While
companies and governments around the world pledge to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions to keep the shareholders/taxpayers at bay, a select few follow
through with real results.
One
such company is SAP, who is utilising their own software solutions to reduce
their carbon footprint on a global scale.
The
claim is backed up by the figures. Since 2007 the company has steadily
decreased their emissions from 540 kilotons (540,000 tons) to 425kt in 2009. In
the past year emissions have dropped by around 16%.
The
achievement is well ahead of their established target for 2009, and equates to
a monetary saving of 90 million Euros in the last year alone.
Their
efforts have also been backed up by the accolades. For the last six years, SAP
has been named in the Corporate Knights Global 100 Most Sustainable
Corporations in the World.
Entrants
in the Global 100 are evaluated on ten key sustainability performance indicators,
including leadership, innovation and transparency.
SAP
has also been recognised on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the
FTSE4Good Index.
Karen
Zwissler, Head of Sustainability Initiatives in ANZ, said these achievements let
people know they are serious about sustainability.
“When
you start reporting, and start appearing in these reporting schemes, it raises
your credibility, and says you can do something about (sustainability). It’s
put us into a position as a leader of all IT companies worldwide in the
sustainability sphere.”
To
achieve the results the company has undertaken a number of initiatives, both at
a company level and an employee level.
Foremost
are travel restrictions and the placement of employees who are specifically responsible
for waste management, electricity and paper usage around the office.
The
ANZ region has also been targeted by SAP as a pilot for a number of new
initiatives.
“We’ve
had very special support which has given us the chance to involve our customers
in co-innovation. We’ve also had a special focus on getting our buildings in Australia as
green as possible. We’re re-fitting the Sydney
headquarters and we’ve built the new offices in Brisbane,” Karen said.
But
SAP still has more to do. On a long list of objectives is a goal to reduce
emissions to their year-2000 emissions level of 275kt CO2. SAP has given
themselves until 2020 to reach the target, but on their current course SAP
could achieve this goal long before then.
“We’ve
managed to decrease our emissions by 16% already in just one year, so I think
we will manage,” Zwissler says confidently.
Believing
in their own product, SAP has adopted the use of their own tools, namely SAP
Carbon Impact and SAP Sustainability Performance Management. SAP says the
product allowed them to ‘quickly determine their 2009 emissions, re-baseline their
carbon footprint and enable the reporting of its carbon footprint months
earlier than previously possible’.
“We
are accelerating the sustainability program using our internal software,” Karen
said.
“It
puts us in a good position to show our customers we can run efficient processes
and go through a transformation.”
Stakeholders
await the SAP 2009 Sustainability Report, which will provide further details on
SAP’s carbon footprint. The report is expected in Q2 2010.
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