The contribution of SAP in sustainability development and innovation is becoming increasingly important in recent years — from delivering a portfolio of market-leading, sustainability-specific solutions to forging different partnerships and leveraging collective networks to support the transition towards a circular economy.
With over five decades of experience in resource management across business functions and data integration into core processes, SAP’s leading position in the industry underscores its mission to build solutions that help organisations run better and more sustainably. True to its commitment, the enterprise software giant has also supported calls for regulations in the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy framework, which transfers the financial responsibility for managing, treating, and disposing consumer products from the government to producers.
SAP is one of the corporations that understands that such measures can help to establish competitive markets for recycled plastics while also creating a fair playing field for businesses that rely on plastic products to survive and thrive. In 2020, the German tech giant joined the Circular Economy 100 (CE100) of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation which aims to expedite the adoption of circular economy practices and processes that maximise the use of resources across major industries.
In a recently expanded partnership announced this month, SAP is set to work again with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to create circular economy solutions that are driven by regenerative business. The new collaboration is founded on three key principles including eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials, and regenerating nature through system-level change and innovative business models.
Reinforcing the Commitment of SAP in Sustainability Acceleration
SAP Global Head of Circular Economy Solutions Stephen Jamieson explained that the latest partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is based on the two organisations’ shared goal of delivering a circular economy led by regenerative business. He added:
“We aim to achieve this by working collaboratively to solve critical design challenges with innovative solutions, and focusing on extended producer responsibility, the single most important policy intervention that will deliver the level playing field that’s required for a circular economy.”
“Together, we’re committed to innovating and delivering the solutions that make that policy intervention simple, consumable, and actionable,” Jamieson highlighted.
According to the companies’ statement, three important aspects will be addressed by the expanded partnership: enabling circular design, implementing extended producer responsibility, and supporting regenerative business through digital solutions. The collaboration will also allow SAP to further provide its technological expertise in developing solutions such as the SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises and the SAP Responsible Design and Production which is the company’s first major circular economy solution unveiled at COP26.
Commenting on the new announcement, Ellen MacArthur Foundation Chief Executive Officer Andrew Morlet said:
“We are pleased to welcome SAP as a partner. Collaboration across all sectors and industries is critical in order to shift the system and accelerate the global transition to a circular economy — an economy designed to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature. Technology has a crucial enabling role to play, and we welcome SAP’s leadership in this space.”
In November last year, SAP sustainability initiatives within the organisation and its ecosystem have also been acknowledged by Terra Carta, a charter that lays the framework of a recovery plan to 2030 putting Nature, People, and Planet at the centre of value creation.
