To capture value, leaders are no longer just talking about reconciling accounts, but about being able to transform business processes for sustainable impact. Using SAP sustainability solutions, organizations can go beyond compliance and implement sustainability across their entire business.
Across industries, accurate data is the foundation for both auditable disclosures and reliable insights to drive sustainable transformation. But aggregating and validating environmental, social and governance (ESG) data can be a daunting challenge, given that most companies have not fully integrated their ESG data recording and control into their core systems for finance, procurement , supply chain management and human resources.
For more than 50 years, SAP has helped businesses master complexity. With today’s evolving ESG regulatory landscape, including the arrival of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), SAP is once again facing the complex challenges of enabling customers to record, report and act on their sustainability obligations. This includes the difficulties in collecting accurate data on emissions in domestic operations and global supply chains.
Gain competitive advantage with SAP sustainability solutions powered by SAP Business AI
By integrating sustainability data with cloud ERP, SAP can uniquely enable businesses with the flexibility to keep pace with rapidly evolving ESG standards; connect disparate data sources to share reliable, real-time insights with sustainability decision makers; and achieve their net zero ambitions.
Companies can start today by adopting SAP Sustainability Control Tower – integrated with SAP S/4HANA Cloud – for ESG data management and reporting. They can extend sustainability management with SAP Sustainability Footprint Management and SAP Sustainability Data Exchange to help accelerate their path to a green ledger by managing the carbon entering and leaving their systems and balancing their carbon books accordingly. way they balance their financial books.
SAP Business AI can take the value of our sustainability solutions to the next level by helping our customers define data-driven ESG and net-zero strategies, increase transparency of supply chain emissions, automate sustainability reporting, achieve regulatory compliance, identify and mitigate ESG-related risks, and better communicate the value of sustainability to their clients—all powered by the world’s largest and most comprehensive set of core business data.
Combined with partner services for customer-specific data and reporting requirements, SAP sustainability solutions can offer new levels of business insights for executive-level decision-making to help businesses achieve their sustainability goals and comply with CSRD and other regulatory frameworks.
CSRD Toolbox
Companies operating in the EU face pressure from expanding ESG regulations under the CSRD to disclose their sustainability performance with data granularity and auditability that will – over time – align sustainability reporting with financial reporting . The CSRD requirements will first affect large public interest companies with over 500 employees, which must report in 2025 on ESG performance for 2024. The requirements will target small and medium-sized enterprises in the following years.
Under the CSRD, companies will have to report based on the requirements of both the EU Taxonomy, which classifies sustainability disclosures for investors, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the disclosure rules set by the European Financial Group for Financial reporting (EFRAG), the EU’s standard-setting body. With SAP Sustainability Control Tower, companies can comply with both the EU taxonomy and the ESRS, achieving agility through the convergence of ESG data management and ERP in the cloud – and soon AI-driven business process optimization.
SAP Sustainability Control Tower: Trusted ESG Data Foundation for EU Taxonomy and ESRS
With SAP Sustainability Control Tower, you can assess activities against the EU taxonomy by reporting eligibility and compliance KPIs.
- Enabling a holistic view of EU taxonomy reporting through data sharing
- Start managing and reporting EU taxonomic data with pre-built and customizable templates
- Simplify the EU Taxonomy process with integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud
- Integrate customer or partner extensions via API
You can also streamline ESRS disclosures by integrating ESG data into systems and expanding content and functionality.
- Collect ESG data and define KPIs
- Comply with evolving ESG and financial disclosure requirements, including ESRS
- Set, track and achieve goals to maintain a sustainable business
- Get limited external assurance and prepare for reasonable assurance
Act now
Businesses must start now to be prepared not only for CSRD compliance, but also to gain insights to guide investments for sustainability and long-term value that is future-proof.
For more than 50 years, SAP has enabled the world’s leading businesses to master complexity, delivering the integration and innovation needed for industry-leading productivity. With SAP Sustainability Control Tower and other cloud-driven innovations, SAP and its partners can help companies master both CSRD and build the foundation for the evolution of their long-term sustainability strategies.
To learn more, visit www.sap.com/sustainability/csrd-guide.html.
Sofia Mendelsohn is Chief Sustainability and Commercial Officer and Co-GM for SAP Sustainability.
