The major topics of geopolitical risk, artificial intelligence, and economic uncertainty consistently circled back to environmental exposure and long-term resilience, pointing to a broader shift: sustainability is becoming less of a separate agenda item and more an underlying consideration in enterprise risk and strategy.

For leaders looking to shape the next phase of business, two major and consequential themes emerged.

1. AI is a sustainability enabler with responsibilities

Artificial intelligence was central to many Davos discussions this year, including those touching on sustainability. The focus was less on experimentation and more on how AI is already influencing operational and strategic decisions.

In several sessions, leaders pointed to practical applications where AI, combined with sustainability and operational data, is helping organizations to reduce waste, improve resource efficiency, and better anticipate environmental risks.

At the same time, there was no lack of recognition that AI brings new challenges. Its growing energy and water requirements, along with questions around governance, transparency, and equity, featured prominently in discussions. Leaders emphasized the fact that AI鈥檚 sustainability value depends heavily on how well it is integrated into existing business systems and decision-making processes, rather than deployed as a standalone technology. This was also underscored by broader analysis showing that emerging regulatory frameworks are struggling to keep pace with AI鈥檚 environmental footprint and governance needs. 

For many organizations, the focus shifted towards while remaining aligned with enterprise governance and financial oversight.

2. Water is key to societal and economic stability

One of the most prominent sustainability topics at Davos 2026 was water. Across both formal and informal sessions, leaders discussed water and ocean health as a foundational element to stable societies, economies, and business continuity.

Much of the conversation focused on the growing gap between economic dependence on water and the level of investment dedicated to protecting and managing water systems. With a significant share of global GDP in the coming decades, participants highlighted the operational and financial implications for supply chains, production facilities, and communities. According to the , 31% of global GDP could be located in regions of high water stress by 2050, underscoring the urgency of rethinking water investment and risk. 

To this end, new collaborative initiatives were announced during the week, including efforts aimed at integrating water considerations more directly into corporate strategies and strengthening ocean stewardship across industries. For example:

• were selected at Davos to boost water resilience across infrastructure, industry, and agriculture systems. 
• were launched to accelerate water finance and investment ahead of the 2026 UN Water Conference. 
• was directed at bridging the 鈧�6.5 trillion global water infrastructure gap, and commitments were made to mobilize private capital and improve water resilience strategies. 

These discussions signaled a move away from viewing water solely through a sustainability reporting lens and toward understanding it as a material risk and resilience issue for businesses.

What can business leaders take away?

While AI and water dominated the headlines at this annual meeting, sustainability quietly permeated most strategy meetings, with three takeaways arising as directional signals for leaders looking to build resilience into their business:

Sustainability is increasingly understood as financial risk

One of the clearest signals from Davos was the extent to which sustainability risks are now discussed in financial terms.

The World Economic Forum鈥檚 , released shortly before the meeting, reinforced this view by ranking environmental risks (including extreme weather and biodiversity loss) and critical changes to Earth systems among the most severe long-term global threats. The same report also highlighted that adverse outcomes from artificial intelligence are rising sharply in long-horizon risk rankings, reflecting growing concern about both technological and environmental disruption. 

While geopolitical and economic issues dominated short-term attention at the annual meeting, environmental risks were consistently framed as persistent factors shaping long-term planning and resilience strategies.

Furthermore, the role of the CFO is also evolving to meet sustainability requirements, including reporting non-financial KPIs, managing plastic and carbon taxes, steering the business, and aligning business decisions with carbon and environmental cost trade-offs. and management solutions can provide the capabilities needed to address CFO sustainability priorities.

As 51风流Chief Sustainability & Commercial Officer Sophia Mendelsohn noted during the week,聽“Sustainability remains firmly planted in both the Davos agenda and the minds of the CEO and CFO. The reality of climate change persists鈥攂oth its risks and opportunities, and they are already showing up on the balance sheet.“

For many executives, this framing reflects how sustainability considerations are increasingly influencing investment decisions, insurance strategies, and assessments of long-term enterprise value.

The focus is shifting from ambition to execution

Davos discussions also underscored a growing emphasis on execution. While sustainability remains firmly planted in the C-suite agenda, many leaders acknowledged a gap between ambition and implementation.

Despite years of commitments and target-setting, fewer than one in five companies have implemented climate adaptation and mitigation measures at scale. This is that helps explain why sustainability strategies are now evaluated more closely through the lens of financial feasibility, operational readiness, and data credibility.

In an environment where sustainability investments compete with other priorities, including AI and digital infrastructure, leaders emphasized the need for clear business cases and measurable outcomes. Sustainability initiatives that can demonstrate value creation and risk reduction are more likely to secure long-term support.

Integration decides whether sustainability insights lead to action

Data availability is no longer the primary challenge for most organizations. The tools to measure emissions, water use, climate exposure, and supplier impacts are widely accessible. What remains difficult is turning that information into decisions.

Across Davos, there was broad agreement that sustainability data needs to be integrated into core business systems for planning, procurement, asset management, and finance. When sustainability information sits outside these systems, it tends to inform reporting rather than operational or strategic action. When it is embedded, it can support more forward-looking decisions around resilience, investment, and supply chain design.

This shift toward integration reflects a broader understanding that sustainability efforts are most effective when they are aligned with how the business already operates.

connects business and sustainability data to help give full visibility across a company鈥檚 value chain, enabling it to align business objectives with sustainability priorities across areas like material choice, efficient transport and distribution, improved asset performance, and reduced carbon impact.

Davos 2026 clearly reflected a maturing phase of the sustainability conversation, one that is less about visibility and increasingly about how organizations can confidently prepare for the decade ahead.

For business leaders shaping sustainability strategies, there is a pressing need to make plans financially grounded, operationally integrated, and supported by reliable data.

Enterprise systems play an important role in this transition. When sustainability information is connected across business functions, leaders gain clearer insight into risk and opportunity, supporting more resilient and informed decision-making.

Monica Molesag is global head of Sustainability Communications at SAP.

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Sovereignty is becoming a defining factor for organizations in the public sector and regulated industries. It is the foundation for adopting AI in a trusted, responsible way 鈥� and for driving meaningful digital transformation.

At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, 51风流executives Christian Klein and Thomas Saueressig, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of 51风流SE Pekka Ala-Pietila, along with global business leaders Dr. Ferri Abolhassan and Taha Bawa all share insights on how full-stack sovereignty empowers organizations and how trust and data control fuel responsible AI adoption.

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AI is transforming how work gets done, but only when humans remain at the center.

51风流takes an AI鈥慺irst, suite鈥慺irst approach, embedding AI directly into business processes to help drive productivity, profitability, and growth.

51风流executives Christian Klein, Gina Vargiu-Breuer, and Dominik Asam, along with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy and Goodwall CEO Taha Bawa, share their insights on the importance of AI in business transformation during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026聽in Davos.

In 2026, that distinction is becoming increasingly blurry.聽Extreme heat, water scarcity, flooding, wildfires, and energy volatility are affecting cost structures, disrupting supply chains, and constraining labor productivity and capital planning. These factors increasingly show up in routine operational and financial decisions and interact with broader economic dynamics. Climate impacts intersect with聽geopolitical competition, supply-side volatility, and regional fragmentation.聽At the same time, the transition to a low-carbon economy continues to progress unevenly across markets, with carbon increasingly subject to pricing, regulation, and disclosure expectations.

Together, physical climate impacts and transition pressures are influencing how companies plan, invest, and聽operate. Many organizations are approaching adaptation and mitigation as an integrated business capability, on par with聽financial management,聽supply chain聽planning,聽or cybersecurity.

Why adaptation and mitigation demand sustained leadership attention

聽projects that physical climate risks could more than triple corporate financial exposure by 2050, driven by asset damage, supply disruptions, and productivity losses. Despite this growing聽exposure,聽however, fewer than one in five companies have implemented adaptation measures at scale.

This widening gap between risk and readiness has profound implications for CEOs and聽boards, who聽recognize this threat. A聽聽found that business leaders聽identified聽extreme weather events as the greatest long-term business risk, with cascading effects across economic stability, supply chains, and social cohesion.聽Climate risk is now:

• Financial, affecting margins, asset values, insurance availability, and cost of capital
• Operational, disrupting production,聽logistics, and workforce availability
• Strategic, influencing where companies invest, source, and grow
• Reputational, shaping trust with investors, customers, regulators, and employees

For many leadership teams, climate adaptation and mitigation have become part of the broader challenge of enterprise readiness.聽In some cases, they are also influencing access to capital, insurance terms, talent聽attraction,聽and long-term market positioning.

Going beyond the contingency mindset

A common constraint on progress is how climate adaptation is still framed inside organizations.

When it is treated primarily as contingency planning, it tends to be reactive and episodic. Plans are developed, documented, and revisited only after disruption occurs, while ownership is often spread across risk, sustainability,聽operations,聽and finance teams with limited integration into core decision-making.

A capability-based approach works differently. Business capabilities are embedded and聽inform聽everyday decisions, supported by data, systems, governance, and incentives.

Climate capability聽emerges聽when organizations integrate climate risk, resilience, and carbon considerations into the core of how the enterprise runs.

The four pillars of climate capability

1. Supply chains designed for disruption

Global supply chains are increasingly exposed to climate volatility and regulatory pressure. Highly optimized, linear supply chains designed primarily for cost efficiency have shown limitations under these conditions. Many organizations are adjusting value chains to improve resilience and address emissions. Supplier diversification, regionalization, circular material flows, and better data sharing can reduce exposure to physical disruption and, in many cases, lower Scope 3 emissions. In practice, efforts to improve decarbonization and resilience often reinforce one another.

What this requires is more reliable,聽timely聽data across supply chains, so that COOs are empowered to turn insights into meaningful outcomes.

2. Assets and infrastructure built for a changing climate

Facilities, equipment, and聽logistics聽networks are increasingly exposed to chronic stresses, such as heat and water scarcity as well as acute events like flooding. At the same time, carbon-intensive assets face growing transition risk as energy systems and regulations evolve.

A capability-based approach evaluates assets through a dual lens: physical climate exposure and carbon intensity. This informs where companies聽locate聽facilities, how they聽maintain聽them, and when they invest in retrofits, electrification, or renewable energy.

Investments in energy efficiency and clean energy can reduce emissions while also moderating exposure to energy price volatility and supply disruptions.

3. Workforce resilience as a business priority

Climate impacts are also affecting people. Rising temperatures and extreme weather are already reducing labor productivity and increasing health and safety risks in many roles and regions.

聽estimates聽that heat stress alone could result in the equivalent of 80 million full-time jobs lost globally by 2030 under a 1.5掳C warming scenario. Organizations that treat workforce resilience as a core business issue are adjusting schedules, working conditions, training, and safety protocols, protecting people while maintaining productivity.

4. Financial decision-making informed by climate reality

Despite growing awareness, climate data is often still disconnected from financial planning and analysis.聽聽that while聽67% of companies聽identify聽climate-related risks with potential聽financial impact, only a fraction can quantify those risks with enough precision to guide investment decisions.

A capability-based approach incorporates carbon and climate risk into financial models. This allows leaders to assess physical risk, transition risk, and return on investment together, turning climate action into a disciplined, value-driven decision process.聽, like聽听补苍诲听, can empower organizations to drive actionable climate strategies and unlock measurable impact by helping them integrate sustainability into core business processes through the combination of trusted financial data and granular carbon insights.

A C-suite framework for climate capability in 2026

Across industries, five leadership actions will define those organizations building true climate capability:

1. Embed climate and carbon assumptions into core business planning and governance.
2. Redesign value chains for resilience and emissions reduction.
3. Protect assets and people with predictive, forward-looking insight.
4. Align mitigation and adaptation with financial strategy.
5. Measure resilience and emissions together, not in isolation.

Together, these actions help shift climate efforts from parallel initiatives into a managed enterprise capability, one that聽determines聽operational continuity, financial resilience, and long-term competitiveness.

聽about how you can build a more compliant, sustainable, and resilient business with 51风流Sustainability solutions.

Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer at SAP.

Recent  shows that almost all organizations now use AI in some form, yet most are still at the beginning of scaling it responsibly and effectively. At the same time, there is no question that technological change continues to happen at a remarkable pace, and it demands careful guidance through constant organizational transformation, strong leadership, and the key ability to learn and unlearn.

I am convinced that the future will not be human versus AI, despite this still-dominant narrative. It will be determined by how effectively human insight, judgement, and expertise shape AI鈥檚 integration into work and society. The real opportunity lies in combining human and AI across creative and analytical domains, applying the right competencies in the right context.

Built on trust and ethical intent, AI can amplify human potential while inevitably transforming certain roles and tasks. The Intelligent Age is not about technological dominance, but about purposeful progress through human-AI collaboration.

The rise of human-AI power couples

Imagine working with a new colleague who has not been trained in a classroom but by algorithms processing vast datasets. Simply put, this AI teammate delivers speed, scale, and precision while you bring judgement, context, and creativity. Together, you achieve outcomes neither could deliver alone.

This is already happening across industries. The real differentiator is how well humans and intelligent systems complement each other鈥檚 strengths鈥攎ainly combining AI鈥檚 capacity for data-driven execution with human adaptability and vision. These human-AI power couples are becoming a new source of competitive advantage, able to solve problems faster, spot opportunities earlier, and innovate more boldly.

Yet this potential only materializes when people trust the AI tools they use: trust built not just on transparency, but on daily experience of systems that help them succeed.

Designing the new architecture of work

To set these human-AI power couples up for success, organizations must rethink the very architecture of work. Trust and collaboration are not enough if the underlying structures remain rigid. Traditional roles and hierarchies cannot keep pace with continuous technological change. Work will become increasingly fluid, shaped by skills, collaboration, and shared intelligence. Our time demands adaptive organizations that continuously learn and enable their teams to take on new challenges as they arise.

Consequently, this shift also places new expectations on leaders. As AI progresses, human leadership becomes increasingly important, not less. Leaders must design environments where human and artificial intelligence reinforce each other, and they must actively drive the effective use of AI to deliver business outcomes. This requires adopting a new model, in which leaders fluently manage integrated systems of people and AI agents. They are accountable not only for their human teams鈥� performance, but also for the limitations of the AI models they deploy. This means creating a working environment where experimentation is encouraged and where people feel supported as their roles evolve.

As shown in SAP鈥檚 own , employees express growing openness toward AI-enabled coaching and support. When AI takes on parts of the coaching role, leaders must focus on what only humans can provide: context, empathy, and the ability to inspire. AI can track progress, but it cannot build trust or shape culture.

The human skills that will shape the Intelligent Age

As humans and intelligent systems collaborate more closely, the skills people need will also continue to evolve. Research from the  and the  shows that skills have a shorter lifespan than ever before. Traditional job profiles no longer keep pace. The real differentiator is how quickly people can learn and keep up as technology advances.

A skills-led organization takes a holistic view of employees鈥� skills across the entire employee life cycle鈥攆rom recruiting and learning to talent development and succession management. Its defining capability is the ability to adapt with speed to external changes and disruptions. A company can adjust required skills almost in real time. This is a prerequisite to staying competitive and responding quickly to customer and market needs.

AI is the catalyst for this adaptability: it identifies skill gaps in real time, personalizes learning journeys, and enables talent to move fluidly to where it is most needed. This turns skills management from a static process into a dynamic system, preparing a workforce that evolves alongside technology rather than being overtaken by it.

Culture as the true algorithm

At the same time, culture becomes equally decisive. Technology may accelerate change, but culture determines its impact. Responsible AI adoption depends on strong cultural foundations. A culture of trust enables people to take ownership and try new approaches without fear of failure. The goal is to have a workforce with a true growth mindset. A mindset that is defined by the inner drive to grow turns change from uncertainty into progress. It is the ability to learn and unlearn, to let go of outdated approaches and embrace new ones.

In fast-moving industries like technology, the pace of transformation is beyond any single person鈥檚 control; what can be shaped is how we respond to it. When curiosity and adaptation become a constant core element of organizational agility, change is met with confidence.

Building inclusive and forward-looking societies

When such strong organizational cultures guide responsible AI adoption, their influence naturally extends beyond the workplace, shaping how technology transforms societies, economies, labor markets, and education systems. Whether this shift leads to broader opportunity or deeper inequality depends on the decisions we make now.

AI is already widening access to learning, democratizing coaching, creating more opportunities, and enabling people to focus on meaningful, uniquely human work. The challenge now is to scale these gains, so the Intelligent Age drives shared progress鈥攏ot deeper inequality鈥攗nder a responsible, human-centric approach.

What matters now

In the Intelligent Age, technological progress will not wait鈥攏or should it鈥攂ut it does require leaders to redesign how work and organizations function so that human and artificial intelligence advance together.

This demands a radical rethinking of structures, skills, and leadership models to match the pace of innovation. Three imperatives stand out.

• Design for trust: Ensure transparent governance and explicit human accountability, embedded in every stage of AI design; this is essential to building trust in human-AI collaboration.
• Build human capability: Make continuous learning, upskilling, and mobility the default, powered by AI insights that connect talent to opportunity in real time.
• Lead with humanity: Anchor empathy, purpose, and ethical judgment in every decision.

Technology can amplify performance and even inspire to think out of the box, but only when guided by clear intent and values. The future will favor organizations that reimagine work at the speed of technology鈥攁nd keep humanity at its core.

AI will accelerate our potential, and while technology鈥檚 advance is largely unstoppable, it is our values and leadership that will determine how we respond to and guide its impact. AI without humanity is simply incomplete.

Gina Vargiu-Breuer is chief people officer, labor director, and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

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As companies and governments face challenges around sovereignty, security and competitiveness, they need to embrace approaches that initially appear contradictory: investing boldly despite limited resources, sharing data while protecting it and competing while collaborating. These are not contradictions 鈥� this is the new operating model.

Against this backdrop, it becomes clear that organizations must adopt a three-pillar approach to navigate this new normal of paradoxes.

First, they must ground themselves in flexible digital foundations; second, embed AI deeply and responsibly into their operations; and third, view collaboration as a strategic advantage rather than a compromise.

These principles form the backbone of a sustainable way of working in the Intelligent Age, where progress depends on navigating paradoxes with agility and shared purpose.

Laying the foundation for flexibility

Progress is moving at breakneck speed. Technologies that seemed futuristic yesterday are mainstream today and by tomorrow, they could even be obsolete. To keep pace, organizations need a foundation that is rigid but adaptable 鈥� a platform that can evolve as quickly as the world around it.

That foundation is the cloud. A cloud migration is more than an IT project: it is the digital foundation for a thorough modernization of the entire enterprise, for moving from 鈥済ood 鈥渢o 鈥済reat.鈥�

Modern cloud infrastructure enables data, applications and AI to interoperate seamlessly, creating an environment where innovation can flourish. It accelerates the deployment of software updates and new applications, reduces complexity and provides the scalability needed to respond to shifting demands.

True flexibility, however, goes beyond technology. Organizations must foster a mindset that embraces change, encourages experimentation and prioritizes resilience over perfection. This means empowering teams to adapt quickly, learn continuously and view change as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Drive AI innovation on your terms

As AI rapidly reshapes how we live, study and work, no organization can afford to ignore it, yet many still have questions about how to apply it.

In the business-to-business realm, AI cannot be treated as a standalone technology. To unleash its full potential, AI must be deeply embedded in business processes. This requires three pillars:

• Modern cloud software
• Advanced data management
• A consistent stack of AI technologies

Companies that move from legacy on-premises software to integrated cloud applications unlock AI鈥檚 ability to access, understand and facilitate transactions across the enterprise. This enables AI agents to function as digital coworkers, capable of executing complex workflows spanning the business.

The power AI offers is undeniable and in today鈥檚 volatile world, this often leads to questions around digital sovereignty. True digital sovereignty is about maintaining control over critical data and assets while leveraging the best technologies available in line with national interests.

Data protection and compliance are non-negotiable. Companies and governments must ensure that sensitive information remains under appropriate jurisdictional control.

Internationally aligned sovereignty standards 鈥� such as ISO (鈥嬧�婭nternational Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) 鈥� would enable secure, compliant scaling across borders, unlocking the full potential of AI without compromising trust.

Not all data requires the same level of protection. Information essential to national security or public safety requires the highest levels of control. At the same time, less sensitive data can be managed in trusted cloud environments that comply with recognized cybersecurity standards.

This nuanced approach allows organizations to balance innovation with responsibility.

Compete with collaboration

The paradox of competition and collaboration is perhaps the most striking of all. In a hyperconnected world, no company or government can tackle today鈥檚 challenges alone. Cybersecurity threats, climate change and economic inequality are global issues that demand collective solutions.

The competitive advantage now lies in partnerships 鈥� across industries, sectors and borders. Public-private collaboration is essential to co-create AI use cases, build open ecosystems and invest in digital education. Such partnerships are strategic imperatives that strengthen our society and our economy for long-term growth.

Collaboration also extends to governance. Establishing shared frameworks for ethical AI, data privacy and sustainability will require dialogue among stakeholders with competing interests. Yet, this dialogue is the cornerstone of progress.

Dialogue: the operating principle

While the opportunities AI provides are immense, they are by no means guaranteed. The determining factor will be our ability to engage in meaningful dialogue 鈥� as companies and governments, technology experts and policy-makers, innovators and citizens.

In the Intelligent Age, the question is not whether we will face paradoxes, but how we face them. Dialogue must be our operating principle 鈥� the means through which we reconcile paradoxes, build trust and chart a course toward shared prosperity. The future will belong to those who embrace complexity, act with courage and collaborate across divides.

Christian Klein is CEO and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

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What does it take for businesses and industries to be ready for tomorrow’s challenges, growth opportunities, and beyond?

Tune in as 51风流executives Gina Vargiu-Breuer and Thomas Saueressig, along with Siddhi Pal, Anahita Thoms, and Chris Leong, share their insights and why people remain the driving force behind innovation and growth.

Learn more about 51风流in Davos.

As the world faces pressing challenges — ranging from geopolitical tensions and climate change to a global skilling crisis –the meeting in Davos provided a vital platform to foster dialogue and catalyze lasting solutions to shared problems. It also highlighted the importance of corporate responsibility, with social innovation taking center stage as an essential driver of progress.聽

Social Innovation Takes Center Stage 

Social innovation is emerging as a foundation for addressing global inequalities and driving systemic change. This year, discussions around social innovation took on greater prominence, with Catalyst Now hosting the first-ever dedicated house for the topic. This space became a hub for thought leaders, practitioners, and policymakers to exchange ideas and spark action.

Social innovation and collaboration go hand in hand, and the synergy between global initiatives and localized action is pivotal in creating meaningful impact. As a key partner, 51风流supports Catalyst Now and its Africa Forward initiative, which empowers social enterprises through digital skills training, pro-bono consulting, and policy advocacy. With more than 1,000 members across 28 African countries, Africa Forward continues to foster job creation, sustainable funding, and advocacy efforts.聽

The Annual Meeting also served as a bridge between African social entrepreneurs and decision-makers, including South Africa鈥檚 Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation聽Professor Blade Nzimande, opening pathways for new partnerships and support.

The panel featured two : Christina Mawuse Gyisun, co-founder of Sommalife, who shared her work empowering women shea nut farmers in West Africa, and Muzalema Mwanza, founder of Safe Motherhood Alliance, who highlighted her mission to ensure safe childbirth for millions of women in sub-Saharan Africa. This dialogue underscored the critical role of social entrepreneurship and what role Africa Froward can play in driving sustainable development across the continent.聽This is essential, as over 60 percent of Africa鈥檚 population is under 25 years old and projected to account for 42 percent of the global youth demographic by 2030.

