Sustainability

There are countless factors driving businesses to invest in sustainability:

• The EU is in the process of establishing a completely new regulatory framework for a sustainable economy as part of the “Green Deal” and the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance. The "Green Deal" requires companies to be more transparent by measuring, analyzing and reporting (ESG).
• As companies will have to pay a cost for their emissions, this will have to be followed up closely.
• Creating new business opportunities through new business models, product designs, etc.

• The cost of capital has been decreasing for more sustainable companies, but increasing for others. Sustainable businesses pose less risk for investors, so they require a lower return.  
• Investors, as well as other stakeholders – such as employees and customers – are urging companies to set more ambitious sustainability targets and expect transparency through high-quality sustainability reporting. 

To be sustainability-compliant, organizations have to capture, analyze and calculate different data and report them on a regular basis to the legal authorities. In order to do so, insights into processes and cost efficiency are essential. Internal communication towards your employees is also a crucial factor, when incorporating sustainability in your organization.

SAP Sustainability Control Tower

SAP Sustainability Control Tower is a cloud system that allows companies to set targets and monitor their progress on climate action, circular economy and social responsibility. The goal is to integrate sustainability data with business processes across all value chains. The key benefits of SAP Sustainability Control Tower include:

• A holistic understanding and performance management across social, environmental and financial indicators;
• Efficient and auditable ESG reporting;
• Actionable insights which will help decisions-makers to take action for business units, departments, and locations.

SAP Product Footprint Management

SAP Product Footprint Management is part of a new portfolio of sustainability-specific business applications that deliver transparency and measurement capability across the supply chain. The solution allows companies to calculate the carbon footprint of their products, by integrating data from across the complete production process.

A considerable benefit is the possibility to proactively identify the carbon impact at the beginning of the product lifecycle instead of doing so after a product has already been produced. Integration with SAP S/4HANA systems and the relevant end-to-end processes is possible with SAP Product Footprint Management.

Record: collect emission data 

Company's carbon footprint data is usually spread over different departments, e.g. accounting, manufacturing, fleet, etc. Bringing data together in one centralized platform can be achieved through default and personalized connectors that can easily be added through the extensibility of the Power Platform. 

The Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability solution automatically centralizes emissions from various sources (both internal and external), which makes it easier for the management to have a complete overview.

Report: transparent communication

All the gathered data (energy, fuel consumption, …) is transformed in order to calculate the greenhouse gasses emitted. Dashboards, reports and built-in analytics enable companies to visualize their impact on the environment and communicate more transparently towards customers, employees, investors, etc. 

This platform can be used to meet the increasingly demanding legal obligations and possible audits. It also helps companies in goal setting and tracking.

Reduce: improve ESG impact

Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability is more than a reporting tool: it helps companies reduce negative impact by identifying trouble spots, setting goals and monitoring them. This allows them to quickly take action and know where they stand against their commitments and goals at any time. 

The platform will give insights on how or where to reduce emissions, gain efficiencies and make changes based on industry and regulatory recommendations.