Global software giant SAP has unveiled an ambitious roadmap to advance its suite of solutions aimed at helping clients realise their zero emission ambitions. BearingPoint has been selected as the consulting and development partner.
According to a recent survey from the United Nations, 7 out of 10 CEOs are actively working to develop a net zero strategy for their company. Meanwhile, a larger number of CEOs say that they are willing to take concrete actions to improve sustainability progress over the coming three years.
To help organisations realise their these plans, SAP offers a range of specific applications and modules that help track carbon footprint emissions and impacts, both within the organisation as well across the entire value chain.
The most well-known of these solutions are SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises (an offering that integrates data and process to manage carbon footprint and reduce material waste) and SAP Product Footprint Management (a solution that lets companies calculate carbon footprints for their products across the value chain).
Now partnering with BearingPoint, SAP aims to “accelerate its solution roadmap and the value delivered by solutions,” said Peter Maier, President of Industries and Customer Advisory at SAP.
BearingPoint is an international consulting firm (and a SAP Gold partner) that has over the years built a strong track record in sustainability consulting, as well as sustainability solutions – the firm’s ‘Emissions Calculator’ for instance is used by dozens of companies worldwide to manage their decarbonisation objectives and comply with sustainability reporting guidelines.
The consultancy will now open up its experience and inject its intellectual property into the SAP network, enabling the company’s software engineers to enhance the scope, functionality and usability of solutions.
Gunther Rothermel, Senior Vice President and Head of S/4HANA Sustainability at SAP, said: “The co-development partnership between SAP and BearingPoint will bring together two strong value propositions. BearingPoint has long experience helping customers identify carbon reduction potentials and achieve sustainability targets. SAP contributes a system landscape and tech-driven innovation capabilities.”
“Together with SAP, we will co-develop, utilising our IP assets, and provide a unique solution in the market to measure and optimise the climate impact of products across the entire life cycle,” added Donald Wachs, Head of IP Assets and Member of BearingPoint’s Management Committee.
The lens on ‘hidden’ emissions
The partnership will most notably see the two companies expand the SAP Product Footprint Management solution. One of the key extensions being worked on is including so-called scope 3 emissions into the mix. These are carbon emissions related to a company’s activities that are emitted not by the organisation itself but by suppliers and other parties in the value chain.
Highlighting the importance of incorporating scope 3 emissions, one recent study found that these emissions account for more than 70 percent of the overall carbon footprint.
Wachs: “While many companies have already assessed their scope 1, and scope 2 emissions, assessing the entire value chain by introducing scope 3 emissions is key. To do so environmental networks must support data exchange with partners like suppliers, clients, auditors and governments even if they use different IT systems.”
“Building on BearingPoint’s in-depth know-how in product and corporate footprint calculations and algorithms, the SAP Product Footprint Management solution supports data gathering and calculations to help realise end-to-end carbon and environmental footprinting. This enables it to perform automated assessments of footprints across the value chain, even in heterogenous system landscapes.”
The joint SAP and BearingPoint development team will also work together on further improving the accuracy of emission tracking and modelling, with a 2021 report by BCG warning that over 90% of major companies fail to comprehensively measure their total greenhouse gas emissions.
Contributing to a better world
Meanwhile, Wachs noted that the work with SAP and joint customers will add to BearingPoint’s own mission of contributing to a more sustainable world. With over 400,000 customer organisations in 180+ countries using its systems, Germany-headquartered SAP is a global leader in the enterprise resource planning landscape, meaning that the impact the partnership can make is potentially enormous.
“We at BearingPoint believe that together with SAP’s innovative solutions, depth in commercial processes, and market expertise we can make a positive impact on the climate,” said Wachs.
Practising what it preaches, BearingPoint last year announced that it is seeking to reduce its own firm-wide carbon emissions by 50% by the end of 2025.
Sourced from Consultancy.eu