Applying technology to protect the planet

To combat the damages caused by climate change, SAP is using digitisation to help our customers transform their businesses to reduce carbon outputs. Digital solutions that drive efficiency and resource optimisation are already helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and “increase net welfare gains from economic activities by reducing resource use, degradation and pollution along the whole life cycle, while increasing quality of life.” For example, companies like Vestas and Kaiserwetter are leveraging SAP technology to enhance access to renewable and affordable energy, while Vectus applies it to conserve precious water in India, for instance.

Striving to lead by example, we created a goal in 2009 to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions back to the levels of 2000 by 2020 – which we achieved ahead of time end of 2017.

Now, we are aiming higher and will become carbon neutral by 2025 through three primary approaches:

  • Avoid: Emissions are avoided wherever and whenever possible. Substituting business flights with video conferencing is just one example.
  • Reduce: SAP has programmes in place to increase efficiency in data centres, for example, that scale significantly and not least benefit our customers in our green cloud.
  • Compensate: SAP compensates for remaining emissions by investing in certified climate projects with high quality standards.

Environmental highlight:

SAP has more than halved emissions per employee during the past ten years! More details on our environmental performance are published in our Integrated Report.