While tech investment remains concentrated in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa, the continent鈥檚 potential in emerging green and digital economies is immense.聽聽聽

Global Partnerships to Scale Innovation 

Addressing challenges at scale requires collaboration across sectors and geographies. The Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, the largest coalition of its kind, exemplifies this collective effort. Hosted by the Schwab Foundation in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, the alliance brings together more than 110 organizations, including corporations, investors, philanthropists, and governments, to amplify the impact of social innovation.聽

During the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024, the Global Alliance launched the Rise Ahead Pledge. Twenty-five companies have signed the pledge since and committed themselves to increasing investments in social innovation. In 2025, they are reporting on their spending for the first time mobilized . These resources were channeled into key areas:聽

• $95 million to support social enterprises through social procurement
• $86 million in non-financial resources like pro-bono services and technology access
• $47 million to provide direct financial support to social innovators
• $29 million for internal innovation, focusing on developing impact-driven products
• $21 million to strengthen the social innovation ecosystem

We are an active partner in these efforts, demonstrating a commitment to creating sustainable pathways for social enterprises to thrive. 

Supporting Research to Shape the Future 

Research and data are critical to driving informed decisions and shaping the social innovation agenda. Several pivotal publications were launched during the meeting to provide actionable insights: 

• Unlocking the Social Economy: Towards Equity in the Green and Digital Transitions: This highlights the pivotal role of the social economy, including social enterprises and cooperatives, in advancing equity during transitions. Supporting 200 million jobs and generating over $2 trillion in global turnover, the social economy drives inclusive innovation by enhancing affordability, accessibility, job creation, and empowerment for marginalized communities.聽
• State of Social Procurement 2025: This leverages the expertise of numerous organizations to uncover new insights, present fresh data, and highlight diverse country profiles on social procurement.
• Beyond Compliance: Embedding Impact through Innovative Finance: The reveals how this emerging practice is already driving $185 billion by tying financial incentives to measurable social outcomes. It provides businesses with a powerful avenue to tackle societal challenges while staying competitive.聽

A New Model for Procurement 

Procurement is increasingly recognized as a lever for social equity and sustainability. To accelerate this shift, 51风流Executive Board Member Thomas Saueressig and Deloitte Global Chair Anna Marks announced the launch of the Social Procurement Innovation Accelerator, a joint initiative designed to reshape procurement practices and amplify social impact. 

This program combines cutting-edge supply chain technology with deep expertise in sustainability and transformation to provide organizations with a practical road map for impactful procurement strategies. It focuses on inclusive sourcing, ethical labor practices, and robust social impact measurement, enabling businesses to align procurement with broader equity and sustainability goals.聽

By transforming procurement into a driver of systemic change, organizations can deliver lasting value for people, communities, and the planet. 

Empowering Tomorrow鈥檚 Changemakers  

It is essential to maintain this momentum now and into the future by empowering young social innovators, fostering connections, and encouraging intergenerational understanding. This is particularly important because major decisions made at conferences often concern youth, yet they rarely have a seat at the decision-making table.  

To address this, we supported the youth delegations of We Are Family Foundation, ChangemakerXchange, and the WEF Global Shapers, supporting them to participate in hundreds of meaningful interactions such as panel discussions, 1:1 meetings or roundtables.

Gina Vargiu-Breuer, chief people officer, labor director, and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE, hosted a roundtable on empowering young changemakers. The session brought together corporate leaders, young social entrepreneurs, and partners like UNICEF Generation Unlimited and Junior Achievement to engage directly with youth. It focused on the unique needs of the next generation, identifying key areas for collaboration and showcasing the transformative power of youth-led solutions to tackle global challenges.聽

Looking Ahead 

The 2025 World Economic Forum鈥檚 Annual Meeting demonstrated the transformative potential of collaboration in accelerating social innovation. By bringing together diverse voices and perspectives, it reinforced the importance of partnerships in addressing the world鈥檚 most pressing challenges. 

For the 51风流Corporate Social Responsibility team, it also served as a valuable opportunity to strengthen relationships within its ecosystem, fostering new collaborations that will help drive long-term impact. As global challenges persist, platforms like Davos provide the momentum needed to create a more equitable, sustainable future for all.

Alexandra van der Ploeg is head of Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP.

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“Collaborating for the Intelligent Age” was the theme of this year鈥檚 World Economic Forum, and it aligns perfectly with SAP鈥檚 mission of providing solutions that benefit the world.

51风流hosted multiple panels and roundtables around artificial intelligence, creating agility, and more. The week was all about bringing together business leaders from industries around the globe and pushing the conversation forward during these critical and fast-moving times.

Here, 51风流executives Christian Klein, Dominik Asam, Gina Vargiu, Thomas Saueressig, and Pekka Ala-Pietil盲 share their highlights.

Learn more about 51风流at Davos here.

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WEF’s theme in 2025 is all about collaborating in the Intelligent Age.

Today, trust and collaboration are so important due to how integral AI is in everyone’s lives. With the rise of AI, one of the most important trends has been that businesses can now make sense of data that previously was much harder to process. This is creating new modes for teams to collaborate across global organizations.

Hear what’s top of mind from 51风流executives Christian Klein, Dominik Asam, and Pekka Ala-Pietil盲, as well as AI experts Andrew Ng and Irene Solaiman.

Learn more about 51风流at Davos here.

From my work at a company that pioneers AI in business processes, I hold this hope too: AI has the potential to stimulate growth and make companies more productive. It can make economies more resilient by helping businesses navigate disruptions, whether through global trade crises, natural disasters, or regional conflicts.

AI can also play a critical role in our ability to achieve our sustainability goals, tackle climate change, and mitigate its impact. While many recognize AI鈥檚 positive potential, the growing fragmentation of our world greatly reduces our ability to take full advantage of the opportunities AI presents.

AI can only be as good as the data it can access and work with. The more restrictions, limitations, and political borders we impose on it, the less positive impact AI can have in our countries and companies. AI can鈥檛 thrive in a fragmented world. This is what I call the AI progress challenge.

Tackling the AI Progress Challenge, Step by Step

Finding solutions to something as vast and as complex as global fragmentation requires us to divide the problem into smaller, individual challenges that are easier to overcome. How can we make AI a stronger tool for progress? How can we navigate the AI progress challenge step by step?

1. Begin at company-level

It starts on our doorsteps — at the level of the individual company. Cloud migration is an integral first step. The cloud makes data accessible for AI, systematically and comprehensively, and cloud solutions can easily — even automatically — be kept up to date with the latest AI innovations. What is more, integrated cloud software offers a standardized environment for data and processes. It makes it easier for companies to keep their data structured, clean, and coherent across the company — and consequently easier for AI applications to use.

2. Create an industrial ecosystem

The second step toward maximizing the potential of AI is to bring individual companies together in an industrial ecosystem. To become more productive, resilient, and sustainable, companies need to exchange information with suppliers — sometimes thousands of them — as well as with their clients and innovation partners. In the age of business AI, the need to build intelligent business networks is more important than ever. The more broadly and widely data can be shared between companies, the better and more impactful AI outcomes can be. The whole ecosystem profits in terms of added competitiveness and innovation power.

3. Build international frameworks

The third step is to build international frameworks that allow AI innovation to thrive in a responsible way. Governments and regulators can reduce unnecessary barriers to the exchange of data within countries and between countries. In cooperation with industry, public actors can also work towards aligning and harmonizing technological regulations wherever possible, especially between the key economic powers of North America, China, and Europe.

At the same time, we must build trust. Lack of trust is perhaps the greatest driver of global fragmentation — and the biggest obstacle to collaboration. By joining forces, international companies can agree on common rules for data usage, data privacy, and responsible, ethical AI. Such “confederations of trust” encourage more frequent data sharing.

Putting the AI Puzzle Together

The cloud, business networks, and a more harmonized global environment based on trust; each of these steps reduces fragmentation and increases federation. And, each of these steps can help the organizations involved reap much greater benefits from AI.

It鈥檚 like putting together a 10,000-piece puzzle. It鈥檚 not easy to start with and it鈥檚 not something that can be accomplished in one go, but if we begin by putting a handful of pieces into place, the big picture gradually emerges. As the degree of federation increases, progress accelerates.

It鈥檚 on us to put the AI puzzle together and reduce fragmentation, one step at a time. This is how we maximize the potential of AI — not just for some, but for many.

Christian Klein is CEO of 51风流SE.

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According to the , AI could contribute between $17.1 and $25.6 trillion to the global economy annually, including $6.1 to $7.9 trillion from generative AI use cases alone.

Yet technology alone does not guarantee success in the Intelligent Age: People remain the true catalysts of innovation and growth. As businesses navigate rapid technological change, their ability to continually adapt, build resilience, and create sustainable growth depends on how well they interlock people, organizational development, and technological advancements. Together, this triangle forms a transformation engine that drives both individual and business growth, ensuring long-term success. It also helps organizations and individuals thrive and create a sustainable future.

Putting People and Skills First

Even in this high-tech era, people remain the driving force behind innovation and growth. In the Intelligent Age, skills are the new currency 鈥� encompassing the abilities, knowledge, and expertise that empower individuals to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Therefore, to bring out the best in their people, organizations must prioritize skills.

The skills-first approach is a paradigm shift that revolutionizes how organizations handle workforce planning, hiring, performance management, job architectures, learning and development, career pathing, as well as rewards 鈥� hyper-personalized and infused with AI. Putting skills at the center transforms people practices, products, and solutions across all stages of the employee life cycle.

In doing so, organizations create a people ecosystem centered on adaptability and growth. From skill-based job descriptions and skills assessments to prioritizing skills over experience and degrees when executing skill-based hiring, organizations can transform their people practices. This extends to skill-based learning and development, enabling cross-generational and regional development, internal mobility, recognition programmes, as well as career pathing and skill mapping from an organizational perspective.

This approach ensures that organizations attract and engage the right talent, provide individuals with personalized development opportunities aligned with organizational needs, and offer competitive rewards that recognize and incentivize skill growth and application.

A skills-led people ecosystem helps employees adapt quickly, almost in real time, to changing demands. Prioritizing skills allows organizations and employees to drive innovation and achieve sustained success. Ultimately, this approach will contribute to overall economic growth by ensuring a skilled workforce and sustaining high levels of employability.

Culture as the Organizational Foundation for Innovation and Resilience

Under the constant demand to transform, along with competition and geopolitical challenges, even the most resilient organizational cultures can be stretched. In the Intelligent Age, maintaining a strong culture requires continuous strategic attention and nurturing.

Businesses must instill a culture that encourages adaptability. An adaptive culture acts as an internal compass, guiding employees on how to work together, serve customers, and remain accountable for sustainable results. It guides decision-making through shared values and priorities, emphasizing a growth mindset for continuous learning and developing individual and organizational capability. This helps organizations adapt quickly to market changes, remain competitive, and foster innovation.

Leaders play a pivotal role here. By motivating teams, providing clarity and purpose, they create a cohesive workplace that empowers individuals and aligns their actions with the broader vision. The result is a unified effort where every team member contributes to shared goals, fuelling both performance and adaptability.

When culture is deeply rooted and intentionally nurtured, it aligns strategy execution with engagement from employees, partners, customers, and shareholders 鈥� strengthening commitment across all stakeholders and delivering consistent results.

People Technology Changing the Game

Technology helps organizations implement and amplify the impact of their people strategies. By leveraging the power of mega data and AI in the people sphere, companies foster data-driven and transparent decisions, a critical prerequisite for workforce transformation and future success.

Mega data and AI help organizations predict workforce trends, identify skill gaps, and improve talent insights and mobility, leading to more efficient team setups and equal opportunities to employees. This enables superior business outcomes based on a holistic and transparent view of employee capabilities and insights 鈥� available to all relevant decision-makers.

Technological advancements also allow unprecedented levels of personalization, making hyper-personalization a key focus in the people sphere. From targeted, skill-based learning programs to individualized career paths, AI-enabled tools can tailor experiences to each person鈥檚 needs, offering clear growth opportunities and driving engagement by making employees feel valued and supported in their development.

By using technologies like AI effectively and ethically, organizations will be more adaptive going forward 鈥� enabling quick pivots to meet external demands and build resilience.

