SAP Carbon Impact OnDemand Goes Global

Early adopters include Autodesk, Arch Chemicals and Fisker Automotive, all of which are using the SaaS (software as a service) offering to reduce their energy and carbon footprints worldwide, while maintaining or improving profitability. SAP chief sustainability officer Peter Graf says that SAP Carbon Impact OnDemand 5.0 has been designed for the global economy, and helps companies to adapt their carbon reduction strategy to changing market environments, citing volatile energy prices and tightening regulations. "[Manufacturers] need to reliably report and profitably reduce their carbon footprints in their home markets and on a global scale," says Graf. "First, [that] requires harvesting accurate carbon data from back-end systems and a myriad of sources at all facilities. Second, companies need to analyse and benchmark their performance against peers and develop optimal reduction strategies based on best industry practices. Third, a successful global carbon reduction strategy needs high supplier and employee engagement to drive change," he adds. For him, the point of the extended software release is that it helps organisations to do exactly that – executing "against energy and carbon reduction goals by expanding the reach from a local level to the global enterprise". In particular, says Graf, the software accelerates credible reporting in a multi-lingual, global economy with enhanced data integration across the enterprise and product supply chains. And that, he insists, will help manufacturers to speed up the achievement of internal sustainability goals "by engaging the global workforce to drive change toward a more sustainable enterprise with collaboration and rewards programmes".