The Next Phase of SAP Sustainability Footprint Management: Greater Insights for Competitive Advantage – SAP News Center

Report on SAP’s Contribution to Sustainable Development Goals via Enhanced Environmental Footprint Management

Strategic Alignment with Global Sustainability Mandates

In response to intensifying global pressures, evolving regulations, and value chain uncertainties, corporations are implementing proactive strategies to manage regulatory, market, and environmental externalities. SAP provides a suite of sustainability solutions designed to enable comprehensive reporting and foster sustainable business transformation. These tools are critical for organizations aiming to align their operations with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Evolution of SAP Sustainability Footprint Management and SDG Impact

Since its introduction in 2021, SAP Sustainability Footprint Management has served as a key solution for carbon management, directly supporting SDG 13 (Climate Action). The solution is now evolving to provide a single source for a wider range of environmental footprints. This expansion enables companies to move beyond carbon reporting and address a broader spectrum of the SDGs. The ERP-centric, AI-enabled platform calculates, analyzes, and manages corporate environmental impacts by leveraging actual business data.

The updated solution extends footprint calculations beyond CO2 to include other critical impact categories, allowing for a more holistic approach to sustainable development:

1. Carbon Emissions: Provides foundational data for decarbonization strategies, directly contributing to SDG 13 (Climate Action).
2. Waste Management: Offers insights to reduce waste, supporting the principles of SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).
3. Land Use: Helps companies understand and manage their impact on ecosystems, aligning with SDG 15 (Life on Land).
4. Energy Consumption: Tracks energy flows to improve efficiency, which is central to SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy).
5. Abiotic Resource Depletion: Manages the use of non-renewable resources, furthering the objectives of SDG 12.

Core Functionality and Integration for Actionable Insights

SAP Sustainability Footprint Management integrates fragmented data into actionable insights. By utilizing data from SAP Cloud ERP and enriching it with external sources like energy flows and supplier information, the system automates the calculation of accurate, audit-ready footprints at both corporate and product levels. This high level of data governance and automation reduces manual effort and ensures reporting is detailed and reliable. By embedding these insights into core business processes such as procurement and finance, the solution makes sustainability an integral part of corporate operations, fostering innovation and resilient infrastructure as outlined in SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure).

Driving Business Value and Advancing Sustainable Development

The enhanced capabilities of SAP Sustainability Footprint Management shift the corporate focus from compliance-driven reporting to strategic value creation. By treating environmental footprint data as a strategic asset, businesses can make informed decisions that advance both commercial interests and global sustainability targets. Key business outcomes include:

• Product and Service Innovation: Decreasing environmental impact and supporting a circular economy, directly contributing to SDG 12.
• Environmentally-Sound Value Chains: Improving material sourcing and design decisions to promote responsible production in line with SDG 12.
• Resource Efficiency and New Revenue: Identifying opportunities to increase resource efficiency and achieve higher margins, supporting SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).
• Strategic Supplier Collaboration: Leveraging sustainability data to build robust partnerships that drive mutual growth and competitiveness, a core tenet of SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

Conclusion: A Unified Approach to Sustainability and Operations

SAP’s evolving portfolio of sustainability solutions is designed to make sustainability actionable, measurable, and deeply embedded within enterprise operations. Powered by AI, trusted data, and process integrations, this approach bridges the gap between sustainability, finance, and operations. It provides organizations with the necessary tools to manage their environmental impact confidently and contribute meaningfully to the global Sustainable Development Goals.

Analysis of the Article in Relation to Sustainable Development Goals

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

  The article discusses the use of innovative, AI-enabled technology (SAP Sustainability Footprint Management) to help companies build resilience and transform their business processes. It focuses on making industries more sustainable by integrating environmental data into core operations like procurement and finance, which aligns with the goal of building resilient infrastructure and fostering sustainable industrialization.

• SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

  This is a central theme. The article details how the SAP solution helps companies manage their environmental footprints, including “land use, energy, waste, and abiotic resource depletion.” It promotes a shift towards a “circular economy,” “better material sourcing,” and increased “resource efficiency,” all of which are core components of ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns.

• SDG 13: Climate Action

  The article explicitly and repeatedly mentions “carbon management,” “decarbonize your value chain,” and calculating “CO2 emissions.” The primary function of the described tool is to help companies measure, manage, and reduce their carbon footprint, directly contributing to corporate climate action and mitigating climate change.

• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

  The article highlights the importance of managing the entire value chain. It mentions building “a strategic relationship with suppliers and manufacturers, leveraging sustainability data to drive mutual growth and competitiveness.” This promotes private-sector partnerships to achieve sustainability goals across supply chains.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• Target 9.4: Upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable

  The article’s focus on enabling companies to “optimize towards sustainable business transformation” and “innovating products and services to decrease environmental impact” directly supports this target. The SAP solution is presented as a tool to help industries adopt more environmentally sound processes by integrating sustainability data into their core ERP systems.

• Target 12.2: Achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources

  The article states that the SAP solution helps manage impacts related to “land use, energy… and abiotic resource depletion.” It also emphasizes helping companies identify ways to “increase resource efficiency” and make “better material sourcing and design decisions,” which aligns perfectly with this target.

• Target 12.5: Substantially reduce waste generation

  The mention of “waste” as a key environmental footprint category and the goal of supporting a “more circular economy” directly relate to the objective of reducing waste generation through better management and process innovation.

• Target 12.6: Encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices and integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle

  This is the core purpose of the solution described in the article. It is designed to “enable reporting,” provide “audit-ready footprints,” and “turn fragmented data into integrated, actionable insights,” thereby helping companies adopt and report on their sustainable practices.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Corporate and Product-level Carbon Footprint (CO2 emissions)

  The article explicitly states that “SAP Sustainability Footprint Management has been SAP’s key solution for efficient carbon management” and calculates footprints “beyond CO2 emissions.” This is a direct indicator for measuring progress on climate action (SDG 13) and industrial sustainability (Target 9.4).

• Resource Consumption Metrics (Land use, energy, abiotic resources)

  The article mentions that the solution extends its calculations to include “land use, energy… and abiotic resource depletion.” These are specific, measurable indicators that track the efficient use of natural resources, relevant to Target 12.2.

• Waste Generation Data

  “Waste” is listed as one of the environmental impact categories the solution calculates. This provides a quantifiable indicator for companies to measure and manage their waste, directly supporting Target 12.5.

• Adoption of Integrated Sustainability Reporting

  The article’s entire premise is based on a tool that allows companies to “fulfill the most common reporting standards” and embed sustainability insights “into core business processes.” The number of companies adopting such integrated systems serves as an implied indicator for Target 12.6, showing a shift from compliance-driven reporting to strategic sustainability.

4. Summary Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: news.sap.com