In the next 11 years SAP will cut its emissions approximately in half from its year-2007 peak levels of 504,000t CO₂ making it rebound to its approximate year-2000 emissions level of 250,000t CO₂. Here’s an interview with a head honcho who makes it clear that his last name is more than just a co-incidence apropos the responsibility he steers at SAP.

Derren Green, Director- Sustainability (Asia Pacific and Japan) on why non-compliance is not an option; how automation, analytics and proactive reporting are changing the rules of the game and why sustainability is all about business too when one thinks of brand differentiation, customer retention costs, efficiency and competitive edge.

 

The time is just right for companies to embrace sustainability as the economic crisis has already spurred businesses to review their processes. A logical next step is to redefine business process excellence by embedding sustainability in each action. Software that automates the best practices in sustainability helps companies analyze, model and measure their sustainability performance. Moreover, companies can modify and adjust their business processes in order to deliver on the performance indices that are valued by the stakeholders.

Technology can be harnessed to reduce energy costs and even emissions. Increasing data center efficiencies and using solutions that are optimized for Green IT can also reduce the Carbon footprint.

At SAP we believe that every company is responsible for improving its operations and becoming more sustainable, and we are committed to doing just that. We also believe that IT-led innovation is a critical strategic enabler that helps companies contribute to global sustainability by adapting and succeeding in a rapidly changing social, economic and environmental context.

 

Faced with overwhelming scientific evidence, there is little doubt climate change is the greatest sustainability issue facing the world. Left unchecked, the lasting impact of carbon emissions and lack of clean water will pose serious threats to ecological, social and economic stability. The projected impact on companies is extensive, including increased commodity prices and disruption to business networks. But every crisis is also an opportunity, and the global community has options. Bold, coordinated, and immediate action can still prevent the most severe scenarios.  

Responsible companies are already proactively setting their operations on the path to the low-carbon economy. They have a business approach to sustainability and are reducing emissions to gain long-term agility and competitive advantage. They understand the need to holistically manage economic, environmental, and societal risks and opportunities for increased short- and long-term profitability.

Other enterprises are taking more modest steps despite the risk of greater compliance costs and damage to brands and reputations in the long-term. Why? They seek more certainty and clarity from governing bodies on the standards and financial impact for CO2 emissions regulations before taking action and making capital investments to lower emissions.

The business environment has fundamentally changed over the years. Consumers are increasingly aware of sustainability challenges. As the global environmental and social situation worsens, businesses are facing dramatically increased risks combined with new opportunities for profitability. For example- Regulations on the local, regional and global level are mushrooming (compliance). The risk is that as businesses increasingly operate on a global level, managing these regulations through manpower becomes extremely error-prone, cumbersome, and notoriously expensive.

The opportunity is to drive profitability by embedding social and environmental compliance into your end-to-end business processes (across the business and across the business network). Automating compliance significantly reduces cost and risk. Even more importantly, leveraging compliance processes can help create competitive differentiation (carbon footprint of products, proactive transparency and reporting, using analytics to bring visibility to reporting and achieving objectives, redesigned products). Another factor is brands, market share and stakeholder value i.e. competitive differentiation.

We have seen the devastating effects on companies accused of not protecting human rights (e.g. child labor in their business networks) or that of product recalls for safety reasons (e.g. the recall of toys containing lead). Can you afford to lose customers in this economic environment? How do you provide auditable, accurate information about your sustainability performance to a growing number of stakeholders? And as investors increasingly consider sustainability as an investment criterion – can you afford to lose brand value or market value because of lack of visibility into all aspects of your business and your business network?

Leverage software that automates the best practices from sustainability thought leaders in how you model, measure, and analyze your sustainability performance. Move from strategy to execution by adjusting your business processes to ensure you deliver on those KPIs that are most important to your stakeholders. How will you leverage sustainability objectives and initiatives to enhance your brand and market share?

After analyzing its global environmental footprint, SAP announced its commitment to reduce its total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions back to its year-2000 levels by 2020. This means SAP will cut its emissions approximately in half from its year-2007 peak levels of 504,000t CO₂ in the next 11 years. This will return SAP to its approximate year-2000 emissions level of 250,000t CO₂.

The target will apply not only to SAP’s own direct emissions, but also to indirect emissions.

The company’s reduction plans are based on aggressive abatement targets across direct and indirect emissions (scopes 1, 2 and 3 as defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol), allowing offsets to be applied only to major indirect emissions sources (scope 3) that are out of the company’s direct control.

At SAP we are continually working with a wide range of stakeholders, including customers and partners, to evolve our sustainability strategy. Through a strong co-innovation program, we work closely with customers to identify future solutions and/or enhancements required to current solutions. SAP also monitors the regulatory environment to analyze and understand future trends.

We are already helping businesses to implement their sustainability strategies utilizing information technology, and some good examples worth mentioning are SAP BusinessObjects Sustainability Performance Management application, launched in December 2009; SAP Carbon Impact that allows companies to assess, analyze and act on the environmental impact of their operations; and SAP EHS Management wherein the primary customer pain points that are solved by this product are- People Health & Safety, Emissions Management, Product Safety & Stewardship.

We also have SAP BusinessObjects Best Practices for Analytics in Sustainability, available from December 2009, SAP Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and SAP Recycling Administration.