Sustainability analysts analyze calculated footprints to gain insights for decarbonizing an organization's operations, products, and value chain. They investigate analytical reports to pinpoint the main sources of carbon emissions, such as stationary combustion or fugitive emissions. Also, they actively track and monitor decarbonization progress by examining periodic trends in carbon emissions across operations and the value chain.
SAP Sustainability Footprint Management provides the Footprint Overview app that presents available analytical reports. To analyze calculated footprints, SAP Sustainability Footprint Management offers many built-in dashboards. These dashboards automatically load data and provide various options for detailed analysis.
The Footprint Overview app serves as the starting point for footprint analytics. This app provides a comprehensive overview of your organization's corporate and product footprints for a chosen scope and inventory. You can analyze the following in graphical format:
- Corporate, GHG emissions, trends, and breakdown by greenhouse gas (GHG) scope and category
- The corporate CO2e balance
- Significant footprint contributors among purchased products, sold products, energy consumers, energy sources, plants, and waste generated in operations
To view the charts, define the footprint inventory scope and calculate the relevant footprint inventory first. Upon selecting the footprint inventory for a specific period, the charts display the relevant data.
Footprint Overview App
When you enter the Footprint Overview app, you see an overview screen on top that indicates the total, a breakdown, and a high-level trend of the corporate GHG emissions.
Next is the corporate balance which indicates the inflow and outflow emissions of the organization. Then, you can see the detailed emissions by each scope category, purchased product, energy carrier, energy sources, and so on.
Purchased Products Analysis
The purchased products list report is an analytic view of the footprint of purchased products. You can view the actual quantity of the purchased goods, the total CO2e, and the CO2e per unit.
When the purchased product footprints are calculated based on spend-based emission factors, you can also view CO2e per spend unit and amount.
The ‘CO2e for Purchased Goods' chart shows the total CO2 emissions from all the products and suppliers that you analyze. You can click on any point in the chart to see more details. To see the CO2 emissions per unit, look at the table below the chart. This table has the same overall data, and it also lists the specific products, suppliers, and quantities.
Sold Products Analysis
The sold products report is an analytic view of the footprint of sold products. This report enables you to investigate the footprint of all sold materials in detail (per product or plant) and supports filter parameters.
You can see the actual quantity of the sold goods, the total CO2e, and the CO2e per unit.
The 'CO2e for Sold Goods' chart shows the total CO2 emissions from all product and plant combinations you analyze. You can select a data point to view more information. To see the emissions per unit, check the following table in the chart. This table lists the same data, along with specific products, plants, and quantities.
Energy Consumer Analysis
The energy consumers report is an analytic view for the footprint of energy consumers. This report enables you to investigate the footprint of all facilities, process infrastructure and resources, and supports filter parameters.
Corporate Balance Analysis
The Corporate Balance Analysis application displays the corporate CO2e balance.
It offers insights into the carbon footprints for both product and corporate-related emissions. Using this application, you can drill down to view the details of each of the inflow and outflow emissions displayed in the Corporate CO2e Balance card in the Footprint Overview application.
The core tool used here is the Sankey chart, a sophisticated representation that facilitates understanding of the flow and proportion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within a corporate setting over a specified reporting period.
The core customer value of corporate balance analysis is explained here.
- Visualization and Clarity: The Sankey chart offers a clear and intuitive visualization of emissions, displaying them as flows that highlight major contributors or hotspots. This aids companies in comprehending their carbon emission landscape and identifying areas of concern with ease.
- Strategic Emission Reduction: By identifying major emission sources, companies can pinpoint specific areas to target for reduction efforts. This strategic approach supports a company’s broader decarbonization goals, enabling more effective and focused sustainability initiatives.
- Comprehensive Analysis: The ability to view the entire carbon footprint, including inputs from various GHG scopes and outputs across products and non-products, allows businesses to understand their emissions in detail. This holistic view ensures no significant emission sources are overlooked.
- Customizable and Detailed Insights: Users can select specific emission categories or even drill down into individual items for more granular analysis. This flexibility allows for tailored insights that can guide specific actions, such as selecting areas where purchased goods and services contribute significantly to emissions.
- Enhanced Decision Making via Filtering: The feature to filter emissions by scope, company, plant, or time period empowers businesses to conduct detailed, context-specific analysis. This can be particularly valuable for assessing annual emission trends and progress against sustainability targets.
The video shows how to use the corporate balance analysis app to view the overall inflow and outflow emissions of an organization.