Overview
The concept of sustainability is composed of three forces: economic, environmental, and social. Due to recent events, large multinational energy companies are now setting serious goals to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Their main aim now is to harness renewable forms of energy such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass and nuclear energy for their operations. For instance, China has successfully activated its so-called “artificial sun,” a nuclear fusion reactor that could fuel its energy ambitions for years to come.
BP & Royal Dutch Shell, two of the world’s largest energy companies, have committed themselves to be a net zero company by 2050. This supports the most ambitious goal to tackle climate change laid out in the Paris Agreement, which is to limit the rise in average temperate increase to 1.5°Celsius.
In a nutshell, sustainability has emerged as a major component of corporate ethics.
Business Challenges
Fossil fuels are deeply linked with economic prosperity. Finding a balance among fossil fuels, economic development, and sustainability is a complex challenge for the global economy.
Concerns about global warming are increasingly reshaping investment policies, thereby putting pressure on businesses to improve their environmental, social and governance metrics. Organizations that integrate sustainability performance into their core ethos by means of sustainable business practices and not
just harnessed renewable energy, will remain profitable.
SAP Commitment for Sustainability & SAP Solution Portfolio
SAP is a proud member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership community. The community is responsible for providing tools, solutions, and insights for organizations to eliminate or at least reduce waste by 2030.
SAP provides a starting point to help companies preparing for a change. With the portfolio of solutions already available such as Environment, Health & Safety, along with Ariba for
“Protecting People” tracking using the data and further for circular economy referring to
“Resource Productivity” and Climate 21 for Climate and Natural capital accounting.
In line with the Climate 21 initiative 2020, SAP has launched the SAP Product Carbon Footprint Analytics, the very first of its kind available in the market. This solution aims to support enterprises attempting to prepare their operations for the emerging business reality where sustainability is of utmost strategic and economic importance.
SAP Product Carbon Footprint Analytics delivers carbon emission insights for a company’s products by plant, profit center, or cost center. Based on SAP S/4HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP Cloud Platform, the application delivers transparency on the carbon emissions of a product across the entire energy value chain, including production, raw materials, energy use, and transport. Producers can also integrate data from product databases and third-party solutions to analyze and understand the emissions breakdowns.
The main intention behind these solutions is to spur greater transparency and visibility of operations pertaining to the Energy company carbon footprint.
References
Shell’s ambition to be a net-zero emissions energy business | Shell Global
Net zero by 2050 | News and insights | Home (bp.com)
China turns on nuclear-powered ‘artificial sun’ for first time | The Independent
SAP's Climate 21 Initiative | Tangible Action | SAP News Center
Responding to climate risk: Actions for US state and local leaders (mckinsey.com)
https://community.sap.com/topics/sustainability
https://community.sap.com/topics/climate21