to meet demands of investors, lenders, regulators and customers
• Operationalizing sustainability to support the incorporation of ESG measures, especially carbon issues, directly into business functions, such as trading, capitalization and tax
• Supply chain risk management, monitoring and compliance extending support for ESG measures to cover the impact of suppliers on organizational performance

Solutions like , based on 51ˇçÁ÷Business Technology Platform, have already demonstrated the strength of the collaboration between the two organizations in bringing ESG innovation to market.

PwC and 51ˇçÁ÷are dedicated to helping organizations respond to the reporting and auditability requirements imposed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). They also support companies in complying with a related ruling proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Solutions provided by PwC and 51ˇçÁ÷enable the real-time, data-driven environment customers require to operate and grow the sustainable enterprise of the future.

Bob Moritz, Global Chairman, PwC said: “ESG has become a business imperative and is central to PwC’s global strategy, The New Equation, which aims to help clients build trust with their stakeholders and deliver sustained outcomes. New ESG reporting and disclosure requirements are being established, and greater transparency is critical to building trust. This belief is core to our new co-innovation strategy with SAP, expanding our collaboration to create a dedicated focus on ESG solution development. PwC has been working intensely to help companies deliver on the requirements needed to achieve their ESG goals. Combining our expertise and reputation for trust and integrity with SAP’s technology platform will help bring broader capabilities and solutions to respond to organizations’ challenges in meeting their ESG and sustainability commitments.”

Christian Klein, CEO and member of the Executive Board of 51ˇçÁ÷SE, said: “The key to every organization’s ability to reach their sustainability goals and drive positive change is transparency. Our collaboration will combine the deep industry expertise and customer insights of PwC with our leading sustainability technology portfolio. The resulting ESG transparency will help companies reinvent their business models and deliver the sustainable outcomes the world urgently needs.”

To learn more about PwC and SAP’s ESG co-innovation strategy, visit our .

About PwC

At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 152 countries with nearly 328,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at .

Visit the 51ˇçÁ÷News Center. Follow 51ˇçÁ÷on Twitter at .

About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 51ˇçÁ÷customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51ˇçÁ÷helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51ˇçÁ÷helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit .

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One company with extensive expertise in ESG reporting is , the world’s largest brewer. The company’s strategy for growth through the digitization of its ecosystem – which includes 200 breweries, 6 million customers, and over 2 billion consumers, generating over 10 million weekly transactions – involves a lot of data.

The Right Data

“Brewing requires the best ingredients, which requires a healthy environment. We are an agribusiness. We see the far-reaching implications of climate change in our operations and sourcing regions,” said Ezgi Barcenas, chief sustainability officer, Anheuser-Busch InBev. “With operations in over 50 countries, we’re looking at many metrics. Just inside our walls, we have 400 operating practices for tracking efficiency, water, energy, maintenance, and sourcing, to name a few.”

Barcenas explained that as the company looks at its supply chain, it must think through the environmental and social impact up- and downstream, from the smallholder farmers down to the half million SMEs that are its customers selling its products around the world, all the mom-and-pop shops as well as the big chains.

“That’s a lot of data,” she said. “Now add all your research and innovation data, security data, and ideas about the future of packaging and logistics. The point is, sometimes you need better data, not more. You need to ask yourself: is this data useful for making decisions? Does it help drive the right actions through the business?”

Another data-heavy company participating in the discussion was Schneider Electric SE, a French multinational specializing inĚýdigital automation and energy management for buildings, data centers, infrastructure, and industries. By 2025, thanks to its energy and sustainability services and green product innovations, it will have and avoid 800 million tons of CO2.

“We need to triple our speed to avert climate disaster. Reporting scope 3 emissions is extremely important, because we can only track what we measure and we can only improve if we measure,” said Michael Lofty, senior vice president, Power Products, Schneider Electric. The good news is that about 70% of Schneider Electric’s revenue already comes from green solutions. The company invests heavily in innovation. “Any innovation coming from Schneider Electric is a sustainable offer,” he explained. “Each product is more sustainable than the one before it, and metrics are key proof points.”

At Schneider Electric, the main challenge was to get suppliers on board the sustainability journey. The company launched a Zero Carbon Project to help 1,000 suppliers responsible for 70% of its upstream carbon emissions become more sustainable. “This is a movement and it’s a must-have movement, because we are only as strong as our smallest supplier,” said Lofty. The project aims to quantify supplier emissions to establish a baseline and identify key sources of emissions. This enables data-driven prioritization of intervention and road map creation.

