Planet under Pressure

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS FOR
A BETTER TOMORROW
In line with SAP’s purpose to help the world run better and
improve people’s lives, SAP has embraced the UN Sustainable
Development Goals since their launch in 2015.
By Christine Susanne Müller, SAP
We believe that digital technology can
play a crucial role in achieving the SDGs.
With SAP solutions and services touching
77 percent of the world’s transaction
revenue in more than 25 industries,
we are in the unique position to help
customers contribute to virtually all 17
goals. A study conducted by the Global
e-Sustainability Initiative concludes that
more than half of the 169 sub-targets of
the SDGs can, in fact, only be achieved
with the help of digital technologies.
They provide tools to scale and accelerate
change. Big Data and analytics software,
for example, can help measure the progress
made in achieving the SDGs across
countries, cities, businesses, and other
organizations.
To create awareness of the enabling
power of IT, we launched a web book,
SAP & UN Global Goals (www.sap.com/
unglobalgoals), in which we share tangible
examples.
“
While our ambition is to lead
by example in our own
sustainable business operations
and practices, our biggest lever
lies in delivering digital products
and services that help our more
than 400,000 customers achieve
positive impact for the SDGs,
says Chief Sustainability Officer Daniel Schmid.
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With nearly 50 years of experience in
resource optimization, we are especially
focusing on those areas in which we can
most effectively contribute to an inclusive
and sustainable economy: solutions for a
circular economy and for climate action.
Data and analytics to address
climate action
SAP is, for example, using digitization to
help customers transition to a low-carbon
economy. We help them deliver on their
climate goals by creating greater efficiency,
transparency, and accountability
of carbon emissions across their value
chain and foster process and business
model innovations. We launched the
Climate 21 program to build new analytical
capabilities into our core business
applications, enabling our customers
to both understand and effectively
minimize the carbon footprint of their
products and operations.
Striving to lead by example, we use data
to also track our own progress toward
SAP’s 1.5°C science-based targets and
becoming carbon neutral by 2025 in our
own operations. Our internal sustainability
dashboard helps us to monitor
our environmental performance by line
of business and geography – especially
in our more than 55 sites running an ISO
14001-certified environmental management
system to date.
In addition, growth in our cloud business
means our energy-intensive data
centers have become a primary focus of
our carbon-reduction efforts. We introduced
initiatives to drive efficiency and
innovation around buildings, data center
operations, and infrastructure to create
a “Green Cloud” platform that is 100
percent powered by renewable electricity.
Toward a more circular economy
Today, only 8.6 percent of the valuable
materials used in global production
are reused. Driving the transition to
an inclusive, circular economic system
will be key to create a thriving global
economy that can benefit everyone
within the limits of our planet. SAP is
working with global corporations and
Chief Sustainability
Officer Daniel Schmid
Global Goals Yearbook 2020