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  • > Exploring SAP Sustainability Footprint Management: Initial Insight

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Exploring SAP Sustainability Footprint Management: Initial Insight

Thought Leadership 10/28/2024

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Introduction

SAP Sustainability Footprint Management is a solution designed to help organizations measure, analyze, and reduce their environmental impact, particularly their carbon footprint. It enables companies to track emissions data across their entire value chain, including Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions from energy consumption), and Scope 3 (all other indirect emissions).

Key Features:

1. Emission Tracking: Provides tools to capture and calculate emissions data from various sources, enabling companies to monitor their carbon footprint accurately.

2. Data Integration: Integrates with other SAP solutions like SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud to consolidate environmental data with financial and operational information.

3. Compliance and Reporting: Helps organizations comply with regulatory requirements by providing templates and reports aligned with global standards.

4. Scenario Analysis: Enables companies to model different scenarios and assess the impact of various sustainability strategies on their carbon footprint.

5. Sustainability Insights: Offers insights and analytics to identify areas for improvement and track progress towards sustainability goals.

Overall, SAP Footprint Management supports companies in making data-driven decisions to reduce their environmental impact and achieve sustainability objectives.

Data Acquisition

Master data and Transactional data

Connecting with existing systems: The SAP Sustainability Footprint Management tool can connect with SAP systems like SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA and pull the master data and transactional data that is already present in your company's system.

Connecting with other systems: SAP can still connect with other systems apart from SAP, but it might need some extra work by your IT team. SAP offers help to set this up.

Manual data input: SAP provides templates for uploading the required data from files if the automatic connection isn't possible. This way we can still add data manually.

Special transportation data: Freight-transport-specific master data entities like plant or supplier locations can be imported through file upload.

Starter package: SAP also provides some basic data to start with, like information about transport hubs and different types of vehicles.

Emission Calculation

SAP Sustainability Footprint Management calculates the carbon footprint of products to ensure that your company can extend resource efficiency towards eco-efficiency and keep its eco-promise. It checks the "cradle to gate" part of a product's life. This means it includes emissions from procuring the raw materials, processing them, transporting them, and their production.

The system employs advanced “energy flow models” to seamlessly connect various stages of your production process. This can be configured using intuitive lists or through a user-friendly visual interface, where you can simply drag and drop components to create and optimize energy flow paths.

Click to Enlarge

There are two main calculation methods:

  • Organizational Footprint: This looks at your company’s overall emissions by considering GHG Protocol Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
    • Direct emissions from owned sources (Scope 1)
    • Indirect emissions from purchased energy (Scope2)
    • Other indirect emissions (Scope 3)
    • Product Footprint: This calculates the footprint of specific products.

    Sankey Diagram is the main tool to show where emissions are coming from and lets you dig into the details.

    Click to Enlarge

    Footprint Analytics

    Footprint analytics refers to the process of analyzing and interpreting the different environmental impact data that was collected and calculated by the SAP Sustainability Footprint Management system. This in-built analytics helps you to make sense of all the data you've gathered about your company's environmental impact.

    Here are the key aspects of footprint analytics:

    • Data Visualization: The system provides various ways to visualize your footprint data, making it easier to understand and interpret. The primary tool for this is the Sankey Diagram, which shows the flow of emissions through different parts of your business.
    Click to Enlarge
    • Drill-Down Capabilities: You can start with a high-level overview of your emissions and then drill down into specific areas for more detail. This allows you to identify the main drivers of your emissions at various levels of your organization.
    Click to Enlarge
    • Comparative Analysis: The analytics tools allow you to compare emissions across different products, processes, or periods. This can help you identify trends and areas for improvement.
    Click to Enlarge

    Click to Enlarge
    • Scenario Modeling: You can use the analytics tools to model different scenarios, such as changing suppliers or production methods, to see how they might impact your overall footprint.
    Click to Enlarge
    • Reporting: The system can generate reports that summarize your footprint data in various ways, which can be useful for internal decision-making or external reporting.
    Click to Enlarge
    Click to Enlarge
    • KPI Tracking: You can set up and track key performance indicators (KPIs) related to your sustainability goals.
    Click to Enlarge
    • Hotspot Identification: The analytics tools help you identify "hotspots" in your operations - areas that contribute disproportionately to your overall footprint.
    Click to Enlarge
    • Decision Support: By providing clear, data-driven insights, footprint analytics supports decision-making around sustainability initiatives.

    The goal of footprint analytics is to turn raw emissions data into actionable insights. It helps companies understand where their biggest environmental impacts are coming from, track progress toward sustainability goals, and make informed decisions about how to reduce their environmental footprint.

    Conclusion: Paving the Way for Sustainable Business Practices

    SAP Sustainability Footprint Management represents a significant step forward in helping businesses understand and manage their environmental impact. By providing robust data acquisition capabilities, accurate emission calculations, and insightful analytics. This empowers organizations to make data-driven decisions about their sustainability efforts.

    SAP Sustainability Footprint Management's ability to integrate with existing business processes, calculate comprehensive footprints, and provide detailed analytics makes it a powerful ally in the journey toward more sustainable operations. Whether it's identifying hotspots in your supply chain, tracking progress towards emission reduction goals, or preparing for increasingly stringent regulatory requirements, SAP Sustainability Footprint Management offers the functionality needed to stay ahead of the curve.

    In an era where environmental consciousness is not just a moral imperative but a business necessity, tools like this play a crucial role. They transform sustainability from a vague goal into a measurable, manageable aspect of business operations.

    As sustainability continues to grow in importance, we can expect further developments in this field. Businesses that embrace these tools now will be well-positioned to adapt to future challenges and opportunities in the green economy. For organizations looking to enhance their sustainability efforts, exploring the capabilities of SAP Sustainability Footprint Management could be a significant step toward a more sustainable, efficient, and future-proof operation.

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