ESG Reporting

Most people assume that ESG investing is designed to reward companies helping the planet. According to a by the Harvard Business Review, however, ESG ratings that underlie ESG fund selection are based on materiality, an accounting principle stating that all items likely to impact investors’ decision-making must be recorded in detail in a business’s financial statements usingĚý.

Some businesses are already linking materiality to their own fortunes and that of the planet. A revealed that a significant minority of respondents say sustainability is already financially material to their businesses and a larger group believes it will be imminent in the near future. Companies like Anheuser-Busch IN Bev and Schneider Electric are finding ways to make that link pay off with the help of data.

“One change we’ve seen over the last few years is that investors have a better understanding of which data is material to the business, and they ask more questions around it,” said Barcenas. “We’re increasingly trying to provide more context around our data.”

Providing accurate data is the only way to really demonstrate the impact of the changing world on a company’s profits and losses. Having one global framework and mandatory reporting would certainly help address the data challenge, but that won’t happen in the near future.

“We still need to progress on some of the standards and regulations before we can make them mandatory,” said Gunther Rothermel, senior vice president, head of Sustainability Engineering, SAP. “We need to look at the common denominator underlying the regulations and cover that level first, and then grow this common denominator as the regulations mature and become accepted.”

Companies like SAP, he said, with products that also need to meet standards, will, at least for now, have to serve numerous frameworks. In the meantime, 51ˇçÁ÷solutions help organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality goals through ESG data transparency across crucial business processes, business networking, and a large ecosystem of partners.​

“We believe that embedding sustainability at the core of business strategy can help drive operational efficiency, innovation, employee engagement, supply chain resilience, risk mitigation, improved sales, and other strategic business benefits,” said Rothermel.

Having the right data proof points will help companies better understand the return on their sustainability investment (ROSI) and the materiality underlying investor decision-making, resulting in shareholder returns and long-term benefits to the environment and society.

For more information on how 51ˇçÁ÷helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visit .

With the complex challenge of sustainable business transformation at hand, businesses are being observed under a magnifying glass to present accurate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) measurements against global standards organizations and check Scope 3 Emissions, circularity, and ethical practices of trading partners throughout the entire supply and value chain.

51ˇçÁ÷sees this challenge as an opportunity to help businesses take on corporate accountability in a genuine way. 51ˇçÁ÷solutions can provide needed insights, backed by data and process-enabled technology, to help businesses see in a granular view where they can reduce their carbon footprint, optimize resources, and drive social responsibility.

Record Actuals, Not Averages, Across Value Chains

There are three key steps when it comes to taking on this challenge of sustainable business transformation. The first is to record actuals across value chains, not averages.

“In the old world, it was good enough to know data within your own four walls. Now, in the new world, it’s beginning to move out of the four walls and into your supply chain,” said Jim Sullivan, head of Sustainability Product Management at SAP. Sullivan discussed the need for accurate, comprehensive, and industry-specific data during the closing roundtable of the held on September 28^th. He expressed the demand for data transparency in not just company operations, but also in taking responsibility for impact beyondĚýtheĚýsupply chain and intoĚýtheĚýbroader cross-industryĚývalueĚýnetworks to keep materials in use at their highest value.

Report Against a Quickly Evolving Set of ESG Standards

The second step is that businesses must report against an evolving set of ESG standards. With plastic taxes on the horizon in the UK and the from the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) that companies must disclose Scope 3 emissions, the ability to form resilient business models falls on how flexible a business can be when ESG standards rapidly change.

To zero in on what matters most, businesses need to capture their data in a way that meets standards across the board. Being fluent with KPIsĚýthat cover common ESG frameworks based on an open, extensible solution empowers businesses to be ready when new regulations arise and communicate their metrics clearly to stakeholders, investors, and customers.

Janine Guillot, special advisor to the ISSB Chair at IFRS Foundation, explained in the Wall Street Journal Pro Sustainable Business Forum on October 10^th how the ISSB provides comparable sustainability-related reporting standards for companies such as climate risks that will be integrated into the global International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). “We’re trying to create a common language for companies and investors when it comes to sustainability performance, which is what financial standards did for accounting decades ago,” Guillot said.

Act Beyond Ambitious Targets

The third step is that for businesses to drive a successful, sustainable business transformation, they must act beyond ambitious targets.

