In our effort to align with the to build a 鈥減eaceful, sustainable, and promising future for all,鈥� we look to the following priorities to influence our decision-making and inspire others to take action in incorporating positive economic, social, and environmental impact into their end-to-end businesses.

1. The Benefits of Ecosystem Building

At the crux of gatherings like UNGA 79 and Climate Week is bringing the top minds and leaders in government, private, social, and academic sectors together to discuss collaborative solutions to pressing issues. Understanding the value of working together to create networks of resources enables sharing knowledge, funding, or diverse perspectives with each other to achieve your goals.

Multilateral partner ecosystems offer an opportunity to play to each other鈥檚 strengths. For example, 51风流is not the expert in creating social and environmental impact; that expertise resides within the social sector. However, 51风流understands the critical role technology can play in creating promising results in addressing issues like climate change and creating a more . At the same time, governments set the guidelines for policies that influence climate action. Each of us has a role to play and it is important to understand how we can best work together to deliver results and accelerate change.

When participating in conversations on key global issues, like climate change, remember that collaboration between government, private, and social sectors is paramount in catalyzing a positive shift in business to make progress on the .

2. The Importance of Education

Education is a fundamental human right and a key driver in economic development. Next to partnership, prioritizing education and skills development is necessary to remain resilient in a rapidly changing world and help bridge the digital divide in under-resourced communities. Yet, it is not often a topic of conversation at convenings like Climate Week.

Climate disasters disrupt the education of nearly and continues to increase. The skills gap is growing. More than half the workforce have jobs that do not match their education level or help citizens adapt to climate change and the green transition. Universal education has an impact on climate change. Financing education can significantly reduce carbon emissions, up to 51.48 gigatons by 2050 in low and lower-middle income countries. Young impact entrepreneurs known as also see climate action as one of the most important issues they face and use education as a tool 鈥淸鈥 for reducing inequalities and creating change.鈥�

During Climate Week conversations with partners like UNICEF鈥檚 , 51风流is hoping to collaborate across sectors and embrace innovative strategies to educate and foster a new generation of environmentally skilled workforces. By building cross-sector collaboration in areas like education, we gain access to new perspectives in social innovation and a wider talent pool as we work toward a more fair, sustainable world.

Advocating for education initiatives and partnerships within climate conversations is important. Education underpins the vitality of the broader business ecosystem, nurtures the next generation of talent, and creates a pathway to environmental progress.

3. The Opportunity of Intergenerational Leadership

When discussing ecosystem building and education, we cannot forget young voices. Young people are at the frontline of issues like climate change, but often fail to appear in key decision-making spaces. 51风流embraces the idea of intergenerational collaboration, bringing together diverse perspectives across the business. For example, , with support in part from SAP, conducted a in which 96% of respondents believed intergenerational collaboration holds significant value and can generate positive change when faced with global challenges.

Youth offer intersectional voices that hold a unique moral authority over issues like climate justice. In addition, they bring innovative and tech-driven approaches as digital natives in an everchanging world. When private, public, and social sector organizations tap into the potential of young experts, business and the world as a whole benefit.

With more than half the world under the age of 30, it鈥檚 imperative to ensure equitable representation of youth voices during the upcoming convenings, like and .

For more information on how 51风流is helping the world run better and improving people鈥檚 lives all year round, visit .

Selina Henn is a strategy and operations associate for Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP.

The SDG Summit takes center stage at UNGA this year, a crucial gathering that occurs every four years. This year’s summit holds particular significance for many, including SAP, as it signifies the midpoint toward the 2030 target for implementing the (SDGs). Adding to the prominence of the agenda is the UN Secretary-General’s assertive Climate Ambition Summit and a trio of high-level health meetings.

As 51风流anticipates the start of UNGA 78, we find ourselves at a pivotal juncture in our commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). On September 5, 2023, global leaders will converge in New York under the theme 鈥淩ebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs toward peace, prosperity, progress, and sustainability for all.”

As a Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) constituent, the cornerstone of SAP鈥檚 social investment strategy rests on recognizing that our responsibility transcends traditional acts of charity. Although the DJSI recognizes 51风流as the industry benchmark for social responsibility, UNGA provides a platform to assess and reflect on our journey so far, and also to chart a course that truly accelerates our dedication toward empowering social innovators, nurturing future skills, and paving the way for a collaborative approach to sustainability.

In our experience, the best way to accelerate change is to be open to new approaches, For that we engage with social innovators and young leaders, and also prepare future leaders with the skills needed to be successful in this unpredictable world.

Sustainable partnerships — especially those focused on youth — are at the heart of us making progress in our KPIs around the UN SDGs, particularly when it comes to Quality Education.

