SAP unveils interactive Sustainability Report, invites collaboration on sustainability strategies

The new SAP 2008 Sustainability Report is the company's first independently assured report, having achieved a B+ Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) rating, and features a unique role-based interface that uses Xcelsius software from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio to allow readers to interact with and use SAP's data in an intuitive and engaging way.

As a framework to actively encourage continued stakeholder collaboration around future sustainability solutions, SAP also released an extensive "Sustainability Map" in the report.

For the first time, the map catalogs the full landscape of the customer's business processes and IT activities related to sustainability.

SAP invited stakeholders to collaborate in improving the map going forward—a distinctive move targeted at redefining the way customers build their strategies and IT companies build their solutions in the area of sustainability.

SAP announced that it reduced its total corporate carbon footprint by 6.7% in 2008 compared to 2007, a significant step toward its previously announced commitment to reduce its total carbon footprint back to its year-2000 level by 2020, representing a 49% reduction of its year-2007 baseline total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer and executive vice president of Sustainability Solutions, SAP AG, said:

"SAP has made a long-term, strategic commitment to sustainability because we believe it is a key aspect of being a best-run, clear enterprise—both for us and for our customers. With the release of our 2008 Sustainability Report, we put increased emphasis on the interaction with stakeholders. First, users can now analyze our performance using interactive SAP software, and second, the Sustainability Map allows for a more structured approach to understanding and communicating customer requirements. We think collaboration is key for IT companies to help customers improve both profitability and sustainability."

New Sustainability Report Features Unique Interface:

The SAP 2008 Sustainability Report incorporates a unique interface based on Xcelsius software that allows stakeholders to analyze and view SAP's reporting data in a way that makes sense to their needs and roles.

For example, readers can analyze GHG emissions reporting data from SAP by entity or employee, worldwide or regional, by scope and by source of scope emission.

This new feature brings a new level of transparency and insight into SAP's internal sustainability efforts.

The report is only available online at www.SAPsustainabilityreport.com — readers who wish to view a continuous text also have the option to download the report in GRI format.

SAP Calls for Public Collaboration Guided by Sustainability Map:

The SAP 2008 Sustainability Report also includes the software industry's most extensive Sustainability Map, created to take the company's ongoing stakeholder conversation about the sustainability needs of its customers to a new level.

The map identifies individual, core business processes related to sustainability and maps them into seven distinct categories. It was developed with input from many thought leaders, including industry analysts, service partners, non-governmental organizations, SAP customers and others.

SAP strongly believes in collaboration, co-innovation and stakeholder engagement as a basis for developing new and extending existing solutions, and is calling for feedback about the map in SAP-sponsored online sustainability conversations.

"This new Sustainability Map from SAP offers a comprehensive view of the sustainability requirements of organizations," said Dr. Stephen Stokes, vice president of Sustainability and Green Technology at AMR Research. "Only a handful of software vendors have looked beyond the relatively simple exercise of collecting carbon-related data to define the market landscape and deliver solutions to comprehensively drive operations and strategy. The SAP map will help companies determine their sustainability priorities, enabling them to define and implement sustainably focused growth strategies."

Range of Sustainability Solutions Already Available from SAP:

In addition to aggressively researching and developing sustainability solutions to meet the future needs of customers, SAP already offers a range of solutions, such as the SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management application, to meet many current sustainability needs. As well, the SAP Services organization helps customers leverage existing SAP sustainability applications by adding "dashboards" that further enable sustainability objectives by providing analytics, status and insight into designated objectives or KPIs.

An Ongoing Focus on Sustainability:

The announcement today builds on SAP's ongoing focus on sustainability, including its March 2009 announcement of a new internal sustainability organization and aggressive carbon footprint reduction targets. Other recent SAP activities relating to sustainability include its Virtualization Week event, increased commitment to the use of renewable energy, and the dedication of a new SAP North America building designed with a host of sustainable features.