“To act” means to plan a future with granular insights, set targets, track initiatives, and change business processes. It means to take significant strides by “creating new, bold partnerships and ecosystems to share ESG data and best practices on climate action,” stated Sebastian Steinhaeuser, chief strategy officer, general manager of Sustainability, SAP.

In the end, “Sustainability is a team sport,” Steinhaeuser said at the Communicating and sharing data with other companies is critical to achieving a global transformation that transcends a single company’s sphere of influence. 51ˇçÁ÷is committed to supporting the execution of data sharing and ultimately provide the backbone to a sustainable business strategy. With solutions that capture veritable data, a growing ecosystem of partners, and the ability to provide strategic insights, 51ˇçÁ÷enables companies to work towards a more sustainable world, together.

Almost 700 people who attended workforce development or entrepreneurship programs provided feedback to the survey. Participants were predominantly disadvantaged or disabled youth who averaged 28 years old and were evenly split between genders. What they all shared was the desire for a better life, whether they struck out on their own or worked for an organization in pretty much any industry.

“It’s impossible to measure the impact of volunteerism unless you actually talk with the beneficiaries. Unlike traditional post-project research that can take years to get results, our remote data collection and analysis approach surfaces project impact in weeks, making it actionable faster for corporate sponsors like 51ˇçÁ÷and their social enterprise partners and the communities they serve,” said Sasha Dichter, cofounder and CEO at 60 Decibels. “With near real-time information from beneficiaries, organizations can hold themselves accountable, quickly comparing results from different geographies and using the data to improve offerings based on participant feedback.”

Having participated in the 51ˇçÁ÷Social Sabbatical program, I can attest to the deeply satisfying and motivational experience of providing hands-on support to my in-country partners at . To date, the global, pro-bono consulting program run in partnership with has helped over 450 nonprofits and social enterprises address business challenges using the skills and knowledge of 51ˇçÁ÷employees like me. But what really matters is how these social enterprise programs make a difference in the lives of the people in the communities they serve, reducing inequalities and supporting underserved populations. Accurate metrics on program results prove the efficacy of these programs and become the foundation of future deep impact plans.

Metrics Reveal Long-Lasting Improvements

Seventy-seven percent of respondents to the 60 Decibels survey said that their quality of life had improved. People in the entrepreneurship programs cited gains in skills and knowledge, along with positive changes in their perspectives, business expansion, and, tellingly, higher customer satisfaction. Professional, financial, and personal growth were the top three positive outcomes for beneficiaries who participated in workforce development programs. When asked to rate skills gained through their participation in one social enterprise program, beneficiaries ranked computer skills highest (70%), followed by communication (45%), better time management (40%), ability to navigate teamwork (32%), and enhanced professional skills (32%).

Notably, almost 60% of beneficiaries in both programs reported an upswing in their business revenue or income. Results ran the gamut from the ability to save money to strengthened leadership, networking, and other business strategies.

Measurable results went beyond business fundamentals. Almost 70% of beneficiaries reported a significant uptick in their self-confidence, having increased their skills so they could become more independent and “act on a vision” for the future. Forty-five percent said they garnered greater respect from household members after attending the program. Breaking free of parental support was a benefit for many people, allowing them to make a more valuable contribution to their home. Numerous people credited their newfound professional maturity to their experience in workforce development programs.

“It’s important to measure the 360-degree view of program impact,” said Dichter. “Getting a job and increasing your income is immediate, but there’s also the lasting experiential results that someone carries into their family life and throughout their career.”

Triple Impact of Social Enterprise Programs

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the 51ˇçÁ÷Social Sabbatical program, and I talked with Hemang Desai, global program director of 51ˇçÁ÷Social Sabbatical, who saw the results of the study as validation of its success.

“We’re committed to delivering triple impact for long-term, sustainable benefits to social sector organizations and the people and communities they serve, as well as the personal and professional growth of 51ˇçÁ÷employees,” he said. “Our program is continuously evolving to address global challenges aligned with SAP’s corporate social responsibility strategy, Most recently, that includes increased collaboration with nonprofits and social enterprises to meet sustainability objectives such as climate action and circular economy. We’re focused on scaling our efforts, using what we’ve learned to expand pro-bono services to social enterprises supporting economic equity and social justice.”