Our partnership with UNICEF in support of Generation Unlimited (GenU) is one of our largest investments to date. As part of this partnership, SAP鈥檚 support will help expand the reach of Youth Agency Marketplace (YOMA), GenU’s signature program, in Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, and South Africa, equipping youth with essential skills for employment. This partnership also supports the 51风流Educate to Employ initiative, aimed at educating youth in need on skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values to build their competencies for the digital economy. Since the beginning of 2023, more than 500,000 young people have been reached through different communication channels, with more than 50,000 incremental signups on YOMA. Additionally, 400 young people are being selected for training under 51风流Educate to Employ.

Further to this, our long-standing partnership with the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) also stands as a testament to our dedication to collaborative sustainability. Through WAFF’s Youth To The Table (YTTT) program, 51风流contributes to inter-generational dialogues that empower young changemakers. YTTT’s role in bringing young individuals to the forefront of pivotal global discussions — including UNGA, COP, and WEF — reinforces our joint belief in fostering meaningful opportunities for youth to influence decision-making processes across sectors.

The youth delegation at UNGA 78 includes an inspiring and diverse panel of changemakers from South Africa, North Macedonia, Brazil, Ireland, the U.S., Brazil, Israel/Palestine, Nepal, and India. If you would like to assist these delegates in their efforts to build a more sustainable world, you can lend your voice to WAFF鈥檚 on inter-generational leadership by . Your contributions can help to derive insights, document challenges, and define best practices for working better together.

We are hopeful you can join in alongside our collaborative partnerships. After all, they are the bedrock of our progress. UNGA 78 offers an ideal platform for greater collective sustainability efforts. By working closely with governments, NGOs, academia, and local communities, we co-create solutions that address the most pressing global challenges.

The work cannot simply last for two weeks each fall in New York City, it must be embedded into all that we do throughout the year.

As we gear up for UNGA 78, we acknowledge that our social impact journey consists of much more than symbolic gestures. It is about being catalysts of transformation, accelerating social business, fostering future skills, and nurturing collaborative sustainability.

This year’s theme of rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity resonates deeply with our chosen SDGs. Let us seize this opportunity to redefine the essence of CSR in the context of accelerating action, progressing toward peace and prosperity, and ensuring a sustainable future for all.

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

The World Economic Forum suggests that young people already in the labor market should be upskilled or reskilled. For those yet to enter, the education curriculum must undergo serious scrutiny to align with the .

Tomorrow鈥檚 Skills Are Needed Today

According to the World Skills Clock by the Education Commission, 67% of the world’s youth are without digital skills. If not addressed, the gap between what is taught and what is needed could widen further, exacerbating the global youth unemployment crisis.

The first step in resolving this issue is knowing which roles are in demand and which ones are slowly fading away. For example, there has been a decline in the need for accountants, bookkeepers, data entry clerks, and general operation managers, but a , such as digital marketers, software developers, business developers, and information security analysts.

The shifts in demand for green and digital skills do not come in isolation; they come with the wave of digitization, automation, and environmentally conscious industries.

Collaboration Closes the Gap

Governments worldwide understand the long-term impact of skills mismatch on businesses and the global economy. For instance, the European Commission has set targets to ensure that . For Africa, the Western and Central Africa Regional Education Strategy proposes an ambitious target of training at least 1 million more young people in digital skills by 2025, with the goal for .聽 The (ASEAN) published nine recommendations in an attempt to reverse the negative impact caused by school closures related to COVID-19, which affected more than across its member states, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

But governments cannot close the gap alone. They need to work with businesses and non-profit organizations to protect the future of young people, economies, and businesses. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) help by delivering unprecedented cooperation and collaboration among civil society, business, government, and NGOs in .

Beyond government targets, a shining example of public-private partnerships is the one between 51风流and UNICEF, which aims to upskill young people and connect them to employment, entrepreneurship, and social impact opportunities. To date, 3 million young people in India, Turkey, and Vietnam have been reached. More work is needed globally to help empower marginalized youth for employment.

UNICEF/GenU programs in the regions focus on upskilling teachers, as they are the carriers of our educational vision. Vietnam is an excellent example of SAP鈥檚 support in enabling UNICEF to launch an augmented virtual reality and gamification in teaching and learning programs. Through these programs, 432 teachers have been trained in introducing visual and interactive science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning to their students, building teachers鈥� capacities to use innovative teaching tools.

Over the next three years, SAP, UNICEF, and GenU will continue to pilot a program that supports learning to earning pathways in the digital and green economies for under-served young people, empowering them with both hard and soft skills needed to flourish in the changing global economy.