By interlocking people, organizational development, and technological advancements, businesses create the foundation to continually innovate, adapt, build resilience, and drive lasting growth. This holistic approach helps organizations and individuals thrive in the future, ultimately contributing to a better tomorrow.

As we stand on the brink of the Intelligent Age, it is vital that businesses reimagine their strategies with people at the center. Together, we can create organizations that serve as engines of innovation and resilience 鈥� ready to lead us into a people-centered, growth-focused, and sustainable future.

Let us seize this moment to ensure that the Intelligent Age is defined not only by technological progress but also by how it uplifts humanity.

Gina Vargiu-Breuer is chief people officer and labor director, as well as a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

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SAP’s presence at both events exemplifies the seamless connection between environmental commitment and technological innovation. The nearly 100 initiatives 51风流was involved in at COP28 last month demonstrated the company鈥檚 unwavering focus on fostering collaboration across governance, the private sector, and civil society, which, coupled with a commitment to transparency, also resonated with Davos鈥� core values.

For example, the 鈥淔rom Farm to Consumer鈥� showcase emphasizing intelligent agriculture solutions at COP28 and the WEF Collaboration Village at Davos both showed the power of technology, such as how AI can optimize all industry practices and foster collaboration across the supply chain. This embodies SAP’s multifaceted approach to innovation.

The company’s strategies involve valuing carbon assets, supporting collaborative supply chains, and actively backing local climate initiatives. Recent studies highlight how 51风流solutions can seamlessly integrate sustainability into core business strategies, giving companies a competitive edge. By treating emissions tracking with the same rigor as financial transactions, .

Navigating the AI Landscape Responsibly

As the WEF in Davos unfolded, the pervasive enthusiasm for AI became evident along the promenade. A dedicated pavilion called 鈥淎I House鈥� served as a testament to the technology鈥檚 significance in shaping the future. SAP’s commitment to innovation aligns with the forum’s pulse, offering a glimpse into how AI can transform industries and societies.

AI’s impact on the global workforce was a central concern at Davos. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns that the AI revolution could affect almost 40% of jobs worldwide, including highly skilled ones. In industrialized countries, this number could surge to 60%. The integration of AI in various industries can exacerbate inequalities, especially in terms of job displacement. However, 51风流believes the time is right to explore the implications and the steps required for this future. One of the first mind shifts may be seeing AI as a coworker rather than a software tool.

SAP’s approach seeks to mitigate potential inequalities. The company didn’t merely showcase innovation at Davos; it actively engaged in discussions to address the complexities surrounding AI and find solutions for a responsible approach.

Striking the Balance: A Global Perspective

51风流recognizes the broader, global context of responsible AI, particularly with varying regulatory standards in the U.S. and China. The discussions at Davos provided a platform for 51风流to advocate for a harmonized approach to AI regulation, which is especially relevant for the EU. The company’s commitment to finding the right balance resonated in discussions about regulatory standards, emphasizing the need for global cooperation to navigate the evolving landscape of AI. This global perspective gains profound meaning when viewed through the lens of COP28.

COP28 concluded with a landmark decision by nearly 200 countries to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems. The renegotiated text emphasized a just, orderly, and equitable shift, aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. This signifies a global move, committing nations to tripling renewable energy use by 2030 and doubling energy efficiency. The resolution proposes the first-ever phase-out of fossil fuels, accelerating coal’s exit, boosting renewable energy, and emphasizing energy efficiency. However, the resolution falls short of a complete commitment due to opposition from economically reliant countries like Saudi Arabia. And despite progress, vulnerable island nations stress the need for inclusive decision-making, as they face immediate threats from climate change and depend on global solidarity for survival.

Hand-in-Hand: AI and Climate Action

It’s crucial to recognize AI’s broader role in climate action. Scaling proven applications and technology, AI has the potential to unlock insights that could help mitigate 5% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and significantly bolster climate-related adaptation and resilience initiatives. Approximately 87% of executives view AI as having the potential to address climate issues, making it a key player in the fight against climate change.

AI contributes to climate protection not only by helping to reduce emissions but also by helping to navigate unavoidable climate change impacts and provide essential capabilities that enable climate action. SAP, alongside its dedication to AI ethics, wants to ensure that drive sustainability strategies and contribute to a more resilient and adaptive world.

51风流believes that working together and being open and transparent are key to solving bigger challenges. It’s not just about cool tech; it’s about creating real connections. As AI evolves, SAP’s dedication to a responsible and inclusive future shows the power of teamwork in making a difference.

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鈥淎I has the potential to disrupt your entire business model,鈥� according to CEO and Member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE Christian Klein.

Organizations don鈥檛 just buy new generative AI tools, they implement new technology that can completely change how everything gets done. Generative AI can help people work faster and more efficiently, but building effective teams will require leaders to prioritize trust, humility, and honesty. Leaders will also have to better evaluate what types of technology to implement and who to hire. Communication about AI will be critical to helping workers understand the technology and its opportunities.

Tune in as Klein and experts from Deloitte, Stanford University, and BCG explore how this powerful tool will transform business.

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鈥淭he wonderful thing about this generation of AI is that it is accessible,鈥� SAP鈥檚 Julia White said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need to be a deep technologist to interact with it…and benefit from it.鈥�

White joins experts from Deloitte, BCG, and StartSteps Digital Education to discuss society鈥檚 scramble to get the right people into new jobs. This involves reskilling, upskilling, and redeploying workers as well as necessary skills like critical thinking and communications 鈥� not to mention a shift in thinking to accept this new and often intimidating technology.

Tune in to hear more from White, Deloitte’s Lara Abrash, BCG’s Judith Wallenstein, and StartSteps’ Mozamel Aman.

Today, we鈥檙e at a revolutionary moment of similar proportions. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has gone from niche technology to a topic of global discussion within little more than a year. It has happened at a critical moment, with the world facing multiple geopolitical, economic, and climate crises.

While these challenges urgently require our attention, global human, environmental, and financial resources are already stretched. Generative AI, however, offers hope that we can address all these competing priorities simultaneously. In other words, we鈥檒l be able to achieve more with less.

Accelerating Change

The enormous potential of generative AI is widely acknowledged, yet there is one key area where its impact for good has yet to be fully realized. If we apply generative AI to how we run business — as a tool to transform companies, supply chains, and entire industries — we鈥檒l accelerate the evolution of our world economy into one that is more sustainable, resilient, equitable, and prosperous.

Generative AI for business can, for example, help find better and faster solutions to the questions millions of organizations around the world face today. For example:

• What steps do I need to take to make my company carbon neutral?
• How can I improve the availability of critical supplies?
• What can I do to make my business more productive and competitive?
• How do we skill and reskill our workforce to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow?

Relying on the recommendations provided by generative AI for such critical matters, however, requires the underlying technology to be extremely trustworthy — much more so than in the consumer application space.

Building Trust in AI

Trustworthy means, first, that generative AI for business has to be relevant. AI can only be as good as the data it is trained on, and the generic data used for today鈥檚 most famous large language models (LLMs) will not help companies address their very granular problems. To provide context-specific proposals, relevant AI for business must train and work with real-life enterprise data.

Second, generative AI for business has to be reliable. The stakes in business can be very high: single decisions can affect thousands of customers, colleagues, and the company鈥檚 long-term future. That鈥檚 why business AI outputs must be provided with the greatest accuracy and quality. And, while AI 鈥渉allucinations鈥� may be entertaining in the consumer world, they鈥檙e a no-go in business.

Third, generative AI for business has to be responsible. There is an ongoing discussion about how AI models trained on and working with public Internet data may infringe on privacy and copyright regulations. In the business world, this kind of 鈥済ray zone鈥� mode of operation is unthinkable.

For businesses to trust generative AI, they need to be sure their data is handled safely and confidentially. They need to be sure that generative AI tools respect and observe data privacy, data ownership, and data access restrictions by their very design, and that they operate only in areas where explicit consent has been given.

These three 鈥淩鈥漵 — relevance, reliability, responsibility — are the cornerstones of trustworthy AI for the business world. They are also key to building trust in technology as a tool to tackle the biggest challenges of our time.

A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity

As a global software company, 51风流has made relevant, reliable, and responsible AI a top strategic priority, training and working with real-life business data based on the explicit consent of thousands of customers. By design, it follows the access and privacy settings already built into 51风流databases and software.

The 聽is ensured by clear guiding principles, internal governance structures, and an advisory panel of external experts. Most importantly, 51风流is pushing the quality of generative AI results to be not just 鈥済ood enough,鈥� but to have the integrity and quality customers expect when they make consequential business decisions.

I believe there is also a once-in-a-generation opportunity on a larger scale: nations and regions that pioneer trustworthy AI for business will see a much faster and broader adoption of generative AI across companies and industries. They will reap the benefits of greater competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability. And they will contribute immensely to a better running world — much like the World Wide Web did three decades ago.

Christian Klein is CEO and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

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Business leaders might assume that more regulation in such a volatile environment would hinder the innovation they require most at this time. However, we will argue smart and balanced regulation can serve as a catalyst for transformation.

Recent regulatory initiatives like the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG), which mandates human rights and environmental impact due diligence, have positioned Germany at the forefront of ethical standards in supply chains. The draft EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) extends corporate responsibilities in sustainability, while the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) places the onus on companies to prove that their products are free of forced labor, shifting the burden of proof to importing entities.

Increased Transparency: Understanding Suppliers鈥� Suppliers

These and many other emerging regulations play a crucial role in enhancing supply chain resilience. Firstly, they help to increase transparency. Compliance necessitates extensive data collection, providing companies with a clear view of their supply chains, including supplier practices and potential risks. This has been practiced by the pharmaceutical industry for many years due to the potential for damage to human health and economic risk to the company from counterfeits or product quality issues.

Now, more industries are recognizing that transparency across the tiers of a supply chain creates this critical backbone of data and visibility.

Secondly, companies must reassess their sourcing strategies, encouraging diversification and regionalization. This in turn reduces dependency on single suppliers or regions, making supply chains more resilient against unexpected disruptions.

Although companies may have been operating in an interconnected web of global supply chains for decades, those that still do not have full visibility into their own suppliers — and those of their suppliers鈥� suppliers — are putting themselves at undue risk by not innovating. We call this tier-n visibility. This is an incredibly powerful tool for eventually reducing uncertainty across supply chains.

Enhanced Collaboration: Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Compliance, when well-executed, can lead to stronger relationships with suppliers. The engagement required fosters trust and accountability in the supply chain, resulting in more collaboration to overcome challenges. With diversified sourcing, companies can swiftly adapt their supply chains to ensure business continuity. That鈥檚 simply better preparedness.

Researchers at Cambridge University recently emphasized the need to form alliances to , advocating for more collaboration to improve resilience and sustainability. Collaborative approaches, supported by digital technologies, can lead to significant benefits, including reduced tax evasion and enhanced information sharing in the global supply network.

But let鈥檚 face it: This is an industry problem, not a technology issue. Industries need to change how they use supplier data. Instead of using it to push for better procurement terms through negotiation, they should focus on more collaborative processes.

Many industries are beginning to realize the benefits of such a collaborative approach. For instance, a car company using the open network can pinpoint faulty engine parts and trace issues back to the supplier’s supplier. Such a targeted approach minimizes recalls. Catena-X ensures interoperability through common standards, allowing data providers to maintain sovereignty over their data. With 170 international members, including major German car manufacturers, Catena-X is poised to become an industry standard.

In this dynamic environment, supply chain resilience becomes a competitive advantage. Companies that proactively embrace regulatory requirements gain the trust and loyalty of consumers, investors, and stakeholders.

Reduced Risk: Embedding Artificial Intelligence

Growing regulatory demands also require a paradigm shift in how businesses approach risk management within their supply chains. Here is where artificial intelligence (AI) plays a central role.

can provide proactive insights into the highly complex impacts of potential risks, allowing companies to anticipate and mitigate challenges before they escalate. This transforms the traditional risk assessment process, offering a more dynamic and real-time understanding. And that鈥檚 exactly what businesses need now to de-risk.