As global calls for sustainability grow louder, social enterprises that educate and train disadvantaged people for fulfilling careers that address these challenges are a potent force for positive change. In fact, I’m actively involved in SAP’s newly-launched virtual social entrepreneurship support program, Acceleration Collective. I’m providing communications coaching and consulting to , a Nigerian-based social enterprise that educates women in rural communities to become self-sufficient, turning local waste into a sustainable livelihood. Climate change negatively impacts the most disadvantaged populations, offering social enterprise programs another opportunity for meaningful community impact.

Follow me @smgaler.

As ESG expectations from stakeholders continue to grow, our customers expect us to help them transition successfully to sustainable business models. While many organizations are already reporting on ESG aspects, a new data foundation is needed to cope with several challenges.

All organizations need help with data quality and availability. Companies need easy access to data in their enterprise applications and complement these data sets with information that often exists in spreadsheets or disconnected tools. That integration must be done more frequently and in a more automated way. Finally, the resulting data foundation must be audit-ready on all levels.

51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower provides this foundation. It offers critical functionalities aligned to what customers need. It is a software-as-a-service experience that allows customers to embed sustainability into their business processes with current data and insights and achieve automated, auditable, and compliant reporting.

51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower helps them record. Companies want to measure and manage ESG transparency along the value chain. Often, this data spans multiple sources, formats, and organizations without providing the right granular level of detail and precision. Plus, many organizations are eager for their transition to move from averages to actuals to help them bring supply chain partners forward on their joint sustainability missions.

The solution offers 37 sustainability metrics on pre-built data models supporting established reporting frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative, World Economic Forum, and Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TFCD), as well as extensible data models based on 51ˇçÁ÷and third-party structured and unstructured data. It enables harmonized insights by consolidating, modeling, and enriching ESG, financial, and operational data that is automatically connected with 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA to inform boardroom and business-level decisions.

The open architecture of 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower enables customers to grow their coverage of ESG in an incremental and agile way. The solution offers regular, gradual, and automated innovation updates through application lifecycle management. It supports extensibility to the data model and a proven calculation and process engine to provide additional flexibility. In addition, it enables a turnkey integration with 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA and additional integration option based on open APIs.

is an additional option, simplifying the integration with third-party data sources and . We deliver dedicated integration content in 51ˇçÁ÷Data Warehouse Cloud for usage with 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower.

The solution also enables customers to deal with new and increasing ESG reporting requirements in a dynamic global landscape. Our customers must often report against multiple frameworks and standards with built-in quality, audit, and assurance measures. Mature companies are already moving from limited to reasonable assurance on their ESG numbers. 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower comes with analytical views and capabilities.

Customers can also use on top to gain deeper insights into their ESG scores to make intelligent investment decisions for sustainability programs and diversity spending. They can simulate outcomes and evaluate sustainability initiatives using what-if analysis and scenario planning. And they will be able to integrate sustainability, financial, and operational planning on one enterprise planning foundation.

Finally, 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower helps customers act. Executing sustainability targets is possible only when it is embedded across all business processes. Companies need accurate, actionable data so they can identify and mitigate risks in a timely way. They can also uncover new business opportunities by getting visibility across their ESG data.

Planned New 51ˇçÁ÷ and Functionalities of 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower

Later in 2022, we plan to release new features to help customers report across disclosures, starting with the EU taxonomy for sustainable initiatives and TCFD reporting. These features will focus on a high degree of flexibility, pre-integration, and rigor of financial closing. Our approach will start with top-down analysis, evolving to bottom-up calculation. We have already demonstrated a methodology for implementing the EU taxonomy with Deutsche Post DHL group, as highlighted at SAP’s German-Speaking 51ˇçÁ÷User Group (DSAG) event in September 2022.

A greenhouse gas (GHG) analytical application as part of 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower will give users a detailed understanding of their emissions following the GHG Protocol’s reporting principles. The application will provide filters based on existing organizational structures and integration with business data such as revenue and other financial data to help customers calculate and analyze carbon intensity.

For more information on how 51ˇçÁ÷helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visit .

Gunther Rothermel is head of Sustainability Engineering at 51ˇçÁ÷SE.

Many companies are responding to rapidly increasing regulation in this area and have set ambitious ESG targets. Sustainable business is no longer a question of if or why, but how.

ESG Management Relies on Data Transparency

Current ESG management relies heavily on data averages and estimates. Most companies have not fully integrated their ESG data recording and control into their core financial, procurement, supply chain management, and human resources (HR) systems. This financial and non-financial data is disconnected, stored in spreadsheets, not updated from real-time systems, and not easily shared within the company or with partners such as upstream suppliers or downstream logistics providers.

