Planet under Pressure

policymakers as well as leading organizations
such as the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation’s CE100 network and the
World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic
Action Partnership to help advance
circular and regenerative processes. This
means, for example, accelerating supply
chain transparency and innovating
new capabilities to develop and deliver
products better suited for circularity.
We build capabilities into our analytical
and transactional systems that help
our customers embed the following
principles: Design out waste and pollution;
keep products and materials in
use (continuously and at their highest
value); and regenerate natural systems.
We offer cloud-based materials management
and analytics capabilities, allowing
companies to achieve full materials traceability
in all their products. This allows
them to learn how their products will
be treated at the end of the use cycle
and to buy and sell waste materials in
secondary marketplaces.
One massive challenge is to dramatically
reduce the amount of plastics entering
the world’s oceans. As an initial example
of circular economy solutions, SAP’s
Plastics Cloud initiative helps businesses
shift rapidly to alternatives to singleuse
plastics packaging, scale design for
circularity, invest in materials collection
and sorting infrastructure, and ensure
better consumer experiences. Internally,
SAP enhanced its environmental policy
with the new goal to phase out singleuse
plastics in its own operations by the
end of 2020.
Improving lives through transparent
value chains
the UN Global Compact, SAP Ariba has
taken part in efforts to foster the best
practices of sharing and adoption.
Another example is the SAP Rural Sourcing
Management solution, which provides
a mobile business solution that
connects smallholder farmers and suppliers
in rural areas with the supply chains
of global agribusinesses and consumer
product companies to help ensure full
traceability of foods and provide fair
compensation to farmers.
Powering opportunity through
digital inclusion
Our goal is to ensure that everyone, regardless
of age or background, has the
skills to thrive and secure meaningful
work in the digital economy. We provide
for our own diverse workforce with continuous
learning, a wide range of health
and well-being offerings, and inclusion
programs such as Autism-At-Work. We
put an emphasis on building and enhancing
digital skills as well as accelerating
best-run non-profits and social enterprises.
Our youth entrepreneurship projects
and digital skills initiatives – such
as Africa Code Week and a partnership
with UNICEF focused on global workforce
inclusion – have reached more than 4.5
million young people in 105 countries.
During the Covid-19 crisis, we launched
a new digital learning initiative consisting
of massive open online courses,
learning journeys for universities, and
the SAP Young Thinkers program. Signature
innovation programs such as SAP
One Billion Lives (1BLives) foster social
entrepreneurship with the ambition to
positively impact one billion people by
developing a portfolio of lean, sustainable,
shared-value impact ventures.
Go further together
The issues we face are bigger
and more interconnected than
ever before. We know that
collaboration and systemic
change are essential to solve
the world’s social and
environmental challenges. We
partner and co-innovate with
customers, governments, and
NGOs around the world and advocate
practical problem-solving,
“
says Chief Sustainability Officer Daniel Schmid.
This includes engagement with UN
agencies such as the UN Global Compact,
UNICEF, the UN Development Programme,
UN Technology Innovation
Labs, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s
CE100, and the Value Balancing Alliance.
Individually, these partnerships may all
target different goals, but what they have
in common is allowing SAP to fulfill its
purpose – helping the world run better
and improving people’s lives.
Transparency and traceability in supply
chains are essential to reduce the environmental
footprint of products along
global supply chains, as well as to ensure
decent work and reduce inequalities. SAP
Ariba solutions help detect and eradicate
forced and child labor, increase supplier
diversity, and include social enterprises
in corporate supply chains. Together with
Global Goals Yearbook 2020 141