The new program will be piloted in early 2023 鈥� leveraging Youth Agency Marketplace (Yoma), a GenU signature solution 鈥� in Nigeria, the Philippines, and South Africa. The aim is to provide more than 500,000 young people with foundational and digital skills acquisition opportunities by the end of the first year to transform their life trajectories . The partnership will also support SAP’s educate to employ initiative, which aims to educate youth between the ages of 16 and 24 years on soft skills, foundational knowledge, and 51风流skills using the , where students can learn about the latest 51风流solutions for free in order to kickstart their careers.

The skills mismatch crisis is not just about bridging the gap between education and the world of work. Instead, it is about finding a solution to global unemployment, increasing the competitiveness of economies, and enhancing their attractiveness to investors, all of which are essential for growth. Businesses and communities must continue to unite and work together to ensure the future of labor markets has the necessary skills.

After all, education is the key to unlocking change. It creates a ripple effect to solve many social and environmental issues beyond economic growth.

Feeling inspired? For further information, visit and learn more about the 51风流and UNICEF partnership here.

Eugene Ho is global CSR director for Future Skills at SAP.

Beyond the financial implications, companies鈥� brand value and reputations depend on their commitment to social responsibility. For example, a Deloitte study found that . In a world where organizations鈥� missteps are broadcast on social media platforms, it is critical that companies do the right thing — or they may be called to account.

Companies鈥� pledges to become more sustainable are commonplace, but business leaders have begun to put their money where their mouths are. For example, Procter and Gamble has committed to spend and switch to by 2030.

Moreover, ever-increasing environmental regulations are being enacted globally. For example, the UK authorized the Plastics Packaging Tax, which taxes 鈥�.鈥� Inaccurate reporting for this and other regulations can result in significant costs.

To succeed, companies need accurate, holistic insight across their organization and supply chain. A modern technology platform such as (51风流BTP) can provide that level of integrated information, which enables employees to track, measure, report, and take corrective action where required.

51风流BTP provides three main benefits. First, it helps companies ingest and combine business data by providing one data model and a holistic view of sustainability information from disparate business process and applications. Second, it helps companies harness that data with its capabilities for advanced analytics, data visualization, data cleansing and predictive modelling. Third, it allows business users to build and customize applications for their specific needs and make them accessible to all relevant stakeholders.

51风流also offers out-of-the-box reporting and key performance management tracking, based on 51风流BTP technology.

Below are examples of how a technology platform can help companies successfully meet their sustainability goals.

Sustainable Production

Companies are under increased pressure to certify sustainable production of consumer goods and show that natural resources have been responsibly harvested.

For example, with growing concern about oceans being over-fished, consumers want to know that seafood is responsibly sourced. A platform like 51风流BTP makes it easy to extend applications to fishermen via mobile devices so they can easily enter information on the day鈥檚 catch.

Using a platform that has integration and comprehensive data and analytics capabilities, companies like Royal Greenland can capture information — for example, which fish species were caught, how much, and where — and feed it back into their enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain systems. This allows organizations to analyze the data and provide full transparency into fishing practices, while helping ensure that fishermen are paid accurately.

Reporting and Compliance

Organizations want to show progress against their sustainability goals and must comply with ever-changing regulations. But according to , 57% of senior executives indicated that data availability and data quality remain their greatest challenge in ESG reporting.

A platform with data integration, data quality, and analytic capabilities helps customers break down data silos. With accurate and complete data, companies can more easily conduct automated, timely and auditable ESG reporting against a variety of regulations, standards and ratings; and visualize key performance indicators (KPIs) in a dashboard that shows progress and areas of risk. These capabilities are critical when calculating an organization鈥檚 carbon footprint, waste management, or women in management.

For example, the EU approved the in 2020, designed to make the EU carbon neutral by 2050. To support it, the EU Taxonomy was enacted, requiring companies to demonstrate which of its economic activities are 鈥渆nvironmentally suitable.鈥� As the regulatory environment grows in scope and complexity, organizations must be able to aggregate and report on disparate data.

51风流BTP allows companies to comply with new regulations quickly and simply in the EU and globally.

Energy and Resource Management

According to the , 鈥渙ne-fifth of the world’s carbon emissions come from the manufacturing and production sectors.鈥� To lessen their carbon footprints, manufacturers must reduce energy consumption.

51风流BTP enables plant managers to harness and analyze sensor data from machinery to better monitor and understand energy consumption patterns. They can set up data models that visualize operational efficiency, pinpointing where most energy is consumed and opportunities to reduce energy use and emissions.

