Introducing SAP Sustainability Data Exchange

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to articulate how SAP Sustainability Data Exchange help you collaborate with your business partners on sustainability and accelerate the decarbonization in your supply chain.

Overview

SAP Sustainability Data Exchange stands at the forefront of innovative solutions aimed at driving decarbonization and fostering collaboration across global value chains. This powerful platform offers a standardized approach to sustainability data management, enabling businesses of all sizes to share and receive reliable product carbon footprint information with unprecedented ease and accuracy. By leveraging advanced cloud technology and seamless integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and open APIs, SAP Sustainability Data Exchange empowers organizations to streamline their sustainability efforts, enhance data transparency, and accelerate progress towards their greenhouse gas reduction targets.

With its commitment to industry standards and partnerships with leading sustainability groups, such as WBCSD PACT and Catena-X, this solution provides a convenient way for exchanging sustainability data and communicating directly with business partners, thus driving meaningful change in their sustainability practices.

SAP Sustainability Data Exchange is part of the zero-emissions climate action category within SAP's comprehensive sustainability portfolio. It is one of three key applications in the new climate action strategy, which transitions from aggregated averages to transactional carbon accounting. The three core components of this strategy include:

  1. Sharing carbon data through SAP Sustainability Data Exchange
  2. Calculating carbon footprints using SAP Sustainability Footprint Management
  3. Implementing transactional carbon accounting through Green Ledger
The infographic illustrates SAP's transactional carbon accounting journey, progressing from aggregated averages to transactional actuals. Four stages are shown: ESG Reporting, Carbon Footprint Calculation, Carbon Data Sharing, and Transactional Carbon Accounting, each with corresponding SAP products.

SAP Sustainability Data Exchange: Streamlining Carbon Data Sharing

You can achieve carbon neutral supply chains by requesting and sharing data using SAP Sustainability Data Exchange. SAP Sustainability Data Exchange helps you collaborate with your business partners on sustainability and accelerate decarbonization in your supply chain in the following ways:

  1. Collaborate across your value chain to receive reliable information: It facilitates easy sharing of product carbon footprint data and a lightweight deployment to shift away from outdated practices like sharing carbon information using email or Excel spreadsheets. SAP Sustainability Data Exchange is interoperable and compliant with new standards (PACT V2), industry networks, and frameworks for seamless collaboration without compromising data sovereignty.
  2. Standardize data exchange and increase data accuracy: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange is a technical solution for facilitating standardized data sharing. It efficiently manages the complexities of supply chains by enabling consistent data requests and exchanges across various sectors. This tool is instrumental in SAP’s strategy to support sustainable and transparent supply chain management. SAP Sustainability Data Exchange is a cloud-based platform designed to transition from estimates to actual sustainability data. It aligns with SAP's move towards the Green Ledger through standardized carbon data exchange between partners along the supply chain.
  3. Accelerate carbon reduction and meet Greenhouse Gas (GHG) targets: By exchanging product carbon footprint data using SAP Sustainability Data Exchange, you can identify products or processes with high potential for CO2 reduction, avoid double emissions counting, and optimize footprints with actual supplier data. This enhances emission management by enabling real-time updates and proactive data sharing.

To learn more about SAP Green Ledger, follow the link SAP Green Ledger | ERP Software for Carbon Accounting.

Watch the following video to learn more about the functionalities of SAP Sustainability Data Exchange.

Business Use Case of SAP Sustainability Data Exchange

This section explores two key personas: the Chief Procurement Officer and the Chief Sustainability Officer. It outlines their roles, needs, and challenges and explains how SAP Sustainability Data Exchange helps address these needs and overcome their challenges.

Use Case 1: How does a Chief Procurement Officer use SAP Sustainability Data Exchange

Watch the following video to learn about the needs and challenges of a Chief Procurement Officer to ensure net zero emissions and reduce scope 3 emissions in their business processes.

