Integrating SAP Sustainability Data Exchange with Catena-X Automotive Network

To address Scope 3 emissions challenges and achieve climate action objectives, several business consortia have been established. These consortia engage in either industry-agnostic or industry-specific collaborations to tackle climate-related issues. Their goals include harmonizing methodologies and data exchange practices to comply with regulatory standards and enabling interoperability at scale across supply chains.

SAP actively participates in two pivotal industry initiatives aimed at accelerating climate action:

• The World Business Council for Sustainable Development Pledge for Access to Corporate Data (WBCSD PACT)
• Catena-X, an industry-specific initiative for the automotive sector

In this lesson, you will learn how SAP Sustainability Data Exchange is specifically leveraged within the Catena-X automotive network.

Catena-X is a collaborative network for the automotive industry, designed to enable secure and efficient data sharing to enhance value chain processes. It provides a platform for collaboration across all stages of automotive value creation.

Catena-X currently focuses on ten key use cases, including the following:

• Traceability
• Sustainability
• Demand and capacity management
• And others aimed at improving transparency and efficiency

In support of these use cases, SAP offers capabilities for network collaboration that ensure standardized, sovereign, and interoperable data exchange, helping businesses comply with sustainability requirements and improve operational efficiency.

Cofinity-X is the first operating company within the Catena-X ecosystem. It hosts the core services and infrastructure of the Catena-X data space, enabling companies to participate in trusted and secure data sharing.

Importantly, SAP Sustainability Data Exchange is a certified solution for the sustainability use case and is listed in the Cofinity-X marketplace, allowing companies to seamlessly integrate and exchange sustainability-related data within the network.

As you know, an automotive supply chain involves a vast number of suppliers. On average, it includes approximately 250 Tier 1 suppliers (direct suppliers) and around 18,000 multi-tier suppliers. This complexity makes it extremely challenging for manufacturers to maintain a sustainable and transparent supply chain.

Catena-X addresses this challenge by capturing Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data along the entire supply chain. It does so by recording and aggregating primary data from each participating partner. The integration of SAP Sustainability Data Exchange with Catena-X enables the creation of PCF transparency.

The integration process begins with master data and transactional data for carbon footprint calculation flowing from SAP S/4HANA or SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) into SAP Sustainability Footprint Management. Within this system, users can calculate the overall corporate carbon footprint and derive product-specific carbon footprints—this is considered an internal corporate process.

Next, SAP Sustainability Data Exchange manages the exchange of PCF data. It receives the company’s own calculated PCF from SAP Sustainability Footprint Management and handles purchased goods PCF data from suppliers. This functionality bridges the gap between internal processes and cross-company data sharing, ensuring seamless sustainability data flow across supply chains.

The Data Space Integration (DSI) component, part of the SAP Integration Suite, facilitates the connection between SAP environments and Catena-X. It enables data exchange between companies and their supply chain partners (suppliers and customers) through the Eclipse Data Connector (EDC).

In this framework, both suppliers and customers have their own respective calculation and exchange components, ensuring interoperability and standardized data sharing across the entire Catena-X network.

The overall flow demonstrates how a company can calculate its own carbon footprint, exchange this data with suppliers and customers, and create transparency across the entire supply chain. This system allows for a more comprehensive and accurate calculation of PCF by incorporating data from multiple supply chain partners.

The integration of SAP Sustainability Data Exchange with Catena-X begins with a company registering with Catena-X and accepting the Terms of Use.

If additional collaboration takes place using Cofinity-X (for example, for data flows or testing purposes), proof-of-concept agreements for the SAP application may be required. These are specific to certain projects and are coordinated by the project lead together with experts from Legal, Procurement, IT, and Sustainability (LoB Sustainability).

Next, the PCF use case project lead and IT experts onboard Cofinity-X, SAP Sustainability Data Exchange and Data Space Integration (DSI). DSI is SAP’s implementation of the Eclipse Dataspace Connector (EDC). While customers can use DSI, they are not required to do so – any other EDC, such as an open-source solution, can also be used.

Optionally, the PCF use case project lead / IT experts can connect SAP Sustainability Data Exchange with SAP Sustainability Footprint Management or other carbon footprint calculation tools.

To further learn about the overall process flow of SAP Sustainability Data Exchange integration with Catena-X Network , follow the links the links Initial Setup | SAP Help Portal, What Is Data Space Integration? | SAP Help Portal and SAP Sustainability Data Exchange | SAP Help Portal.

The integration of SAP Sustainability Data Exchange with the Catena-X network simplifies and accelerates integration projects, enabling seamless end-to-end business processes across multiple Lines of Business and partners—whether using SAP or non-SAP applications.