For example, understanding the impact of new trade sanctions (such as U.S. export controls on advanced computer chips), a container port blockade, or a steep increase on transportation cost for a given shipping lane offers a competitive advantage. Sensing disruptions, simulating them, understanding the impact, and then recommending and executing actions are core use cases that are optimized by AI and machine learning.

However, with powerful technology like AI also comes great responsibility. Ensuring ethical AI development and deployment requires transparency, accountability, and collaboration among businesses, governmental bodies, civil society, and the broader public. The draft EU AI Act would regulate AI systems based on risk levels, emphasizing the importance of adhering to ethical principles to ensure responsible AI use. Trust in AI solutions hinges on the responsible handling of AI technologies and adherence to human rights.

51风流recognized even before any AI regulation was available, that the speed of AI adoption increased . 51风流was the first European technology company to establish AI guiding principles in 2018 and then created an AI Ethics Policy. The company established an AI Ethics Steering Committee and AI Ethics Advisory Panel, which helps operationalize guiding principles, provides guidance for high-risk use cases. and will align with the upcoming EU AI Act.

Advanced Technologies: Turning Regulatory Burdens into the Foundation for Resilience

Necessity often drives innovation, leading companies to invest in advanced technologies such as supply chain control centers, n-tier visibility, digital twins, cloud solutions, and AI or machine learning. 51风流solutions, such as and , not only facilitate compliance but also enhance overall supply chain visibility and management.

The best examples of the dynamic application of supply chain technology are often found in the food and beverage sectors, where strict quality controls as well as traceability and safety regulations have long necessitated agile, transparent, and sustainable supply chains. Unilever’s commitment to traceability and transparency in its global palm oil supply chain demonstrates how compliance acts as a transformative force. Nestl茅’s embrace of technology illustrates how businesses can e with evolving standards. And Grupo Nutresa鈥檚 procurement transformation shows how it鈥檚 possible to while doubling down on sustainability with trading partners.

These examples show that compliance and innovation are not mutually exclusive and should be integrated, with sustainability serving as the bedrock of resilient supply chains.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.
Anahita Thoms is partner and global lead sustainability partner for Industrials, Manufacturing, and Transportation at Baker McKenzie.

In 2009, I helped launch the first cloud-based email service for business. Until then, every company had a server room and a team of IT professionals running their corporate email systems. When we started talking with companies about moving to cloud-based email, IT professionals gave a dozen reasons why they could never make the switch — it wasn鈥檛 secure enough, lacked the performance they required, or couldn鈥檛 meet their functional needs.

In time, we came to realize these were not true technical limitations. The real reason they didn鈥檛 want to shift to the cloud was not the tech but concern about the impact on their jobs, the relevance of their roles, and their professional identity. With this realization, we focused on ensuring these dedicated IT professionals had opportunities to retrain and upskill in cloud technology.

The cloud has been a massively transformative technology, yet its impact will pale compared to AI’s on people, jobs, and society. Businesses such as SAP, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations all have important roles to play to ensure the benefits of AI extend to everyone and that no one is left behind.

It Begins with Trust

Trust in technology is crucial. If AI is used nefariously, doesn鈥檛 give reliable results, or perpetuates biases, large segments of the population will not trust the technology enough to use or benefit from it.

For our part, 51风流Business AI solutions are built with the highest concern for security, privacy, compliance, and ethics. We require our internal AI Ethics Steering Committee to review every AI use case in consultation with an external AI Ethics Advisory Panel of cross-disciplinary experts.

We also have a comprehensive framework for mitigating risk in AI. This includes ensuring no use case crosses our pre-defined red lines, such as perpetuating discrimination or abuse. Our AI capabilities, for example, help ensure the use of inclusive language in job descriptions and interview questions, and we provide our聽聽for everyone to access.

Bridging the AI Skills Gap

With generative AI, the pace of innovation is faster than any other technology change I鈥檝e experienced. Tech workers, like those in my opening story, could be left behind without an intentional focus on education and training.

Companies like ours are releasing new training and tools to close the skills gap. Last year, 51风流announced an ambitious goal to upskill 2 million professionals by 2025. And we’ve seen 1.5 million new learners taking advantage of , meaning we’re on track to exceed our goals easily. But we’re not going to stop. The need and the opportunity are too great.

We have also made it easy for developers to find and use AI tools by launching . This one-stop shop provides ready-to-use AI services and tools to accelerate the development of generative AI-infused applications in a secure and trusted way.

AI Benefits Must Accrue Equally Worldwide

In January 2023, the World Economic Forum  that the division in AI between the Global North and South was deepening. Education and career opportunities must extend beyond the tech sector and be accessible to under-represented populations.

Take the continent of Africa, which is set to have more young people entering the workforce by 2035 than the rest of the world combined, where supporting education and career opportunities will result in better technological advancements and reduced inequalities. The聽51风流Educate to Employ program, launched alongside UNICEF and Generation Unlimited, seeks to create pathways to technical jobs for underserved young people in countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya.

Momentum continues to grow. This year, SAP, as part of the World Economic Forum鈥檚 , joins together with Microsoft, EY, and others to support a new working group focused on AI for Social Innovation. Together, we are mobilizing resources to address the use of AI to positively impact issues such as human rights and climate action.

There is no question AI will radically change the way we live and work. We all have the power to shape this transformative technology so it operates responsibly and benefits everyone.

Julia White is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

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Today鈥檚 world is characterized by economic and non-economic disruptions that are deeply intertwined: volatile markets, inflation, geopolitical tensions and war, the energy crisis, and climate change. No one business, government, or society can tackle challenges on this scale alone.

To reunite our fragmented world, we must change — both within our own four walls and beyond — and technology plays a key role in this.

Business Models: From Analogue Companies to Intelligent Enterprises

Faced with strong fluctuations in supply and demand, dynamic purchasing behavior and growing pressure to innovate, companies recognize the need to become more agile and resilient. But for many, fragmented process landscapes prevent them from reacting quickly to change. Data is often stored in silos and so is not equally available to all decision-makers.

Digitalization and the automation of core processes end-to-end is not only a competitive advantage, it is critical to an organization鈥檚 survival. This is not about replacing people with tech. It’s about giving people back the freedom to do what they do best: be creative. With reliable data and the help of artificial intelligence (AI), companies are better able to keep track of what is happening in their business and why. This not only makes them more efficient, but also more flexible and faster, especially in times of crisis.

However, it is no longer enough to be resilient as an individual company. This is just the first step toward a new way of doing business.

Supply Chains: From Linear Connections to Transparent Business Networks

Globalization has made our supply chains more complex and, as a result, also more vulnerable. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, about . Climate change, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and geopolitical tensions worldwide have shown the limits of our current economic models, with the impact of this hitting the agricultural, energy, and hi-tech industries particularly hard.

Resilient supply chains have, therefore, become a priority, and technology the enabler — where linear one-to-one connections are prone to disruptions, networks of many-to-many connections allow companies to collaborate with partners along their value chain and exchange data in real-time. The 360-degree transparency across the entire value chain provides businesses with the flexibility and resilience to navigate even in the most dynamic environments. They can anticipate risks and manage sourcing, trading, and distribution all the way to the consumer. They can optimize inventories, match supply and demand, and identify bottlenecks before they even occur. In case of supply chain disruptions, companies can quickly select alternative or more sustainable suppliers.

The future belongs to companies that understand how to operate profitably, resiliently, and sustainably together with their ecosystem. And this mindset, the understanding of the power of ecosystems, is one of the most important prerequisites for solving global challenges.

Sustainability: From Image Driver to Social and Economic Imperative

The recent聽 (WMO) shows that the past eight years have been the warmest on record. The sea level rise rate has doubled since 1993, with the increase over the past two-and-a-half years accounting for 10% of the total increase over the past 30 years. In addition, with growing sociopolitical pressure and increasing social inequality, the importance of sustainability is changing.

Business leaders feel the urgency from all sides. Investor awareness around global challenges such as climate change, pollution, and inequality have increased, as has customer demand by a factor of seven from 2021 to 2022. Employees are making career choices based on their employer鈥檚 sustainability commitments and track record while governments are introducing new regulations. Sustainability, therefore, needs to become the North Star of every company, an integral part of the corporate strategy.

There is no business without sustainable business, and when it comes to the planet, the connection between digital and climate is fundamental to solve human problems. Promoting digital solutions for energy efficiency, scope 3 transparency, circularity, and carbon data sharing — in collaborative networks led by industry leaders and climate coalitions — will become a powerful blueprint for future sustainable business strategy, particularly in high-emission sectors like energy, materials, and mobility.

Ultimately, collaboration and networks are at the heart of the solutions to our global challenges. In a business network, companies can not only measure environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) in their own company, but across their whole value chains. They record verified data based on actuals, not averages. They can report against a quickly evolving set of ESG standards and, most importantly, they can act beyond ambitious targets by embedding sustainability across all of their business processes and value chains. This enables companies to create fair and safe working environments, reduce waste, and decarbonize the entire value chain (scope 1-3) — providing the basis of the circular economy. At the end of the day, companies are only as sustainable and resilient as their ecosystems.

In an increasingly fragmented world where global challenges threaten to divide us, technology plays a vital role in bringing us together.

Christian Klein is CEO of 51风流SE.
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Many companies are already embracing and working with the so-called social economy.

The social economy is a referring to social enterprises, nonprofits, cooperatives, and other organizations prioritizing social and environmental values.

This commitment is a way for them to gain recognition for their engagement with social entrepreneurship and for Catalyst 2030 to raise the profile of social enterprise in business supply chains. 51风流has signed on to the commitment, achieving platinum status, alongside other businesses that include Compass Diversified, eBay, EY, Lex Mundi, and Microsoft.

Leading Through Partnership

The commitment is fully aligned with the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. At SAP, we firmly believe that supporting the social enterprise sector is the key to driving long-term social and environmental impact, creating business value, and meeting global environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. That is why, for over a decade now, we have been actively investing in this sector.

We have developed deep and strategic partnerships with organizations such as Acumen, ChangemakerXChange, Euclid Network, MovingWorlds, PYXERA Global, Social Enterprise World Forum, Social Enterprise UK, We Are Family Foundation, Yunus Social Business, and others. They have all fundamentally shaped and influenced our strategic thinking around the role that 51风流can play in accelerating the sector, many of them working together as partners and champions in the .

鈥淲hat I find exciting about 51风流is that they have internalized the lessons learned from their work with social entrepreneurs, such as the need for systems change and collaboration, and applied that to their own business strategy.鈥�

– Daniel Nowack, Head of
Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship

Our participation in the Catalyst Business Commitment builds on our existing partnership. In June 2022, we were honored to receive the , which recognizes our commitment to collaborating with social entrepreneurs and delivering work that focuses on inclusiveness, equity, and sustainability.

We were celebrated for our commitment to efforts that include our pro-bono consulting programs. These programs connect 51风流employees with social enterprises from all around the world and open up new opportunities for social impact and leadership development on a large scale. It enables social enterprises to leverage SAP’s expertise and adjust their businesses to the current challenging environment, while also refining and adapting their innovative business models in areas such as climate action, circular economy, and equality.

In fact, end-to-end impact measurement company and social enterprise, 60 Decibels, found that after a decade of impact, pro-bono consulting programs from 51风流increase . With results like these, we knew we could not keep this to a program only available to a select few at SAP. So, together with social enterprise MovingWorlds and alongside Unilever, EY TRANSFORM, and others, we , a virtual pro bono consulting platform. We invite all organizations and sectors to join us in contributing to and benefiting from the hub.

Catalyst 2030 is a global network of social entrepreneurs and innovators committed to developing the social economy. It was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020.

By working in partnership with organizations like SAP, Catalyst 2030 aims to build the social economy ecosystem, promote entrepreneur well-being, and shift the narrative, challenging traditional power structures and creating partnerships.

