Is SAP and Sustainability a Myth ?

[DataTherapist]

Do you believe as a SAP Consultant we can really make a difference towards sustainable future?

[greg_not_so]

yes

240513 update: can i unsubscribe if no longer interested in the topic? would be nice if i could kudo the author for raising the topic, too. cheers, thx.

[VXLozano]

"Yes" to the first or to the second question?

(and I know, your answer will be "yes" 🤣)

[DataTherapist]

I do see a lot of potential but it needs to be channelized effectively. 

do you have any pointers to address the challenges?

[Samudra]

SAP's sustainability efforts extend beyond myth. The SAP offers ERP solutions enabling businesses to manage energy consumption, supply chain sustainability, and environmental reporting. Through partnerships, SAP collaborates with organizations to amplify impact. Demonstrating corporate responsibility, SAP sets goals to reduce its carbon footprint and promote diversity. Reflecting customer demand, SAP prioritizes sustainability as a core value. While scrutiny is necessary, SAP's commitment to sustainability appears genuine, albeit with room for improvement. With the support of government's incentives to make sustainbility practises, where stakeholders would be able to make benefits. For sure, organisations would take the initiative to implement SAP's Sustainabilty. 

[DataTherapist]

Please be specific about which part of SAP offerings you are mentioning.. m little confused 😕

[Ralph_P]

yes we can

[DataTherapist]

Good Day! Rise and shine like the steam dancing off a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

Is anyone interested in an open forum discussion on SAP Sustainability offerings and Sustainability overall? I am planning to host a generic talk show !!

[smarchesini]

I probably shouldn't say this, but my company is working really hard to make the future sustainable, with a focus on a circular economy. Imagine cutting physical and energy costs by using technology, workflow and automation (SAP Build Process Automation 😏)—resulting in fewer emissions and a better environment.

Another, small but significant, change is that SAP has been pushing for years to use HANA DB and CDS views. We're trying to move all the logic to the lower layers of the architecture, and you know what? By doing this, we reduce emissions because the processor handling the calculations has less work, which means it's consuming less energy. When most of the computation is done in the database, it should result in lower CO2 emissions.

I'd love for @qmacro  to correct me if needed, I know he cares about this topic. 😁

[DominikTylczyn]

Sadly, despite genuine and well intended efforts, it is a myth. The predominant business goal is growth, which is the logic of a cancer not sustainability - see Sustainable growth? for straightforward explanation with numbers.

Best regards

Dominik Tylczynski

[smarchesini]

I still believe you can grow and be sustainable, we miss only the technology to do it. Right now big tech companies are increasing emissions because of the big computing of AI, but we miss only the technology that permits to fuel AI without impacting the ecosystem.
It's only a matter of research and improvement.
I suggest the book "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" 📖
It will bring you more positivity thinking about the world and the future.

[DominikTylczyn]

Hello @smarchesini 

Thank you for your comment. I'll make sure to read the book. 

To me sustainability is the ability to operate in the long-term as we operate currently. The fact is that if anything grows 25% a year over a term of 100 years, which is hardly long term in the human civilization perspective, it needs to grow 4.9 billion times. That is a simple math. Therefore it is not sustainable. Is it not factfulness?

[DataTherapist]

To add the on the db performance, let me break down to another granular level. SAP should push to delete default email generated by workflow approval or process completion after certain days. This will help reducing the data space reduction of CO2 emissions of data centers. I used to be big fan of AI until I learnt how much co2 emitted for one single LLM model execution. There was a popular research done by Harvard business school but later it was removed.