SAP Bloggers Corner

Varian Medical Expects to Save with SAP

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Jan 252012

SAP and customer Varian Medical Systems hosted an event, unfortunately we do not have a recording. The customer spoke about how they are using SAP to support their sustainability and compliance efforts. Varian is doing this by understanding the chemical composition of its products for redesigning them, eliminating hazardous substances and compling with regulations such as RoHS and REACH.

By re-engineering their products at a much faster pace (down from 18 to five days), Varian is expecting they will save 870,000 annually on ROH-S-related charges alone. In addition, the company can now safeguard its $700 million revenue exposure in the European Union from regulatory fees.

To learn more read the press release.

Brazilian Retailer to Use Cloud-based Solution to Reduce Gas Emissions

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Jan 172012

SAP has announced that a leading retailer, The Grupo Pão de Açúcar selected SAP Carbon Impact OnDemand solution. I found this story interesting to blog about because the retailer is not only a leader in its industry, but also a company recognized as a sustainability leader for retailers in Latin America and globally. This to me shows that the SAP’s carbon emission solution has what retailers need to track their carbon footprint.

The Grupo Pão de Açúcar has been committed to sustainability best practices since 2008 by outsourcing the collection and reporting of their sustainability efforts. With SAP Carbon Impact OnDemand solution the retailer will now bring their reporting efforts in-house to give them better operational control of their reporting efforts.

Here is a quote from the vice president of The Grupo Pão de Açúcar

“Before selecting SAP Carbon Impact OnDemand, we used an external firm to collect and report on this information,” said Hugo Bethlem, vice president, The Grupo Pão de Açúcar. “The new solution will allow us to bring this process in-house, making it more efficient and providing us with more operational control. We will gain both valuable insight and a robust tool for proactively managing emissions and energy consumption. The Grupo Pão de Açúcar will be one of the first retail companies in Latin America to inventory its carbon emissions. From this measurement, we will be able to create plans to reduce the GHG emissions and carbon footprint of our operations.”

A benefit for selecting an ondemand solution is that the retailer is expected to be up and running with SAP Carbon Impact by early 2012 in 1,832 stores!!!

And the Beat Goes On for SAP NetWeaver

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Jun 162011

The drumbeat around SAP NetWeaver 7.3 began in October 2010 at SAP TechEd in Berlin, when SAP announced that the first full release of the technology platform in five years was being made available to a first wave of customers. In the intervening months, SAP worked hand in glove with customers worldwide on more than 150 ramp-up projects. The efforts came to fruition on May 30, 2011: SAP NetWeaver 7.3 is now available!

Read the newsbyte announcing general availability of SAP NetWeaver 7.3
Watch the video of Bjoern Goerke, senior vice president of Technology and Platform Core, discussing the many facets of SAP NetWeaver 7.3
Read the sap.info article: Announcing SAP NetWeaver 7.3
Read Holger Faulhaber’s blog on SAP Community Network, “SAP NetWeaver 7.3 Goes Green,” for a glimpse into potential savings in energy consumption and CO2 emissions

In other news on the SAP NetWeaver front this week, SAP introduced the SAP NetWeaver Single Sign-On application for increased protection of customer data across applications. The software is based on assets that SAP acquired from longtime partner SECUDE in February 2011. Read the newsbyte.

50 to 1 Can Save a Company 1.2million Euros!

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Mar 282011

I stumbled upon a very cool Green IT impact calculator from SAP the other day during a conversation with Timo Stelzer, Global VP of SAP Green IT. This one week old calculator shows companies impact of energy cost savings through system consolidation of SAP systems.

SAP Green IT Calculator

At the max, if a company is currently running 50 SAP ERP systems with one client each and they reduce them down to one system with 50 clients they can potential reduce their energy consumption by 1.2million euros in over five years! This number is based on a company that has a 5% increase of energy cost per year and an average utilization of their systems at 40%.

Since this really is a new tool, it is still sitting on SAP’s internal portal, so I can’t provide the calculator to play with. But it will be available in April on www.sap.com/greenit.

The results are not 100% guaranteed, but gives a good baseline of cost savings. The methodology behind the calculator is based on the recent model SAP has developed to estimate the carbon footprint of SAP products in use.

SAP Sustainabilty: Notable 2010 Accomplishments

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Mar 022011

SAP’s carbon emission from 2010 is a notable accomplishment for the sustainability community, especially after listening to Peter Graf, SAP chief sustainability officer. In my job I listen to a lot of executives speak about SAP, but Peter has truly influenced me to the point that I’m considering buying solar panels and thinking about how I can reduce my carbon footprint, granted I’m only 5’2”, there’s not much of a footprint, but every little bit helps.

SAP’s 2010 carbon footprint goal was 430 kilotons, which was four percent less than 2009. Upon announcing their Q3 emissions at 112 kilotons, SAP was unsure if they would reach their 2010 goal (Q1: 106ktons, Q2 109ktons). Doing the math they had to consume less carbon in Q4 than previous quarters; where Q4 is typically the highest travel months for an enterprise software company. Surprisingly SAP Q4 emissions were 10% lower than previous quarters at 104 kilotons. This was a surprise to SAP as well and truth be told, SAP does not know exactly how they did this. If I find the answers I will post a follow-up.

What was even more astonishing is that SAP’s total carbon footprint has been reducing by 5% YOY since 2007, by doing the calculation it is estimated that by 2020 SAP’s carbon footprint will be at the level they had in 2000. And here is what is astonishing; SAP would achieve this carbon footprint without buying renewable electricity. SAP is truly changing its operations to be more energy efficient.

Canadian National Railroad Talks About Sustainability

Analytics, Corporate Topics, News, Sustainability Comments Off

Mar 022011

I attended one of SAP’s Better Run Tours on February 23 in New York. I grabbed one of SAP’s customers to talk about how they are using SAP business analytics solutions. Alan Capes the Director of IT business development and strategic planning at Canadian National Railroad (CN) hit upon sustainability; a topic I did not expect from a railroad company. But I learned that moving freight through the railroad system is better on the environment than using trucks.

Fuel consumption for a railroad company is its largest expense and Alan talks about how analytics helps them make better decisions on the use of fuel in near real-time. These guys know what they are talking about, because they are the only railroad company in North America on the Dow Jones sustainability index.