Jeroo Billimoria, cofounder of Catalyst 2030 says, 鈥淚f we truly respect each other鈥檚 strengths and partner on an equal footing, we can, through partnerships, accelerate change and impact.鈥�

Catalyst 2030 is a hub of collaboration. It provides a space where organizations can partner across traditional divides for systems change. There are currently 35 named collaborations, each with their own objectives as well as multiple working groups, regional chapters, and country chapters focusing on a variety of challenges and sectors.

Partnering to Eliminate Risk and Achieve Sustainability Goals

51风流has been a leading organization and key collaborator with Catalyst 2030 members for many years. They have played a valuable ecosystem building role sitting at the intersection among various groups in social enterprise and the private sector to create new market access for social enterprises through business partnerships such as social procurement.

For example, 51风流has collaborated with Catalyst 2030 member since 2020. Buy Social USA worked with us to identify verified social enterprise suppliers for our own supply chain in the U.S., which also helps to meet our sustainability goals. Based on our own experience, we introduced other corporate partners searching for responsible procurement solutions to Buy Social USA. 51风流has repeated this model both inside and outside the U.S. — for example, with Buy Social Canada, Social Enterprise Netherlands, and Social Traders — creating much needed demand and raising the profile of social enterprise for potential buyers.

鈥淪ocial procurement needs to be built from both sides. We need to show demand from the buyer side as well as incentivize social enterprises to bring the supply. When 51风流commits and engages, it is showing and encouraging demand as well as bringing their tools to help identify social enterprises as suppliers.鈥�

– Rebecca Dray, Executive Director of
Buy Social USA, Catalyst 2030 member

One of the key risks for businesses seeking to incorporate social enterprise into their supply chain is that of social- or impact-washing, or green-washing. Businesses need to know that suppliers are credible and verified social enterprises. This has, until now, been difficult to establish due to varying legal structures and definitions from country to country. To overcome this issue, 51风流partnered with Social Enterprise World Forum and Good Market to co-create a for social enterprises.

51风流has been praised for its active participation in recognizing these issues and, through its supply chain and , working on solutions to enable customers to partner seamlessly with verified social enterprises. Together, our efforts will achieve a shared goal of creating a more sustainable and equitable world.

鈥淭he global challenges we鈥檙e facing at the moment such as biodiversity loss, climate change, structural racism, and global inequality are too big for any single organization, business, or network to address alone. We must focus on our niche and find ways to collaborate and partner with each other.鈥�

– Amanda Kiessel, Co-Creator of
Good Market, Catalyst 2030 member

Unlocking the Social Economy Together

As was shared at a live-streamed session featuring SAP, Catalyst 2030, and the International Labour Organization at the , this week, every organization and sector has a role to play in unlocking the social economy. We invite all sectors to join us on the TRANSFORM Support Hub, and specifically the private sector to join us in the Catalyst Business Commitment. Get recognized for the important steps you are taking to help the world run better or use it as a guide to give you a place to start.

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

Alexandra van der Ploeg is global head of Corporate Social Responsibility 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 鈥渨hat鈥� we need to do has never been clearer. The focus is now on 鈥渉ow鈥� 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 51风流have developed 鈥� 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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. 鈥淲e 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鈥檛 a silver bullet, our evidence shows that the approach has real potential to improve the impact of the private sector.鈥�
• 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鈥檚 environmental and social impacts into financial terms. Natura &Co Latin America鈥檚 Sustainability Director Denise Hills and Chief Financial Officer Silvia Vilas Boas explain how Natura鈥檚 IP&L model creates value across its businesses. 鈥淲e 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.
• 脴谤蝉迟别诲 offers insight into how to decarbonize your supply chain: In 2021, 脴谤蝉迟别诲 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. 鈥淎cknowledge 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.鈥�
• Unilever shares guidance on how to advance inclusion and tackle inequality across your value chain: Central to Unilever鈥檚 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鈥檚 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: 鈥淟iving 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 51风流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.

When joined the Action Tank, one of the key work streams was to make the “green dream” a reality, accelerating the replacement of conventional fuels with renewable alternatives like green hydrogen. With customers at every step of the value chain, 51风流found itself in a unique position to lead the movement from a digital perspective.

There are numerous challenges to effecting such a monumental change in the energy sector, but one that requires a unique and digital response is tracking green hydrogen. Differentiating it from the other color grades — including blue, gray, and pink, which represent production methods with CO2e emissions or using nuclear power or fossil fuels — is critical to the success of decarbonization with green hydrogen.

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Digital Tracking for Total Transparency

The , unique digital software based on a blockchain approach, responds to the need to track green hydrogen. Designed to track commodity origin and mass balance quantities, GreenToken provides complete transparency of the source, like solar, wind, or water, as well as the way it is produced and its journey, such as pipeline, tanker, or transition into green ammonia for transportation.

A significant number of governments are working on their own green hydrogen certification programs. To account for the different production and delivery methods, blockchain is a highly reliable technology as it can provide holistic transparency on the origin of green hydrogen and the methods used for its production and transportation.

The technology in GreenToken works at every step of the value chain. A car manufacturer, for example, can have complete confidence in the green steel used to manufacture its vehicles thanks to the tokens that prove the energy from hydrogen used to produce the steel came from renewable sources.

Blockchain technology prevents fraud and creates trust; it makes the production of green hydrogen auditable, and therefore certifiable, which is particularly important in terms of pricing. Because green hydrogen is currently significantly more expensive than its blue or gray equivalents, energy buyers investing in the clean energy transition need absolute assurance and justification that their energy purchases are truly renewable.

Digital Simulation Tools

51风流software can also be used to simulate green hydrogen projects to both support decision-making and aid in planning.

Wind turbines and solar panels depend on the right weather patterns to produce energy, so the capacity to produce renewable energy is constantly fluctuating, resulting in continuous price variations. Energy data software plays a critical role in informing green hydrogen producers about fluctuations in capacity in order to allow them to manage their electrolyzers accordingly. Such tools are also essential for industrial energy customers to manage their energy finance budget.

An example of an 51风流digital simulation project involved a railway operator, where digital tools were used to calculate the capacity and filling speed requirements for a proposed hydrogen dual filling station for trucks and trains.

City planners would also find digital capabilities from 51风流valuable. 51风流has the ability to work with planning teams to understand the potential implications of transitioning the city to green hydrogen as its main source of energy for heating, lighting, and transport.

Rapid Adoption Crucial for Green Hydrogen Transition

鈥淚mplementing the digital tools to enable a successful transition to green hydrogen will not happen overnight,鈥� warns Klaus Schimmer, chief innovation architect at SAP.

The software exists — GreenToken is ready for implementation, but industry and governments are dragging their feet. Collaboration among countries and industries is key to setting certification standards.

We simply don鈥檛 have time to waste. This is not just a job for the energy industry; every large industry is impacted and needs to make resources available to join the dots. It is clear that digitalization can and will enable and accelerate the transition, but speed of adoption will be key to its success.

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

Christian Boos is head of Sustainability Engagement at SAP.

Despite its usefulness and in alignment with the aims of organizations such as the and the , governments, businesses, and civil society聽are cooperating on ways to curb the waste and pollution it causes.

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A First Step聽聽聽聽

As part of international efforts to fight climate change, for example, the European Union (EU) launched the , an action plan for transforming the economy from a linear one to a circular one that designs out waste and pollution. One key measure in tackling plastic pollution is the plastics tax applied to single-use plastic, plastic packaging, and microplastics.

Rather than a regional tax, however, the EU has mandated a national contribution from each of the 27 member states based on the amount of non-recycled plastic packaging waste it generates. The tax design varies greatly state by state, with some focusing on packaging in general and others on single use only. Some have different taxes for domestic or foreign-sourced plastic products. In short, member states are allowed to implement the tax in their own way, with their own rules and regulations.

The result is a an extremely fragmented landscape. Dealing with it requires the right strategy, tools, and expertise, especially in the areas of compliance and international supply chains. On January 1, for example, the Special Tax on non-reusable plastic containers took effect in Spain, imposing 鈧�0.45 per kilo of non-reusable plastic.

鈥淭his new tax presents a number of challenges for companies, not only because they will have to pay the designated tax, but because they will have to address this new process within the organization,鈥� says Maria Monasor, 51风流sustainability principal EMEA South and a spokesperson for 51风流Spain. 鈥淥ne of the greatest issues is the amount of information that needs to be collected and analyzed, all coming from different sources and, in many cases, from different countries, hampering collaboration.鈥�

Last April, the government in the UK introduced the first (UK PPT) to be implemented globally. The UK tax is 拢200 per metric ton of plastic packaging either produced聽in or聽imported into the UK that does not聽contain聽at least 30% recycled plastic.聽Like their European counterparts, UK companies face two key challenges: getting the data to prepare their tax return and processing it to make tax decisions.

A Practical Solution

As has been the case with many challenges in recent times, technology has become a fundamental element in helping companies resolve their issues. is a cloud solution created specifically to facilitate the design of products for a circular economy and to help address the entire process involved in the new taxes.

Besides working to simplify manual reporting processes through automation, 51风流Responsible Design and Production allows companies to access data on logistics and materials, including details on the composition of packaging. 鈥淲ith this tool, companies will be able to calculate and submit reports in relation to the Spanish tax on plastics and reduce the risks of non-compliance,鈥� says Monasor.

The Ultimate Goal

In the long run, 51风流Responsible Design and Production can enable organizations to increase their sustainability KPI measurement and management capabilities as well as gain better visibility into material flows across all business processes. Improved traceability helps increase the accuracy of plastic tax payments and mitigates compliance risks. The solution can also implement changes to regulations and taxes and optimize the choice of materials for packaging to help reduce those taxes and boost circularity, which is the ultimate goal of the tax.

Despite all efforts to date, about 90% of the plastic currently produced worldwide is not recycled. 鈥淭he EU plastic tax and the UK PPT are harbingers of the worldwide movement reinforcing the polluter pays principle alongside extended producer responsibility,鈥� says Stephen Jamieson, global head of Circular Economy Solutions at SAP.

By disincentivizing the use of unsustainable materials, governments are incentivizing the market value of recyclable plastic, fostering a sustainable circular economy that will have global repercussions. Estimates indicated that plastic tax contributions would provide the EU with approximately 鈧�7 billion of additional revenue each year.

These efforts are only the first steps on a long, arduous journey. While most nations agree on the necessity to curb plastic, many are hesitant about the supply chain disruption it can bring to their economies. The ones that are embarking on the journey are pioneers whose efforts will provide valuable lessons for the ones that follow. The is to facilitate the process of transforming from a linear to a circular economy and to enable cooperation between nations, organizations, and their partners, no matter how fragmented the landscape. 51风流Responsible Design and Production fills that role by enabling companies to meet their sustainability commitments, comply with legislation, and develop more circular processes.

Working with Oxford Economics, 51风流polled a sample of nearly 2,000 executives to understand how they are meeting their commitments when the value of sustainability is still a work in progress.

The 51风流and Oxford Economics study explores how executives are more eager to make their organizations more sustainable, citing increased efficiency (58%), improved brand reputation (46%), and the ability to meet customer needs (44%).

The results show that topics such as climate change, regenerative business, and diverse workplaces are on top of executives鈥� agendas. Close to 63% of the surveyed executives indicated that their company has a formal sustainability plan in place already. Many of these executives also agreed that private businesses must take the lead to achieve net-zero.

Click to enlarge.

While businesses are fully aware of the fact that climate change is a dire issue, executives are less optimistic about how to close the gap from ambition to action. Close to 37% of respondents still consider their organization鈥檚 standards confusing and unclear.

In fact, while executive awareness is increasing in some industries and nine out of 10 respondents say that their organization prioritizes diverse and inclusive work as part of sustainable policies, few prioritize these efforts as they should. Among the 60% of organizations that have a clearly communicated sustainability plan, less than a quarter include targets for diversity metrics.

Most importantly, while the survey reveals that most executives have outlined a clear sustainability strategy for their respective companies, most do not view their organization鈥檚 sustainability as dependent on outside systems. Just 28% say the success of sustainability initiatives depends on vendors and suppliers and only 27% have well-established policies for how to work with regulators to ensure sustainable practices.