Considering that on average 90% of a business’s carbon footprint lies within its supply chain, the inability to track, manage, and gain insights from live data and embed it into core business processes can cripple even the best intentioned ESG efforts. Worse, it can mislead investors, create compliance issues, and misguide transformation efforts. Unifying ESG data provides significant gains in capabilities and competitive performance.

Companies cannot make sustainable business decisions using data they do not have or cannot use.

ESG Data Moves from Averages to Actuals

That is why we developed , which we introduced in January this year. In a market update available now, the solution offers what companies are looking for today to run more sustainably.

First, companies want to record ESG factors based on actual data, not averages. 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower easily imports cross-enterprise data from 51ˇçÁ÷systems like 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA, 51ˇçÁ÷Product Footprint Management, and 51ˇçÁ÷Environment, Health, and Safety. It also integrates with non-51ˇçÁ÷systems using a range of APIs to create audit-ready data. Businesses can integrate and analyze granular ESG data using the established structures from their finance, HR, and operations teams using templated data models and calculations.

Second, companies want to report to existing and future standards. 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower effectively shares and organizes ESG data from across the company. With complete and integrated ESG data, companies can more accurately and readily report their performance to various reporting requirements and frameworks, such as GRI, WEF, TCFD, the EU Taxonomy, and upcoming U.S. SEC requirements. Through APIs, customers can further extend the functionality by bringing in their own metrics as well as industry and regulatory content, and use other applications.

And third, companies want to act by planning with actionable insights, forecasts, and concrete targets to achieve measurable impacts. With 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower, companies can set targets, gain actionable insights into core processes, forecast outcomes, analyze scenarios and trade-offs, report progress, and create role-specific actions to improve sustainability performance.

For example, our customer Grupo Energia de Bogota (GEB) aims to transform the way it manages and reports ESG performance.

“Grupo EnergĂ­a Bogota S.A. (GEB), an energy platform group of companies in Latin America with over 125 years of operations in the transmission, generation, and distribution of electric energy as well as the transportation and distribution of natural gas across Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Guatemala, has chosen 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower powered by RISE with SAP, 51ˇçÁ÷Business Technology Platform, and 51ˇçÁ÷Signavio solutions to manage our sustainability strategy as part of our enterprise transformation goals,” said Jose Fernando Galvis Panqueva, CIO, Grupo de Energia de Bogota. “With this powerful combination of cloud solutions, our company will manage its overall holistic reporting requirements, including ESG KPIs; reduce time and effort in manual data collection and reporting variation with different regulatory requirements and timelines; standardize processes for subsidiaries; and manage and integrate existing 51ˇçÁ÷and non-51ˇçÁ÷data.”

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Sustainable Business Means Working Together

Built on , 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower provides a flexible, extensible technology architecture that can help create complementary solutions or add custom content. Businesses operating in different regions or industries will have different needs, so this level of flexibility is essential. 51ˇçÁ÷has the broadest range of global partners to help companies develop specifications and implement customized sustainability solutions.

Sustainable business is a goal we will achieve only by working together. It is a collaboration and innovation process for all of us, including SAP. We’re implementing 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower in our own business to enhance our holistic business management, create insights on the total economic, social, and environmental impact our organization has across a range of measures, and accelerate programs such as our net-zero emissions by 2030 implementation.

Transforming a business to run sustainably is a long-term process, but one with urgency. We are seeing customers join us at different stages of their sustainable business transformations. They are pragmatic and recognize that the transition to sustainability is a “marathon with no finish line.” Some are looking to quickly regain compliance with rapidly changing regulations, while others want to optimize their ESG data management and performance. In nearly every case, these are multi-year digital transformations to become intelligent, sustainable enterprises.

Since most of the world’s Fortune 2,000 companies run 51ˇçÁ÷software and almost 90% of the worlds finance and goods flows touch 51ˇçÁ÷systems, much of the data needed for holistic corporate sustainability management lives in 51ˇçÁ÷systems for enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and related applications. Harnessing this data is essential to creating and managing a “green line” with the same rigor as their top and bottom lines.

51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower is vital to creating this holistic capability. It offers a flexible open architecture, powerful integration and scalability, and support from a broad range of partners. The solution works in tandem with the sustainability solutions within , which add additional functionalities including carbon emissions management, waste and materials management for circularity, and people sustainability.

For more information on how 51ˇçÁ÷helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visit .

Sebastian Steinhaeuser is chief strategy officer at SAP.

