Data Is The Key To Connecting Profitability With Environmental Sustainability
With COP27 happening this week, we’re reminded of how the gathering final yr in Glasgow performed a important function in putting sustainability firmly on the worldwide agenda. However one yr on, the highway to environmental motion is way from easy for enterprise leaders. The outcomes of SAP’s new Sustainability Report for instance, reveal that nine-in-ten UK companies join long-term profitability with environmental sustainability. However an lack of ability to make use of knowledge to measure and substantiate their eco-credentials emerges as a key barrier.
To debate these findings in better element, Michiel Verhoeven, Managing Director, SAP UKI, hosted a roundtable with outstanding consultants and enterprise leaders.
The function of knowledge
“We work in an business that requires plenty of knowledge to do the issues we do,” stated Tim Embley, Group Analysis & Innovation Director at Costain, the UK’s associate for advanced infrastructure tasks for sectors together with vitality, water, highways, rail, defence, and aviation.
To assist its shoppers make the mandatory modifications on their path to a net-zero future, Costain developed an clever infrastructure management middle (IICC). Constructed on SAP Enterprise Platform expertise and deployed by Keytree, a Deloitte enterprise, the IICC helps the UK transportation sector consolidate and entry siloed knowledge.
“We’ve got a really advanced agenda involving lots of people in several organizations and plenty of knowledge flying round,” stated Embley. He went on to elucidate how Costain checked out all of the metrics of the transportation sector to establish as much as 20% financial savings within the provide chain that might finally be used to construct extra faculties or hospitals. Water is one other space the place enormous financial savings could possibly be gained.
“Water corporations at the moment are getting collectively by way of an open knowledge method. Firms like Thames Water and United Utilities are all separate entities, however they’re doing comparable kinds of issues. It is smart to share knowledge to finally ship higher outcomes to the tip customers,” he stated.
Gemma Baker, Sustainability Managing Director at Accenture, additionally commented on the function of knowledge and the benefit of capturing it systematically all through an enterprise. In her expertise, the SAP report displays buyer realities. Targets are typically set at a gaggle stage, then at a enterprise unit stage. The concentrate on sustainability is decided on the high.
“As we speak, sustainability is about operationalizing, and the largest problem round operationalizing throughout the board is knowledge,” stated Baker. “Knowledge usually sits in silos, and as a chief safety officer you want a number of several types of knowledge. You want bodily threat knowledge, asset stage geospatial knowledge, transition threat knowledge, provide chain targets and metrics on emissions, and so forth. The information may be very disparate and maintaining updated on it is rather difficult.”
In line with Baker, some corporations are even bringing in somebody to be Head of ESG knowledge at an organizational stage. She advises corporations to place a transparent management framework into place to be able to align to obligatory and even voluntary requirements. On the similar time, she recommends working with solely a handful of distributors as a result of the seller panorama is tremendous broad and presents plenty of knowledge that’s arduous to trace.
Discovering options
Stephen Jamieson, World Head of Round Economic system Options, SAP, cited the problem confronted by most Shopper Product Firms (CPG) – how you can observe each materials and each issue throughout each node of the provision chain. As well as, corporations now should cope with an alphabet soup of laws and lack of readability on what must be measured when and the place.
“To present COP26 credit score, we’re lastly beginning to see some kind of consensus rising when it comes to regulatory frameworks and requirements,” stated Jamieson. “It’s ineffective to attend for an ideal second. As an alternative, our method is to concentrate on the constructive features which can be creating, such because the UK Plastic Packaging Tax and the way the topic of packaging is impacting the complete provide chain. We’ll begin seeing extra proof factors in a yr or two.”
Many enterprise leaders agree they will’t look ahead to regulators, and acknowledge the necessity to take motion as a neighborhood. Enhancing the surroundings and decreasing an organisation’s footprint has all the time been a ethical and moral necessity, however the survey reveals it has developed to change into a key driver of income. Virtually two-thirds (65%) of UK companies now consider that addressing environmental points will likely be materials to enterprise outcomes throughout the subsequent 5 years.
However capitalizing upon heighted buyer demand and the potential for long-term profitability requires a devoted sustainability technique powered by knowledge evaluation. With 69% of UK companies feeling the affect of local weather change by way of the rising price of assets, leaders can not afford to deploy poor knowledge etiquette in the event that they want to offset market uncertainty, strengthen their eco-credentials and join long-term profitability with sustainability motion.
As Jamieson identified, expertise reminiscent of Ariba, SAP’s e-procurement and provide chain cloud answer, can assist corporations digitalize and handle end-to-end processes whereas sustaining clear visibility into all related knowledge.
One other answer that helps handle local weather related knowledge is SAP Accountable Design and Manufacturing, co-innovated by Accenture and SAP. It helps enterprises design out waste and regenerate pure techniques whereas offering better visibility into materials flows. It helps corporations adjust to quickly altering laws particularly round plastics and packaging, serving to sustainability managers, manufacturing employees, packaging engineers, tax and knowledge reporting consultants do what must be completed.
“Knowledge is an important requirement for proving round worth creation, the advantages of web zero, and methods to drive useful resource productiveness,” stated Verhoeven in conclusion. “Prospects have to be positive companies aren’t green-washing and are dedicated to motion, and enterprises must holistically assess their affect on the planet and guarantee they’re taking correct steps to cut back their footprint. That’s how they may defend their repute, attain net-zero quicker and drive income alternatives within the years to come back.”
To be taught extra, try the 2022 SAP Sustainability Report.
Comply with me on Twitter @magyarj