When it comes to data, the study reinforces the role of data transparency and the need for integrated and holistic reporting. Having access to the right data helps leaders to identify cost savings and revenue opportunities, assess environmental impact, and recruit the best talent. However, most companies still struggle to integrate data across the value chain.

According to the 51风流and Oxford Economics study, 53% of respondents report that insufficient data management skills in their organization make it difficult to achieve sustainability; 54% report difficult cleansing redundant data sets; 55% find it difficult to manage separate processes for internal and external software; and 55% have difficulty sharing data between different kinds of software.

Many companies recognize that closing the gap for a greener future is still a work in progress as they try to comply with regulations, access integrated data, and establish a diverse and inclusive workplace. Although these goals are not fully achieved and slow in motion, these are significant steps to add sustainability to every conversation where global business and political leaders coincide.

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Claudia Cortes is part of Sustainability Communications at SAP.

The Race Is On

I have witnessed how sustainability is top of mind not only in business engagements but also in my personal life. Recently, for example, my niece turned four. So, I wonder, what world will she see in 2050? We talk about similar questions in customer meetings: What will the world look like for future generations? I usually emphasize how critical it is for everyone 鈥� citizens, businesses, and governments alike 鈥� to invest in sustainability to create long-term value.

Due to increasing awareness over the past decade about the perils of climate change, the imperative to set commitments has left its mark on all sectors and geographies. At this point, the question is not whether major companies will commit to net-zero emissions, but how they plan to achieve this target.

There are many reasons to reduce greenhouse gas emissions aside from protecting the planet. It benefits the bottom line because efficient practices reduce operating costs and help increase employee productivity. In addition, companies must respond to pressure from consumers to act more responsibly, they must adhere to new regulations, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are of increasing interest to companies, their investors, and other stakeholders.

Despite all the best intentions and commitments, significant challenges stand in the way, including the scale of economic transformation that a net-zero transition entails as well as the difficulty of balancing the short-term risks of poorly prepared or uncoordinated action with the longer-term risks of insufficient or delayed action.

A notes that the path to achieving net-zero will require a universal transformation of the global economy throughout all energy and land-use systems, with significant capital allocations, costs, and shift in jobs. And while universal, the economic exposure to the transition will not be uniform across sectors, geographies, and communities. Different industries will transform at a different pace.

The risks are considerable. Geopolitical disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in the Ukraine can create setbacks that might even accelerate climate change. But the opportunities for countries, sectors, and companies could be considerable. Nations that have abundant natural capital such as more hours of sunshine, or that invest in technological, human, and physical capital, will be well positioned to prosper in the net-zero economy.

Dealing with the Scope 3 Challenge

Achieving net-zero begins with reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the three categories, or Scopes, defined by Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the international accounting tool. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling consumed by the reporting company. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company鈥檚 value chain, which can range from business travel to waste disposal to third-party goods and services, making it by far the most difficult area to monitor and control.

According to the SBTi, , and the Gold Standard, there are several ways companies can address their Scope 3 challenges.

Scope 3 emission reduction starts by integrating circular economy principles in product and service design. Products can be designed to have longer lifespans and to be more efficient, so that life-cycle emissions intensity is lower. Circular systems incorporate more product service models, such as selling a car sharing package instead of just a car, and they lead to greater supply chain efficiency as more products are reused, recycled, or refurbished.

Engaging with suppliers to reduce their emissions — ideally in line with climate science — is another effective way to reduce Scope 3 emissions. After identifying key suppliers, companies can set objectives, maintain close collaboration, monitor progress regularly, and create incentives for action. For example, procurement choices can favor suppliers with lower carbon footprints.

At SAP, we facilitate this by connecting businesses on trusted networks to share information and accelerate sustainable commerce for impact. 51风流runs 51风流Business Network, one of the world鈥檚 largest supply chain collaboration networks, committed to scale social procurement on 51风流Ariba software. We are also helping lead industry cloud sharing transformations like for the automotive industry and tackling Scope 3 emissions accounting through the .

Leveraging customer awareness and desire for more sustainable products is another way to drive lower emissions. Companies can engage customers either directly through education, collaboration, or compensation, or indirectly through company regulation or customer motivation via marketing and choice architecture. Many utilities companies, for example, are engaging with their consumers to educate them on the importance of energy reduction or giving consumers .

Finally, operational policies can lead to large reductions in Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. These steps include moving away from fossil fuels to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and investing in low-carbon projects and resilient development. As lawmakers around the world are introducing caps on carbon emissions, performance standards, carbon pricing and taxation, companies are responding through compliance and by setting their own targets, often in alignment with the (UN SDGs). These include Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Industry Innovation, and Responsible Consumption and Production. 51风流has accelerated its commitment to achieving net-zero along its value change 20 years earlier than originally targeted.

The Power of Technology

51风流technology helps companies manage and lower global emissions, and to track and reduce their carbon footprint across their supply chains and operations. Our customers can connect data and business processes while embedding sustainability metrics into all business functions, including carbon accounting. Customers get real-time visibility into the enterprise, facilitating better insights while establishing a primary source of emission data for overall corporate sustainability reporting and carbon credit accounting.

is the technological foundation for an intelligent and sustainable enterprise. It helps to integrate and extend applications across business networks and enables visibility of disaggregated data for compliance 鈥� ESG reporting, holistic steering, and supply chain transparency.

Among our specific designed to help companies in achieving net-zero, 51风流Product Footprint Management lets companies calculate carbon footprints for their products across the value chain. It not only equips companies with the necessary insight, but can enable data exchange with customers, suppliers, and business partners 鈥� driving transparency across a company鈥檚 Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions.

makes business sense: it future-proofs growth, saves money, provides resilience against regulation, boosts investor confidence, and spurs innovation and competitiveness. It also demonstrates concrete sustainability commitments to increasingly conscious consumers. With the right guidance, tools and solutions, any company, regardless of size or industry, can make — and keep — their sustainability commitments.

Juergen Mueller is CTO and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

Responsible Value Chains

In this period of constant disruption, investing in technology will give organizations the data and actionable insights needed to enhance business resilience, performance, and sustainability. Companies must also continually rethink how to engage, develop, and support their people, and build new networks of collaboration with suppliers and industry organizations to help us uncover solutions that cannot be achieved alone.

It鈥檚 this powerful combination of data, a people-first approach, and new networks of collaboration that will drive responsible decision-making across entire value chains. It will empower the collective business world to make its largest and most important contribution: a more sustainable world for all.

Data Visibility Drives Responsible Business Decisions

Data transparency is table stakes for any modern organization looking to do business with resilience, speed, and agility. Yet the World Economic Forum reports just that supports data collection, analysis, and reporting on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. And in an , only 21% of business executives said they were completely satisfied with the quality and availability of data collected for sustainability.

By embedding metrics that measure climate risk, carbon emissions, and waste and pollution, among others, into business operations and across both upstream and downstream supply chains, organizations can access a continuous view of financial, social, and environmental data that manual processes simply cannot offer. What鈥檚 more, effective use of cloud-based data management and analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) can help companies gain the visibility needed to better manage value chain disruption through actionable insights and faster, more responsible business decision-making.

People Sustainability Must Be a Business Imperative

The disruption we have faced over the past two years has deeply impacted an organization鈥檚 most important asset: its people. We鈥檝e coped with health concerns, new ways of remote working, and humanitarian crises, all of which have rightfully prompted leaders to prioritize the needs of their people in new and impactful ways. But there are also longstanding issues — equal access to education and training as well as fair and equitable labor rights — that global organizations must continually address to secure a more sustainable future.

Access to diverse, skilled, and engaged employees is a massive challenge in many global markets. The World Economic Forum predicts that 鈥� more than 1 billion workers will need re-skilling by 2030. Equally as important are purpose-driven company cultures with a clearly defined value set for long-lasting social impact. Building a more diverse and inclusive culture, for example, boosts engagement and productivity, drives innovation, and attracts and retains talent.

Today鈥檚 worker experiences necessitate a culture of psychological safety and business beyond bias across every workplace touch point, an approach that must go beyond an organization鈥檚 full-time employees. As new legislation across the globe requires organizations to more consistently and systematically address human rights issues, business leaders will need to implement new supplier selection processes and policies, as well as data-based monitoring and validation mechanisms across an organization鈥檚 entire value chain, to help ensure the fair and equitable treatment of not only employees but also contingent and supply chain labor.

Technology is critical to tackling these challenges. Today鈥檚 cloud-based human capital management and digital learning solutions can empower organizations to scale and prioritize re-skilling and upskilling efforts, build more diverse, equitable, and inclusive hiring and internal mobility practices, and keep pace with changing legislation to help ensure compliance of responsible human rights practices for workers both inside and outside of the company.

Technology Is Table Stakes

Responsible value chains prioritize data, people, and collaboration 鈥� technology can help organizations address all three.

Greater visibility and intelligence across the enterprise allows for more informed and sustainable business decisions, from ethical and diverse sourcing, labor and human rights, and skills enhancement to carbon emissions management and materials management.

Coming together as a community to ensure we address these issues systematically and consistently will help us better manage disruption and lay the foundation for business progress and a more sustainable world for future generations.

Julia White is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

At SAP, we are convinced that technology will help to turn this challenge into a big opportunity for companies that lead the way. That is why we launched 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises, with dedicated solutions to provide the transparency that is urgently needed to enable a circular economy.

Circularity Makes Sense

Our consumption of natural resources has devastating effects for humans, wildlife, and the planet. It is more urgent than ever to shift from linear take-make-waste models to a circular economy, where waste and pollution are designed out, products and materials are kept in use for longer, and natural systems can regenerate. A circular economy isn鈥檛 just about fixing environmental wrongs; it is about making sustainability profitable and profitability sustainable across industries, sectors, and lives.

The packaging sector is a good example. According to Statista,聽more than were shipped in 2020, and the number is rising. This packaging frustrates retailers and consumers and causes untold environmental damage. The good news is that principles such as designing for reuse and recycling are gaining ground in the industry.

One exemplary company is聽, which offers retailers everything they need, including reusable packaging, reverse logistics, visibility, and analytics. As a聽, LimeLoop has helped divert more than 1 million single-use packages from landfills. Its customers report a 53% increase in customer engagement, 93% savings on resources, including trees, water, and oil, and 41% savings on packaging and inventory.

Rental, repair, and resale models are also gaining ground in the retail industry. Furniture manufacturer and retailer IKEA has launched several in the last few years. Lizee, the re-commerce software company, is on a mission to 鈥渢ransform the retail industry 鈥� by helping聽retailers聽move from聽. Its clients, which聽include brands聽such as聽Decathlon and adidas,聽don鈥檛 have to start from scratch to build a rental and resale business model. Lizee provides the technology systems that will help them become even more successful in e-commerce and more sustainable at the same time.

Taking Responsibility

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws play a key role. These regulations help ensure that the manufacturer of a product is responsible for its ultimate recycling, reuse, or disposal. Additionally, there has been a surge in plastic taxes, which impose a charge on companies using materials that do not contain a certain amount of recyclable content.

Lizee鈥檚 circular economy offering helps retail companies comply with that forbid the destruction of goods that have not been sold. The ban is part of a wide-ranging anti-waste law passed by the French parliament last year, and pressure is growing throughout the European Union to implement similar regulations.

In the past, manufacturers used to design products based on cost and performance as the key selling points; going forward, they will focus on sustainability and recyclability. This change is driven by customer demand, the availability of technology, and the new regulatory environment.

This is great news for the planet but poses a market-by-market challenge especially for large producers, because it is very difficult to adhere to regulations on their products in different geographies. Manufacturers embarking on transformational journeys are challenged by complex supply chains, heavy assets, and legacy technology.

In fact, managing the life cycles of thousands of products and tens of thousands of materials across hundreds of regulatory systems in multiple regions is one of the greatest challenges facing global brands in the years ahead. helps enterprises follow regulations and tackle the complexity of moving away from a take-make-waste linear economy to a circular one that is designed to reuse, repurpose, and recycle.