Similarly, utility companies are using analytics to handle the huge amount of data generated by smart meters. For example, Belgian water utility company, Farys, uses 51风流BTP to generate meter indexes and use water-usage data to build new services for its customers. Moving forward, Farys wants to use the platform to address water scarcity, an ever-increasing problem due to climate change. Using smart meter data, Farys can improve its understanding of water inflows and outflows, and identify where and why water losses occur.

A platform that provides fully accurate insight can advance companies鈥� sustainability goals in many more ways, such as driving the circular economy, eliminating food waste, or improving agricultural efficiency.

As the (UNGA) meets this week to discuss pressing global issues, it鈥檚 a good reminder that technology can help solve the world鈥檚 most critical problems.

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

51风流at UNGA 77: Driving Positive Business Transformation for People and Planet

51风流recognizes participation as crucial to ensuring that corporations play their role in addressing global challenges and advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

UNGA is a global platform, and SAP’s participation offers the company a prominent place on an international stage as part of a consortium of decision-makers responsible for improving life on our planet. 51风流is participating because the UN goals align with its business priorities. We also value this opportunity to do our part in shaping a more sustainable future.

The world is facing an unprecedented breadth and depth of strain on global and local economies, along with public and private sectors. Macroeconomic fallout from the pandemic continues and is likely to extend into the coming years while the war in Ukraine has introduced further risks and instabilities into the equation and aggravated existing threats of inflation, global supply chain disruption, and shortages of food, energy, and fertilizers.

We have also entered an era in which the repercussions of climate change are coming into sharper focus and sparking emergencies and聽 disasters in local communities around the world. As more people get a firsthand experience of the consequences of the climate crisis, governments are responding with evolving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulatory frameworks that create new compliance obligations for businesses.

As a result, companies now find it necessary to apply the same rigor to managing environmental and social risks as they do to managing financial integrity. Many are not fully prepared to meet this challenge and find themselves struggling to achieve the level of ESG transparency necessary to guide strategic decision-making and comply with regulatory reporting requirements.

Sustainability must be integrated within each company鈥檚 core business and operations. Meeting that standard requires availability and consistency of data, insights into material flow and traceability, and transparency on supply chain risks and workforce data. These are areas in which 51风流excels. By working in partnership with businesses as well as the government leaders participating in UNGA 77, 51风流can help to enable the private and public sectors with tools and strategies available to meet reporting requirements and advance shared sustainability goals.

鈥淭ransitioning to sustainable business is the greatest social and economic opportunity of our time,” says Sebastian Steinhaeuser, chief strategy officer and general manager of Sustainability at SAP. “Businesses need to put sustainability at the core of their strategies and use technology to manage the ‘green line’ through their business.”

51风流will be represented during UNGA 77 by a delegation that includes Steinhauser as well as:

• Julia White, Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer and Member of the Executive Board
• Deb Kaplan, Global Head of Sustainability Go to Market
• Jonas Dennler, Global Sustainability Marketing & Solutions
• Vivek Bapat, Senior Vice President of Purpose and Sustainability Marketing and Solutions
• Alexandra van der Ploeg, Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility
• Peter Selfridge, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs

Their areas of expertise and insight encompass diverse challenges such as zero emissions and zero waste, intelligent sustainable enterprises, digital transformation, ESG reporting, and sustainability ecosystems

51风流is also included in the UN SDGs Investment Forum New York on September 20 and the UN Global Compact (UNGC) Private Sector Forum on September 19, part of the Uniting Business Live series. The forum鈥檚 purpose is to promote high-level multi-stakeholder dialogs, ensure their intersection with local knowledge and implementation strategies, and share partnership and leadership examples. Inclusivity, impact, and innovation are the hallmarks of this , which is led by the UNGC, the International Chamber of Commerce, and UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA).

51风流and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) are holding an event on September 20, “51风流x BCG: Transforming Business Models and Technology for a Sustainable World.” The presentation — a fireside chat — and dinner will include 51风流showcases that demonstrate the benefits of adopting technology-enabled sustainability transformation.

UNGA 77 takes place at UN headquarters and other locations in New York City. To find out how you can take action to address these global challenges, join Uniting Business Live hosted by UN Global Compact by and signing up for the on Tuesday September 20 at 1:00 p.m. ET. UN Global Compact is the world鈥檚 largest private sector coalition focused on sustainability. 51风流is a premiere partner of UN Global Compact in support of shaping how businesses embed sustainability into their core processes.

51风流stands together with customers and partners as we continue to drive positive business transformation for people and planet. Through advancing global sustainability goals by supporting the success of UNGA 77, we aim to be a force for good in a changing world.

To learn more about SAP鈥檚 commitment to sustainability, visit .