Although internet traffic has significantly increased year over year, the proportion of electricity that data centers consume has remained relatively constant over the past 10 years, as the reports. This is because many businesses have moved from small, less efficient data centers to ones that use more efficient servers and infrastructures.

The Cloud Is the Key

To simplify the transition to the cloud for customers, in early 2021 51ˇçÁ÷launched RISE with 51ˇçÁ÷consisting of cloud solutions and services that support customers on their digital transformation journey. The response has been positive, helping the company reach its ambitious cloud growth target: by 2025, 51ˇçÁ÷expects to generate more than €22 billion in cloud revenue. 51ˇçÁ÷is working with the four largest hyperscale providers currently dominating the cloud market: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Alibaba Cloud.

51ˇçÁ÷Cloud customers can choose whether to use one of SAP’s data centers; a co-located data center; or, depending on the solution, one or several hyperscale data centers. To further build out its cloud software infrastructure, in early 2021 51ˇçÁ÷launched the Next-Generation Cloud Delivery initiative, targeted for completion in late 2022.

“Through this initiative, we are consolidating the infrastructure and the various platforms that we have today,” explains Jürgen Sattler of the Next-Generation Cloud Delivery team. “We are migrating customer software to a state-of-the-art environment, which our new customers use from day one. By modernizing our infrastructure, it will be easier for us to scale in the future, and we will be able to provide customers with better service-level agreements.” Existing cloud customers are being migrated to the new environment during normal maintenance windows, which are usually on the weekend. “Once the program is complete, we will be running in a harmonized environment on our own cloud and on the four strategic hyperscalers,” says Sattler.

Green Data Centers

As customers migrate to the cloud, data centers play an increasingly important role in making solutions available to them, and, as such, in customers’ sustainability strategies. Running solutions in 51ˇçÁ÷data centers and using hundreds of cloud solution transactions every day requires processors, memory, storage devices, and cooling systems. This requires electricity, which produces carbon emissions, and water – and generates electrical and electronic waste. Customers must often report this energy use and other metrics in their sustainability reports.

The data centers at 51ˇçÁ÷headquarters in Germany and North America have been certified according to ISO 14001. This certification ensures that 51ˇçÁ÷manages its data center operations and responsibilities in a systematic and environmentally conscious way, monitors its environmental performance, and continuously improves its impact on the environment.

Since 2014, 51ˇçÁ÷uses renewable electricity to power all its facilities, including its own and external co-located data centers. And, to ensure its use of hyperscale data centers is also carbon neutral regardless of the sustainability strategy put in place by the provider, 51ˇçÁ÷generates renewable electricity in selected 51ˇçÁ÷locations worldwide and makes investments into high-quality, EKOenergy-certified energy attribute certificates. All of these steps make a significant contribution to SAP’s commitment to become carbon neutral in its own operations by the end of 2023 and achieve net-zero along the entire value chain by 2030. In its efforts to become carbon neutral while still growing the business, 51ˇçÁ÷is focusing on a three pillar approach: “avoid-reduce-compensate.” Customers can also draw on SAP’s green cloud solutions and services to significantly reduce their own carbon emissions to help support their sustainability strategies.

White Paper on Making Data Centers Green

“Customers often ask us what we are doing to minimize the environmental impact of our cloud solutions,” says Gergely Gulis, a data center architect at SAP. “Green data centers help our customers make their entire value chains more sustainable.” A outlines the industry standards and best practices that the 51ˇçÁ÷Global Cloud Services Data Center Management team follows to design, operate, and decommission 51ˇçÁ÷data centers across the globe, ensuring their lifecycle is sustainable. It also provides the basis for the next logical steps in making cloud activities greener.

The white paper covers topics such as:

• Energy-efficient data center infrastructure and IT devices
• Optimization of cooling and, where possible, reduced cooling
• Use of a cold/hot aisle containment concept to save energy
• Use of thermal cameras to optimize air flow and insulation
• Reduction of electrical waste and increased recycling
• Reduction of water consumption
• Use of performance indicators for energy efficiency, water consumption, electrical waste, and more

Digital Companies Are More Sustainable

With 51ˇçÁ÷customers accounting for 87% of total global commerce, 51ˇçÁ÷is in a unique position to provide valuable market insights into technology’s impact on profit and planet. Following our of the correlation between digital maturity and business performance with BCG, S&P Global, and AlphaSense, we applied the same externally validated methodology from IDC to sustainability.

