Exploring Sustainability at SAP

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to explain the value of speaking to customers about sustainability.

Sustainability to SAP

"What if we could make sustainability profitable and profitability sustainable, without sacrificing one for the other?"

-Christian Klein

CEO and SAP Executive Board Member

SAP's Sustainability Strategy

Sustainability directly links to SAP's purpose: to help the world run better and improve people's lives. The question becomes, "How can we live up to the purpose?"

Role of Exemplar and Enabler

We meet our sustainability goals by taking on the role of both the exemplar and the enabler. Essentially:

We lead by example, being a role model for sustainable business operations and practices.
By doing that, we learn and gain the credibility to fulfil the role of an enabler. We want to provide our customers with products and services that enable them to meet their sustainability challenges and opportunities.

Both pillars are important, but the enabler side is how we scale. Just imagine the reach we can have by delivering digital solutions that enable our customers to manage their own limited resources productively and contribute to a sustainable economy.

Exploration of SAP’s Path to Zero

Our objective and definition of sustainability is to create positive economic, environmental, and social impact within planetary boundaries: a world with zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality. Emissions, waste, and inequality are all interconnected and need to be solved together through holistic steering and reporting, rather than addressed individually.

Zero Emissions: Sustainable intelligent enterprises manage their "green line" to reduce their carbon footprint.
Zero Waste: Rethinking business processes across the entire supply and value chain will protect our planet, its species, and our collective prosperity.
Zero Inequality: We must embrace, connect, and intersect our diverse experiences to build an inclusive society where everyone thrives.

Our efforts focus on creating a sustainable future for SAP, our customers, and society.

The SAP purpose is helping the world run better and improving people’s lives.

Summary

SAP’s purpose is to help the world run better and improve lives by promoting sustainability through innovation.
SAP acts as both an exemplar by practicing sustainability and an enabler by providing solutions to customers.
The Path to Zero focuses on creating positive impacts, targeting zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality.
Holistic approaches ensure economic, environmental, and social impacts are managed within planetary boundaries.

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