SAP aims to cut carbon footprint, joins CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge with Gucci

SAP recently announced its participation in the the CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge issued by Gucci President and CEO Marco Bizzarri pledging to support global business in the transition to a low-carbon economy.

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Jennifer Morgan, Co-CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP notes, “Marco Bizzarri’s CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge is complementary to our own commitment to helping businesses use innovative technology to achieve their most ambitious climate goals so they can take responsible actions and make a positive difference.”

The CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge underscores the need for companies to take urgent action and implement a 360° climate strategy to create positive outcomes. The cornerstone of the challenge to businesses is to take full responsibility and accountability for the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions they generate, deliver nature-based climate solutions that mitigate emissions and drive positive change.

“As businesses, we must all own up to the total GHG emissions our activities generate and, at the same time, invest in nature-based solutions to protect our world’s critical forests and biodiversity, simultaneously helping to mitigate climate change,” says Gucci President and CEO Marco Bizzarri. “I applaud SAP’s commitment to join the CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge. The leadership they are showing by doing so will help create a future in which society can thrive and business can succeed, while nature is restored and protected.”

In line with the criteria set forth by the CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge, SAP had already established an approach to helping customers transition to a low-carbon economy and deliver on their climate goals including creating greater efficiency, transparency and accountability of carbon and emissions across the entire supply chain, innovating new processes and business models, and helping companies engage with industry, government and their consumers.

SAP aims to help companies track carbon emissions from their upstream supply chains to downstream logistics, including procurement, operations and manufacturing. In the transition to new sustainable business models, SAP has a team of innovation services and solutions professionals focused on enabling customers to embrace disruption and transform their business through innovation using intelligent technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and advanced data analytics.

The company aims to be a role model for climate action as well. In 2009, it set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions back to the levels of 2000 by the year 2020. It achieved that goal more than two years early, despite increasing its employee base fourfold. In 2017, it also announced a commitment to making operations carbon neutral by 2025. This target included all direct emissions as well as a selected subset of indirect emissions from supply chains and services.

SAP became a member of the Science Based Targets Initiative in 2017 and was the first in Germany with a science-based carbon reduction target for 2050. SAP was also among the first companies in 2019 to commit to science-based 1.5°C-aligned reduction targets. This corresponds to an 85 percent reduction in the company’s 2016 emissions level by 2050, including energy consumption of SAP products in use by customers.

When emissions cannot be avoided or reduced, SAP compensates by investing in CO2 offsets, and in return receives CO2 credits from the sponsored projects. The focus is on high-quality projects, such as Livelihoods funds, which combine reforestation with bettering the livelihoods of rural communities. This fulfills the Gold Standard of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

SAP’s annual integrated report contains a detailed analysis of its emissions and impacts and is considered one of the most progressive in the technology industry. The company is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and a member of associations, including CDP, the Value Balancing Alliance and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Additionally, SAP is the leading software company in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.

SAP joins Gucci, The RealReal, and Lavazza Group in the CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge issued by Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri. Gucci is part of Kering, which has also declared total carbon neutrality.