Given Nora’s critical role as the Chief Procurement Officer and her requirements to contribute to her company’s net zero emissions goals and reduce scope 3 emissions, implementing SAP Sustainability Data Exchange would be a game changer for her procurement strategy in the following ways:

  1. Emission Reduction Roadmap: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange can help translate the scope 3 emission reduction targets into a concrete action roadmap by providing a centralized platform for collecting, managing, and analyzing supplier emissions data.
  2. Cost-Effective Green Procurement: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange enables you to collect primary product carbon footprint data from the suppliers. Hence, Nora can distinguish between an efficient and an inefficient supplier, which means she can find the sweet spot between low-cost and low-emission procurement. By having comprehensive sustainability data at her fingertips, she can make informed decisions that balance financial and environmental considerations.
  3. Resilient Supply Chains: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange can provide increased insight into the sustainability practices within a supply chain. This may assist Nora in addressing potential risks related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors that could disrupt the supply chain." or should I delete this?
  4. Sustainable Supplier Management: With SAP Sustainability Data Exchange, Nora can easily track and manage the sustainability performance of her suppliers. This supports her objective of ensuring that contract agreements are made with sustainable suppliers.
  5. Streamlined Reporting: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange can streamline much of the data collection and sharing process, saving time and reducing errors in the sustainability reporting efforts.
  6. Collaborative Platform: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange facilitates better collaboration with suppliers on sustainability initiatives, helping Nora to work together towards reducing emissions across the supply chain.

By implementing SAP Sustainability Data Exchange, Nora will be better equipped to leverage her buying power to significantly impact her company's emissions, aligning procurement strategies with its net-zero ambitions. This tool will empower her to make more informed, sustainable, and cost-effective procurement decisions, ultimately driving her company towards its environmental goals while maintaining business efficiency.

Use Case 2: How does a Chief Sustainability Officer utilize SAP Sustainability Data Exchange

Watch the following video to learn about the needs and challenges of a Chief Sustainability Officer in ensuring net-zero targets through strict decarbonization measures for their business processes.

As the Chief Sustainability Officer, John is responsible for his company's footprint calculation and achieving its net-zero targets through strict decarbonization measures. Implementing SAP Sustainability Data Exchange would be invaluable for his role. Here's why SAP Sustainability Data Exchange is crucial for John’s objectives:

  1. Supply Chain Transparency:SAP Sustainability Data Exchange provides maximum transparency into the supply chain and its emissions that herequires. This visibility is essential for accurate footprint calculations and effective decarbonization strategies.
  2. Scope 3 Target Setting and Management: As the owner of the net-zero target setting, particularly for scope 3 emissions, SAP Sustainability Data Exchange serves as a powerful tool to collect and manage data from the entire value chain. This enables more accurate target setting and progress tracking.
  3. Centralized Carbon Footprint Data Management: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange provides a centralized platform to store and manage all relevant sustainability data, ensuring data integrity and accessibility.
  4. Enhanced Calculation Capabilities: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange helps in comprehensive data collection from various sources, which leads to accurate calculation of carbon footprint. This aligns perfectly with John’s responsibility for these calculations.
  5. ESG Reporting and Compliance: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange can streamline the process of ESG reporting and help ensure compliance with regulatory standards. It provides robust data management and reporting capabilities that can adapt to evolving regulatory requirements.
  6. Data-Driven Decarbonization Strategy: With SAP Sustainability Data Exchange, John can develop and refine the decarbonization strategy based on accurate, real-time data from across our value chain.
  7. Integration with Existing Systems: SAP Sustainability Data Exchange can integrate with other SAP solutions, such as SAP Sustainability Footprint Management, providing a comprehensive sustainability management ecosystem.

By implementing SAP Sustainability Data Exchange, John will be equipped with a powerful tool that addresses his key responsibilities. It will enhance his ability to calculate and manage the carbon footprint, set and achieve ambitious net-zero targets, ensure regulatory compliance, and drive the overall sustainability strategy with data-driven insights. This investment will be crucial in achieving the sustainability goals and maintaining the position as a responsible, forward-thinking organization.

Now, you have seen how SAP Sustainability Data Exchange helps you collaborate with your business partners on sustainability and accelerate decarbonization in your supply chain.

Next, you will learn how SAP Sustainability Data Exchange can be leveraged by customers who are a part of SAP Business Network or industry networks such as Catena-X to collaborate with their business partners on product carbon footprint.

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