Earth Day 2023: Recognizing Employee Contributions

Earth Day 2023 – Every year on April 22, more than 193 nations mark Earth Day to push for environmental conservation. It may be difficult to realize, but the first Earth Day occurred half a century ago.

During the 1950s and 1960s, companies emitted massive amounts of pollution with little to no repercussions from the law, customers, or the media. People were generally unconcerned about environmental issues and the harm to human health. This attitude shifted after a catastrophic oil spill in California sparked an unparalleled campaign that brought together students, politicians, and ordinary individuals to protest the devastation caused by 150 years of industrial progress.

The inaugural Earth Day, held in 1970, marked the beginning of the contemporary environmental movement.

Earth Day 2023

A Watershed Moment

As SAP’s chief sustainability officer, I am acutely aware of the profound influence that business and industry have on society, the economy, and the environment. Despite increased environmental consciousness, the Earth has been subjected to immense abuse since the first Earth Day.

According to the World animal Organization, animal numbers have declined by 69% in the last 50 years. Human activity has increased the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, generating climate change that has serious consequences for weather and natural environments. Plastic pollution is increasing at an alarming rate, with just 9% of plastic being recycled. The destruction to land and sea life is terrible.

Enabling Long-Term Impact

We at SAP are well aware of the difficulties that our clients experience in meeting their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibilities. One important problem is being able to measure and oversee their development consistently. Our solutions and services strive to solve this by assisting our clients in recording, reporting, and acting on their ESG aspirations while implementing sustainability across their organization.

SAP clients create 87% of total global trade, which leaves a social and environmental imprint. We have a chance to influence for the better here, and we are seizing it with solutions that let businesses monitor and improve sustainability across whole networks, allowing them to successfully move toward a zero-waste goal.

Without collaboration, this trip would be impossible. SAP is collaborating with customers and a number of other stakeholders to promote long-term transformation. We were, for example, one of the first 50 signatories to the UN Global Compact and co-founders of the Value Balancing Alliance. We work with the WBCSD to help firms acquire complete transparency of their product life cycle and supply chain emissions. In addition, we have joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation network in order to expedite the implementation of circular economy policies and procedures.

Setting a good example

We don’t have a sustainability plan at SAP; we have a sustainable business strategy. We think that economic, social, and environmental concerns and performance are inextricably linked and include them into the overall management of the company.

In our Global Environmental Policy, we have established ambitious environmental objectives to encourage the ongoing improvement of our environmental effect. This includes our science-based goal of achieving net zero along our whole value chain by 2030, in accordance with a 1.5° C future – 20 years earlier than initially intended.

Executing on these goals requires a company-wide effort, and I am pleased of our collective accomplishments. Since 2014, our data centers and offices have been powered entirely by renewable energy. To offset business-related carbon emissions, we employ internal carbon pricing.Single-use plastics are being phased out.By 2025, one-third of our fleet will be eco-friendly vehicles, and all vehicles purchased after that will be electric. SAP’s environmental management solution is used in over 50 locations.