Identifying the Connection Between SAP Sustainability and End-to-End Processes

Where in your organization is sustainability relevant? Simply put, everywhere. No longer is it only the responsibility of the chief sustainability officer as we have seen before when considering the different persona impacted by sustainability.

• Procurement:

  Sustainable procurement ensures ethical low-carbon sourcing and compliance with global standards.

• Finance:

  Sustainability enhances finance processes by integrating ESG metrics into financial reporting, improving transparency and decision-making.

• Supply Chain:

  Sustainable supply chains reduce risks and enhance resource efficiency and resilience.

• Customer Experience:

  Sustainability boosts brand loyalty as consumers prefer environmentally responsible companies.

• Human Resources:

  Sustainability aligns with employee values, enhancing employee engagement and retention, as well as talent attraction.

• IT/Cross-Function:

  Sustainable practices in IT optimize energy efficiency and reduce operational costs. IT also plays a crucial role in providing sustainability software at low TCO to different stakeholders that need to efficiently collect and manage data and perform different sustainability-related tasks.

Even though sustainability is relevant in all areas, the needs and opportunities stemming from sustainability awareness differ across the entire business. To handle this complexity and interconnectivity of sustainability, an ERP-centric approach is the only way because it allows companies to source granular sustainability data based on business transactions directly out of core business processes, process as needed (for example, calculate emissions of a product), and embed resulting data (for example, carbon footprints) back into these processes, right where business process owners need them for sustainable decision-making, such as choosing amongst different suppliers based on their carbon footprint and cost.

SAP customers’ success in the long term depends on continuous digital transformation that delivers resilient operations within an agile operating model. This can only be achieved when sustainability is anchored in RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP value delivery. SAP will help them with regulatory compliance today while building the capability for end-to-end sustainability management to competitively disrupt their competitors in the long term. This value proposition is compelling from the outset because it connects existing finance, supply chain, and customer processes with sustainability data, creating both transparency and actionable insights to future-proof their organizations.

Status reports are only snapshots	Last-mile, high-level reporting on sustainability metrics provides valuable information but only offers a momentary view, leaving out crucial insights into why gaps exist.
Understanding the gaps	Achieving sustainability goals requires identifying gaps between current status and targets by uncovering root causes like inefficiencies, supply chain issues, or operational misalignments.
Driving impactful change	Closing sustainability gaps requires granular, real-time data connecting business processes and sustainability metrics for continuous monitoring, timely intervention, and improvement.

SAP’s sustainability solutions are positioned through their integration with SAP cloud ERP business processes.

This integration enables precise and actionable insights rather than the estimates and averages typical of competing solutions. By empowering businesses to embed sustainability into their operations, SAP helps them go beyond regulatory compliance, driving meaningful change and creating a sustainable future. This alignment of business processes with sustainability goals not only unlocks competitive advantages but also provides companies with the power to act effectively. SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Sustainability solutions form an integrated platform for continuous innovation and agility. Leveraging cloud technologies, automation, and updates, these solutions support a dynamic business landscape that prioritizes sustainability. With sustainability solutions available exclusively in the cloud, enterprises can achieve ongoing process optimization and long-term agility, positioning them as industry leaders. This powerful differentiation allows customers to unlock new value, opportunities, and impact at scale.

SAP's strength lies in integrating sustainability insights into the existing ERP business process value chain. To illustrate this, here we have examples of core business processes with the sustainability value dimension added. The most commonly impactful places for our customers to get started are their supply chain, procurement, finance, and sales business processes. By integrating SAP Sustainability solutions with SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP, customers can unlock sustainability-related insights in these business processes that would not be possible otherwise. This empowers business users to make sustainable decisions in the context of their daily roles and drive actual improvements across the company. This is how customers truly unlock the combined potential of SAP cloud ERP and sustainability, achieve their ambitions, and differentiate themselves as leaders in their industries.

• Sustainable Lead to Cash

  Market and sell sustainable products: new and circular

• Sustainable Source to Pay

  Procure ethically with shared value chain transparency including external workforce health and safety

• Sustainable Idea to Market

  Sustainable Idea to Market

• Sustainable Plan to Fulfill

  Plan at the board level and act at the operational level with cascaded sustainability goals aligned to business targets

• Sustainable Acquire to Decommission

  Enhance visibility across manufacturing plants to drive action that will reduce emissions and increase efficiency

• Sustainable Record to Report and FP&A

  Record and report against standardized ESG KPIs aligned to financial reporting