SAP Greens Its Cloud, Will Power Data Centers And Facilities With 100 Percent Renewable Electricity In 2014

SAP AG recently announced that it will power all its data centers and facilities globally with 100 percent renewable electricity starting in 2014. The shift will help minimize the company’s carbon footprint as it moves to a cloud business model, and will help eliminate carbon emissions caused by its customers’ systems by moving them into a green cloud.

This news was included in the recently released 2013 SAP Integrated Report, which noted that the company’s overall energy efficiency remained steady while greenhouse gas emissions increased from 30.0 grams CO2 per euro of total revenue in 2012 to 32.4 grams CO2 per euro in 2013. At the same time, absolute carbon emissions increased by 12 percent. As customers increasingly leverage SAP® software in the cloud, systems that previously ran at customers’ sites are increasingly running in SAP data centers and have become part of SAP’s total emissions.

SAP is reiterating its commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from operations to levels of the year 2000 by 2020. Not only is the company taking these transformational measures to meet these absolute targets and mitigate the environmental impact of cloud computing, but it has also launched the following innovative programs:

• A new initiative to subsidize and encourage electric vehicle adoption for German employees, a project that began in 2014 with 60 electric vehicles and will help to extend charging infrastructure and optimize the operations of electric vehicles in SAP’s fleet management.
• A new initiative to subsidize and encourage electric vehicle adoption for German employees, a project that began in 2014 with 60 electric vehicles and will help to extend charging infrastructure and optimize the operations of electric vehicles in SAP's fleet management.
• In 2013, SAP built the first LEED-certified building in all of Brazil and achieved EMS ISO14001 certification for its Budapest, Palo Alto and Vancouver offices.
• The successful launch of TwoGo by SAP, a mobile app that encourages carpooling within public and private organizations, supports efforts to reduce the cost of fuel, parking and business trips and emissions, as well as enhance employee networks.
• SAP invested EUR3 million in the Livelihoods Fund, which plants trees and conducts clean energy projects in underserved rural areas to both restore their ecosystems and offset carbon emissions globally. With support from SAP and others, the Livelihoods Fund has planted more than 100 million trees in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

"Committing to 100 percent renewable electricity in our data centers and facilities is a natural consequence of our business model shift into the cloud," said Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer, SAP. "By delivering our industry-leading cloud solutions in an environmentally friendly fashion, we expand our competitiveness in the cloud software market while further enhancing our sustainability leadership. It's a beautiful example of how SAP puts sustainability at the core of its value creation."

Key non-financial results from this year's report include:

• Eighty-nine percent of employees agree with the statement that SAP needs to pursue sustainability as a strategic priority.
• Overall the percentage of women in the workforce slightly increased in 2013 to 31 percent from 30 percent in 2012, and the percentage of women in management increased to 21.2 percent in 2013 from 20.8 percent in 2012.
• While there was a slight dip in employee engagement scores, SAP's score is industry-leading at 77 percent in 2013 compared to 79 percent in 2012.