Understanding Materiality

Along with the focus on responsible production, investors are increasingly applying environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors as part of their analysis process to identify risks and opportunities.

In its recent , PwC found that 49% of investors globally would divest from companies that are not taking sufficient action on ESG issues, and 79% identified a firm鈥檚 management of ESG risks and opportunities as an important factor in investment decision-making. Since June 2021, about one in three dollars managed globally was invested with some form of ESG strategy 鈥� more than $35 trillion in total.

Materiality, a measure of how important a piece of information is when making a decision, plays a key role in how ESG factors are weighted. Factors differ based on industries and can influence financial fundamentals. In the case of airlines, for instance, material ESG factors would include fuel efficiency, carbon emissions, and health and safety practices, which would have a bigger impact on bottom line and consumer expectations compared to issues such as child labor.

The importance of materiality was highlighted in a recent survey by 51风流Insights,聽. The survey found that companies that believe sustainability is material to their businesses — meaning it is likely to affect their financial condition or operating performance — are transforming their companies and achieving better business results than the those that don鈥檛 believe sustainability is material. Those companies that can see are the ones that will enjoy long-term growth.

Unlocking Economic and Social Value

One great example of a circular, regenerative approach that helps retailers pursue the path to zero waste and remain profitable at the same time can be found in fashion retail, . Recognizing the huge value of waste, Stephanie Benedetto, a former attorney with a background in New York鈥檚 garment industry, created聽 a marketplace for buying and selling unused textiles that would otherwise be burned or buried.

Benedetto realized that retailers often become paralyzed when faced with objectives like becoming 100% sustainable by 2030. She started helping them pinpoint the valuable waste in their supply chain, such as unused inventory and deadstock, and sell it on the marketplace.

Sales of unused inventory can be used to pay workers better wages and to buy innovative technology and sustainable materials — all without increasing overall capital expenditures.

Benedetto believes technology and the use of existing data, such as supply chain data from an 51风流solution, can help solve the waste problem. Data shows where the waste comes from, what it鈥檚 made of, and where it goes. Using supply chain software, powered by technologies such as automated machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain can turn a linear business model into a circular model that protects the environment while driving financial value.

Companies like Queen of Raw, Lizee, and LimeLoop are recognizing the risks and the opportunities in today鈥檚 climate-changing world. By offering clear strategies, circular models, and innovative tools and solutions, they are helping their customers reach their targets for zero waste, zero emissions, and zero inequality.

The way business runs today is not sustainable and transitioning to sustainable business is the greatest social and economic opportunity of our time. Businesses need to put sustainability at the core of their strategies and use technology to manage the 鈥済reen line鈥� through their business. With 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises, 51风流helps reinvent companies into sustainable enterprises that use the power of data, networks, and partnerships to achieve their targets.

Sebastian Steinhaeuser is chief strategy officer at SAP.

Decisions based on sustainability principles are crucial to navigate today鈥檚 complexities, cope with near-term strains, and adapt to a changing global system — all while creating the foundation for growth in the years ahead.

There are three concepts that leaders must prioritize as they chart their course to sustainable business:

1) Accelerate Renewable Energy Use

Europe is reliant on fossil fuels. Prior to the war in Ukraine, Europe imported about 40% of its gas and more than a quarter of its oil from Russia. While the EU has turned its back on Russian coal, it is struggling to agree on how and how much to boycott Russian oil and gas. Many countries are looking for alternative sources, with the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and other producers filling the gap.

The industrial sector uses about 54% of the , more than any other sector. More than is still produced by fossil fuels. It is clear that in the short term. The war will likely extend fossil fuel use, putting the timeline to reach net-zero emissions at risk. If we are to avoid slowing or reversing our progress toward our net-zero goals, the private sector must accelerate its transition to renewable energy use.

Renewable energy costs have decreased dramatically over the past 20 years, and use has increased accordingly. However, to achieve a secure, sustainable, and economically feasible energy system, government and business leaders need to work together to form policy and finance environments that encourage rapid uptake.聽, coupled with energy-efficiency solutions, are essential to reduce emissions.

Companies must聽 and support the deployment of renewable energy sources, which are largely domestic, safer, more secure, and less costly at scale. To this end, they can prioritize self-produced energy or commit to using 100% renewable electricity. They can form partnerships to develop renewable energy infrastructure projects, and join coalitions like the RE100.

2) Participate in Collaborative Networks

Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine has increased the instabilities of global supply chains and intensified the scarcity of important resources. Developing stable, reliable, and sustainable supply chains require data-rich,聽. These networks will provide the transparency to better manage resource availability, offer essential products and services, address unethical conduct, and reduce environmental impacts.

For example, more than 30% of worldwide food produced is lost or wasted because of inaccurate demand calculations or transport issues. Ukraine has large lithium oxide deposits. With batteries being the most expensive part of electric vehicles, rising prices of nickel and lithium can slow market adoption.

The conflict may also give rise to unethical labor practices, making monitoring human rights and working conditions across supply chains crucial. With sustainability-centered planning and technologies, governments, companies, and NGOs are better prepared to manage crisis response; for example, in case of natural disasters or social emergencies.

Industry data networks like Catena-X and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Carbon Transparency Pathfinder enable companies to manage sustainability performance across supply chains. This includes materials sourcing, accumulated carbon emissions in products, and reusability at a product鈥檚 end-of-cycle.

3) Leverage Sustainable Finance

Business leaders often assume that being more sustainable means being less profitable.聽. Transforming to a low-carbon, low-waste, low-inequality economy and leveraging聽聽represents a massive opportunity.

The capital markets are greening. Sustainable bonds are surging, and a majority are now corporate issuers. Sustainable lending grew by 300% last year. Companies with sustainable credentials are increasingly becoming targets for M&A deals. Despite equity market swings, equity values of sustainable companies were up 46% on average in 2021.

Financing the transition to sustainable companies and economies means business leaders must move away from prioritizing only shareholder returns to a broad set of stakeholders, including employees, communities, customers, partners, regulators, and, importantly, nature. Sustainable finance can accelerate business investments in nature-based solutions like protecting forests and other carbon sinks to regenerating ecosystems and supporting biodiversity.

Increased environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting standards force companies to accurately collect, organize, and report their impacts to multiple standards. Investors want greater disclosure as they see not only regulation but trends in consumer and employee demand. They want more sustainable products, services, policies, and business performance; they want to work for responsible companies, and they are more engaged. and stabilize employment.

And this week, as I join many of the world鈥檚 business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I have never been more certain that people and technology will continue to be the essential resources for achieving these objectives and all of the (UN SDGs).

Humanity is entering one of its most transformative phases ever. OECD estimates, however, warn of a . Research shows that there could be a . One-third of all jobs worldwide may be transformed by technology in the next decade. The world鈥檚 young people will need a strong digital foundation to meet the challenges of the future.

Tech Skills Shortage

51风流technology will be at the center of much of the world鈥檚 transformation and the pursuit of the UN SDGs. While many companies and government agencies are introducing the new generation of 51风流software, we see a corresponding, clear need to add more 51风流technical specialists to the workforce.

For this reason, we are making major commitments to building 51风流software skills across the workforce. I am proud to say that, in addition to the open online courses that are available on the platform, 51风流recently rolled out an expanded repertoire of free, open content on the site for anyone who wishes to earn 51风流credentials. We invite and encourage people to join our business ecosystem of existing 51风流technical specialists.

Training is now available in a variety of formats, for free, to
anyone who wishes to earn 51风流specialist credentials

Getting the 51风流Skills

51风流has made a commitment to flexibility, inclusion, creativity, and reducing the barriers to entry for 51风流technical training.

We know that today鈥檚 learners want more than traditional classroom training. They also want virtual, experiential, peer-to-peer, and self-paced learning experiences. That is why 51风流training is available in a variety of formats. Our approach is to place the learner at the center of their own learning experience through high-quality digital learning, expert-led instruction, microlearning, and podcasts.

Here are some resources that are available now.

• 51风流Learning: We recently more than doubled the free content on this platform.
• Student Zone: This new resource through 51风流Learning is available to any student, anywhere, globally. It provides access to to prepare for a career in the 51风流ecosystem. Students in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region are already pursuing through Student Zone in collaboration with .
• : Free, expert-led learning options for 51风流experts or beginners.

Success Stories

51风流already interacts with more than 650,000 active learners every year on our learning platforms.

One of our success stories comes from , an independent, nonprofit organization. NS2 Serves provides U.S. military service members with a three-month, free 51风流training curriculum to support their transitions to civilian careers. Training also includes non-technical skills, such as communication and public speaking. There is a 99% job placement rate for graduates of this program.

The benefits of IT credential-building include greater career opportunities and earning potential, as well as increased professional confidence and job satisfaction. 51风流training offerings are also a superb resource for companies that need to adopt technology domains, such as computational infrastructure and platform services, security, storage, database, digital workplace, and IT automation.

Achieving the UN SDGs will require great 51风流technology and people skilled in implementing it. I am thrilled to see the growth of SAP鈥檚 learning platforms and the that we believe will encourage and attract new SAP-credentialed specialists.

I can鈥檛 wait to see how our platforms and programs will give people the skills they need to accelerate digital transformation today and for future generations.

Sabine Bendiek is chief people and operating officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

For this year鈥檚 journey to Davos, 51风流executives Christian Boos, head of Sustainability Engagement for New Ventures and Technologies; Stefan Schoepfel, co-head of the Intelligent Enterprise Institute; and Joerg Barten, head of Strategic Service Engagements MEE and EMEA, decided to ride their e-bikes all the way from Walldorf. Inspired by riding e-bikes to the office daily, they wanted to share their experiences with business travel and further pursue the idea of sustainable commuting through their “Ride4NetZero.”

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The world of sustainable transportation brings a socio-cultural transformation that goes beyond a sustainable approach; it paves the way to a new reality based on innovation and empathy. The idea of smart cities with integrated transportation systems that allow citizens to travel long distances while considering ecofriendly commuting alternatives is closer than we think. However, until we get there, it is up to us to create awareness of climate protection by acting as pioneers, allies, and game changers in the corporate environment.

E-Bike Tour Promoting Sustainability

The amount of information regarding the impact of carbon emissions on the environment is exponentially increasing and the consequences of climate change are more and more visible. Despite this, unsustainable modes of transportation continue to be used.

Environmental experts agree that digitization, data transparency, and focused action are needed to achieve climate goals. But climate neutrality cannot be achieved single-handedly. The unconventional — even revolutionary — Ride4NetZero is giving people something to think about while taking a stand in favor of climate action.

The World Economic Forum usually takes place during the winter in Switzerland, so while a bike tour under pleasant conditions was not possible previously, this year is different.

Having departed from 51风流headquarters in Walldorf on May 18, the participants are riding more than 400 kilometers in four days. The sustainability adventure offers the opportunity to not only exercise, but also to meet customers, partners, and others along the way, exchanging ideas and gaining insights into ongoing sustainability projects — intelligent solutions on green hydrogen as a propulsion technology, EU taxonomy in the context of the EU Green Deal, a solution that helps reduce food waste while massively lowering energy consumption, and more.

In 2020, 51风流CEO Christian Klein embraced and championed the cause of 鈥済reen traveling鈥� by taking on the same journey to Davos via an electric car. Klein鈥檚 tour was dedicated to electro-mobility and the infrastructure of charging stations. This year, Boos and Schoepfel plan to broaden the topics of discussion and embrace a full sustainable experience.

Sustainable Change Can Only Succeed Together

At Davos a panel discussion on 鈥�New Business Models for a More Sustainable Future鈥� will take place. Participants will include executive members from SAP, customers, and partners, such as Claudio Muruzabal, president of Cloud Success Services at SAP; Judith Wallenstein, managing director and senior partner at BCG; Bettina Petzhold, global head of Marketing at Lufthansa Cargo; and Claudia Malley, president and managing director of Partnerships at the Economist Impact. This discussion will aim to increase awareness for intelligent choices driven by intelligent solutions based on the right insights, built on personal commitment, and that enable collective action to help advance the sustainability agendas of businesses and societies at large.