Walldorf, Germany – SAP released its 2011 Sustainability Report on March 26, targeted at customers, partners, employees, shareholders and the public. The new report covers the company’s innovations in the areas of software for energy management and sustainable operations, its own transformation into a more sustainable company and its social investment strategy. Most importantly, it features enhanced capabilities for engaging with readers, from interactive charts and exciting stories of business transformation to a mechanism that allows readers to communicate what matters to them.
In 2011, SAP continued to demonstrate its continued commitment to investment and improvement of its solutions, and also remained on track to reduce its carbon emissions to year-2000 levels by 2020 (while SAP’s actual emissions rose over 2010, reflecting growth in overall business, they still fell below the target for the year). And for the first time, SAP measured all of its scope 3 emissions, working closely to develop a new standard with the World Resources Institute (WRI).
SAP’s report has been prepared in accordance with the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines G3.1 of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), who also confirmed that the requirements of meeting application level A+ are met. In addition, the report has been prepared by applying the principles of inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness as defined in the AA1000 Accountability Principles Standard. Furthermore, the greenhouse gas footprint data is based on SAP’s own internal criteria and on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Standard.
The report has been independently verified by KPMG Sustainability. Reasonable assurance was obtained on the 2011 data related to greenhouse gas footprint, total energy consumption, renewable energy, women in management, employee retention, employee engagement and business health culture index. In addition to that, KPMG Sustainability provided limited assurance on whether the remaining information in the report is fairly presented in accordance with the reporting criteria as well as on the alignment with the principles of inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness as defined in the AA1000 Accountability Principles Standard.
In brief, the 2011 Sustainability Report:
- Shows the impact SAP software has on the world, including solutions for energy and environmental management, sustainable supply chain, operational risk management, sustainable workforce and sustainability reporting and analytics.
- Explains how SAP increased its own carbon efficiency for the fifth consecutive year, avoiding cost of EUR 190 million since 2008.
- Highlights how SAP increased employee engagement by nine percent in just one year.
- Introduces a global target to increase the ratio of women in management positions to 25 percent by 2017.
- Includes both financial and non-financial information as SAP moves towards more integrated reporting.
- Details how SAP’s social investment strategy impacted 1 million lives in 2011.
- Is backed up by rigorous standards of data collection and transparency, specifically the enhanced scope 3 GHG emissions protocol.
- Achieved a GRI A+ rating by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
- Allows people to share feedback, ideas and inspirations both in the report and through social media.
“Our new report marks an important milestone on our journey to helping the world run better and improving people’s lives,” said Peter Graf, Chief Sustainability Officer, SAP. “As a company founded and thriving on the concept of innovation, we are excited about helping more and more companies run more profitably and sustainably around the world – including our own. We are proud of the positive recognition we have received for our efforts from the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, Carbon Disclosure Project, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and others, and look forward to the ideas and inspiration from the readers of our new report.”
Source: SAP.