The results show that companies with higher digital maturity have better sustainability performance as reflected in ESG scores, which measure a company’s exposure to long-term environmental, social, and governance risks. These risks – involving issues such as energy efficiency, worker safety, and board independence – have financial implications.

After analyzing sustainability performance for 8,685 publicly traded companies representing US$47 trillion in annual revenue throughĚýS&P Trucost Limited and ESG Global Scores, the outcomes are clear – companies with higher digitally maturity have:

• 75% higher ESG scores compared to their peers in their industry
• Better individual E Scores, S Scores, and G Scores
• 24% lower CO₂e emissions

Sustainable Data Center Deeply Anchored in New Global Environmental Policy

To execute on SAP’s accelerated commitment to net-zero by 2030, which includes a special emphasis on sustainable data centers, 51ˇçÁ÷updated its Global Environmental Policy. The policy became effective on May 1, 2022 and guides SAP’s environmental action by outlining specific global environmental objectives, focus areas, and guiding principles – further strengthening its pledge to reduce the ecological footprint of its operations, its value chain, and its solutions.

As the pressure for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) accountability continues to build among customers and stakeholders, oil and gas providers have little choice but to address their complicated relationship with . The sector currently accounts for approximately 9% of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions, according toĚý. Plus, customer consumption of refined fuels comprises another 33% of global emissions.

The struggle over emissions reduction is unquestionably the proverbial elephant in the (board)room. Yet, at the same time, executives are also concerned about intensifying demand among regulators, activists, investors, and banking institutions for measurable proof and documentation of their progress. In fact, 37% of industry players, surveyed byĚý, are already planning to address increasing ESG standards by implementing capabilities to centrally store carbon data within the next two years.

Navigating a Pivotal Transition with Clarity and Trust

Transitioning to cleaner forms of fuel is a worthy investment into the future of humankind. But it’s also challenging how executives manage their information.

The process changes, business model adjustments, and diversification opportunities needed to abate emissions depend on critical factors, ranging from geography, regulations, and carbon pricing to the availability of renewable technology and reliable infrastructure. And in most cases, this information is buried in a massive variety of operational, administrative, and contractual documentation, including land-lease agreements, invoices, maintenance records, land files, well files, pipeline records, offshore assets, and inspection records.

Traditional approaches to sorting, classifying, and analyzing stacks of paperwork are too impractical for any business that thrives on efficiency, speed, and cash-flow optimization. Whether managed through a manual process or legacy technology, data and content volumes inevitably reach a point where information is siloed, easy to lose, and challenging to access. Moreover, considering how widely dispersed the workforce is currently, this form of document management only inhibits cross-channel intelligence, limits productivity, and increases costs.

It seems that most oil and gas companies are getting the message loud and clear: more than 65% are increasing their investment in enterprise software solutions and cloud migrations, as indicated by IDC research. In return, document workflows are digitalized and document processing is automated – all hallmarks of intelligent enterprise content management (ECM).

Integrated, cloud-based 51ˇçÁ÷enterprise content management solutions by OpenText are well-designed for the continuous change of content volume that companies experience. They can help streamline workflows by unifying business processes and integrating suppliers into daily workflows. Furthermore, with the inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, organizations can capture, organize, and analyze data at a moment’s notice to make asset-related predictions and recommendations and remain compliant with ESG requirements.

For example, individual departments, business functions, locations, and facilities can collaborate more closely by fluidly exchanging guidance and analytics-based insights more efficiently. Managers can also streamline processes to produce new, easier-to-consume content with greater visibility into user access patterns. But most important is the ability to trust the intelligence, make decisions confidently, and communicate progress effectively, since all enterprise information is derived directly from an up-to-date repository of documentation.

Spreading Growing Intelligence Enterprise-Wide

The future may seem uncertain, but one thing is unambiguous: the oil and gas industry has a vital role to play in our world for many, many years to come. But now it’s time to take the next step in the transformation journey by digitalizing one of the most critical areas of the back office, ECM.

And why not? Most companies are already underway by adopting new ways to automate their operations in the field and plant. And by extending that mindset to become fully aware of the benefits of 51ˇçÁ÷ECM solutions by OpenText, the balance between profitability, public trust, and positive ESG outcomes can become easier to achieve.

Ready to learn how 51ˇçÁ÷ECM solutions by OpenText can help turn your oil and gas business into a provider that leads the industry toward a more sustainable future for everyone? Read the info sheet, “.”

