SAP talks up sustainability ambitions

SAP yesterday became the latest IT firm to tout its green credentials, releasing its first independently assessed sustainability report and inviting customers to provide suggestions on how the software giant can improve its environmental performance.

The new interactive report, which was released just a day after the company announced that it intends to acquire carbon management software specialist Clear Standards Inc, confirms that SAP cut its carbon footprint by 6.7 per cent in 2008 as part of its efforts to reduce emissions by 49 per cent on 2007 levels by 2020.

It also reiterated the company's commitment to invest "aggressively" in developing software products designed to help companies curb their environmental impact and included a new Sustainability Map designed to provide best practice business process guidelines on how firms should seek to enhance their environmental performance.

Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer and executive vice president of sustainability solutions at the company, said the interactive map would also help its customers inform SAP about the technologies they require to better manage their sustainability performance.

The announcements came just a day after SAP said it intends to shell out an undisclosed sum to acquire carbon management software specialist Clear Standards.

The company said the deal would help accelerate its push into the market for carbon reporting and management software, which is growing rapidly as large firms prepare to face increasingly stringent carbon reporting regulations, such as those currently being planned in both the UK and US.

"It is essential that organisations gain actionable insight into their carbon emissions, water consumption, energy use and other environmental factors, so they can lower their environmental impact," said SAP co-chief executive Léo Apotheker, adding that the Clear Standards deal would help SAP provide customers with end-to-end reporting on sustainability metrics.

SAP said that following the completion of the acquisition it would look to enhance integration between Clear Standards web-based carbon management applications and its existing business, and environment, health and safety apps – a move that it said would make it easier for customers using the Clear Standards software to tap into related financial and other data stored in different SAP enterprise applications.

SAP is the latest in a line of global software firms seeking to bolster their position in the fast-emerging market for carbon and sustainability reporting software.

IBM has launched a series of software and services products designed to help firms measure and track their carbon footprint, while reporting software specialist SAS unveiled a specific carbon management suite last year to help firms report on their environmental performance.

In addition, SAP arch-rival Oracle announced earlier this year that it has partnered with UK software startup Zogix to develop a new application that allows firms to automatically track carbon emissions arising from employee travel. The two companies said they are working on extending the application so it can also help track carbon emissions from buildings and supply chains.