- Climate Change
- DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE
- URBANIZATION
- GLOBALIZATION
Management Report
Energy and emissions
Serving our customers, pursuing our strategy of innovation, and driving toward sustainable success all demand that we address our environmental impact. We recognize the need to do our part to reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change and to become more energy efficient. These efforts bring tangible benefits not just to the environment, but to our business. New efficiencies drive significant savings that directly impact our financial performance. These savings also enable us to invest further in innovation, as well as sustainabilitysustainabilityFor SAP, sustainability is the ability to manage economic, social, and environmental risks and opportunities holistically for increased profitability. It contributes to our vision to make the world run better and improve peoples’ lives. SAP is committed t... initiatives such as our increased purchase of renewable energy.
By working to improve our efficiency, we have learned what it takes to do so. We are better positioned to design solutions to help our customers thrive in a resource-constrained world. We have been challenged to solve problems in new ways, making us more innovative and driving financial success for our Company, employees, investors, and other stakeholders. In addition, our focus on becoming more sustainable has engaged our employees, who overwhelmingly indicate in the employee survey 2011 that these efforts are important to SAP.
We assess our progress on energy and greenhouse gas emissions through four key performance indicators that reveal not just how well we are addressing our environmental impact, but also our broader performance in terms of forging new solutions and executing on our strategy.
- Carbon footprint: We recognize our responsibility to protect the environment by lowering emissions contributing to climate change. SAP’s goal is to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions to levels of the year 2000 by 2020. For the fifth consecutive year, we increased our carbon efficiency, from 36.3 grams per euro in 2010 to 34.4 grams per euro in 2011 (measured in emissions caused per euro revenue). In parallel with the increase in our revenue, some activities required to support our business, such as travel to serve our customers, also increased, which ultimately led to an increase in our total greenhouse gas emissions. SAP’s greenhouse gas emissions increased 8% worldwide to 490 kilotons (2010: 455 kilotons, including SybaseSybaseSAP acquired Sybase in late 2010, broadening the SAP portfolio for enterprise mobility, introducing a complete mobile platform and mobile apps that enable customer access to data stored in SAP software and systems from anywhere and from any device. Sybase). Our focused sustainabilitysustainabilityFor SAP, sustainability is the ability to manage economic, social, and environmental risks and opportunities holistically for increased profitability. It contributes to our vision to make the world run better and improve peoples’ lives. SAP is committed t... initiatives have led to a cumulative cost avoidance of €190 million since 2008 in comparison to a business-as-usual extrapolation based on 2007. The experience we gain from our own initiatives helps us develop software to help our customers with their energy efficiency programs, and so contributes to the success of our business.
- Total energy consumption: Our total energy consumption includes all energy produced or purchased by our organization. Reducing our energy consumption positions us to weather anticipated increases in energy prices, and enables us to better serve customers that are increasingly focused on exercising energy- and emission-aware purchasing strategies. Our total energy consumption increased 2% from approximately 845 gigawatt hours in 2010 to 860 gigawatt hours in 2011 due to the growth of our business. Specifically, we can trace this increase to our data centers and corporate cars. While our total consumption went up, however, our efficiency also improved. For example, while the number of cars in our fleet increased to accommodate growth, the energy consumed per car decreased. In 2011, we implemented a range of efficiency projects in such areas of our business as our buildings and data centers.
- Data center energy: We focus on making data centers more energy efficient by measuring and managing the data center energy consumption per employee. These efforts are part of our larger green ITgreen ITGreen computing or green IT refers to environmentally-friendly and sustainable information technology. SAP software can help customers minimize the environmental impact of their data centers, supporting a green approach to IT. For example, SAP might provi strategy, which also includes working with customers and hardware providers to forge new sustainable solutions. Despite our continuous efforts, the growth in our business has led to an increase of data center energy intensity from 2,746 kilowatt hours per FTE (2010) to 2,824 kilowatt hours per FTE in 2011.
- Renewable energy: SAP continues to expand its use of electricity from renewable sources, both to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power and to support an emerging market that is crucial for a sustainable future. We purchase some of this green electricity from local utility companies and produce some using solar panels on our facilities. At the end of 2011, approximately 47% of our total electricity consumption stemmed from renewable sources, up from 45% in 2010.
For more information about how SAP solutions help companies run better from environmental, social, and economic perspectives, see the Portfolio of Software and Services section.