• BCG and 51ˇçÁ÷will provide transparency on sustainability “at the push of a button” and deliver impact based on a combination of strategy, technology, and business model change, with BCG and 51ˇçÁ÷solutions that can be ready to use within weeks.
• BCG and 51ˇçÁ÷want to help accelerate companies in their journey to zero waste and zero emissions. BCG and 51ˇçÁ÷can enable companies to achieve emissions reductions of up to 40%.*
• Early-adopter companies can realize up to 15 years of competitive advantage, generating more than a 10% market premium on shares in many industries.**

The joint transformation offering will allow companies to identify the business value in sustainability, setting the right climate ambitions and powering an actionable sustainability road map.

The 51ˇçÁ÷and BCG partnership will help companies tackle the generational challenge of climate change and respond to increasing investor pressure and ever stricter regulations. Research from analyst firm IDC shows that sustainability has become a top business priority.†

“According to one of IDC’s recent end-user surveys, three-quarters of executives involved in their company’s sustainability initiatives believe that environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are ‘very important’ for the enterprise value of their organization,” said Bjoern Stengel, the global sustainability research lead at IDC. “BCG and 51ˇçÁ÷have both been at the forefront of operationalizing sustainable transformation with their clients, and this partnership will further help IT buyers use sustainability-focused technology strategically to achieve their goals.”

51ˇçÁ÷and BCG offer market-leading solutions in three areas that are of particular relevance in a sustainability transformation — strategy, business model change, and technology innovation — to complement their respective efforts in the sustainability space.

To help companies accelerate on their net-zero-emissions journey with an up to 40% emissions reduction potential,* BCG and 51ˇçÁ÷will enable companies to integrate leading-edge carbon-tracking measurement and intelligence into their core business operations and strategic decision-making. Combining two market-leading solutions in BCG’s CO2 AI and the 51ˇçÁ÷Product Footprint Management solution, the partnership targets Scopes 1, 2, and 3 via BCG’s CO2 AI as well as an integration into core 51ˇçÁ÷software through 51ˇçÁ÷Product Footprint Management.

To help achieve zero waste in supply chains, 51ˇçÁ÷and BCG will assess the circularity opportunity in a company’s portfolio across its entire supply chain and product portfolio. Based on BCG’s CIRCelligence and the 51ˇçÁ÷Responsible Design and Production solution, this offering will enable customers to accelerate the zero-waste journey.

The sustainability transformation efforts of customers will be guided by a Holistic Steering and Reporting solution backed by the 51ˇçÁ÷Sustainability Control Tower solution and BCG’s Compliance Target Operating Model to help ensure that the transformation is driven with a focus on business value and that companies comply with all regulatory requirements.

“Sustainable businesses will create positive impacts for future generations, but no organization can achieve its sustainability goals alone,” said Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of 51ˇçÁ÷SE. “Being sustainable requires coordination across the value chain, and this is where SAP’s partnership with BCG plays a key role. Bringing together BCG’s expertise, tools, and services with SAP’s technology gives companies the transparency, actionable data, and strategic guidance they need to successfully tackle end-to-end sustainability and create value for all its stakeholders.”

This new partnership is designed to effect enterprise-wide change, spanning complex supply chains and creating business value from sustainability.

“I firmly believe that an organization’s environmental impact will soon be as important to its key stakeholders as its financial performance. Early movers in sustainability can experience up to 15 years of competitive advantage and a 10% market premium.** This is an enormous opportunity for companies around the world. This partnership with 51ˇçÁ÷will allow our clients to transform at an unprecedented pace,” added Christoph Schweizer, CEO, BCG.

The Sustainability Transformation offering from BCG and 51ˇçÁ÷is deployed at lighthouse customers right now, with an expected broader launch in the third quarter of 2022.

Visit the 51ˇçÁ÷News Center. Follow 51ˇçÁ÷on Twitter at .

About Boston Consulting Group

Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholders—empowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.

Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.

About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 51ˇçÁ÷customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51ˇçÁ÷helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51ˇçÁ÷helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit .

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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.Ěý Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2021 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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*Karalee Close, Norbert Faure, and Rich Hutchinson, “ ,” Boston Consulting Group, October 14, 2021.
**Aré, Berthaud, Fuisz-Kehrbach, Haloui, Hutchinson, Loureiro, Perzanowski, Rhodes, and Semmel, “Sustainability as Advantage,” 2022.
†ESG Business Services Survey, IDC, 2021.