SAP – John Wheeler – 2011

Goals

John Wheeler spent his summer as an EDF Climate Corps fellow at SAP in Washington, DC. SAP is the leading supplier of enterprise software and has been pursuing an aggressive sustainability strategy for several years. SAP asked Wheeler to find ways to communicate its sustainability story internally and externally.

Solutions

The first part of SAP’s story was told from a ‘practitioner’ point of view and included operational innovations such as SAP’s use of direct current in its datacenters as well as its internally developed ride sharing application.The second part of SAP’s story was told from an ‘enabler’ point of view. This strategy required understanding the impact that SAP’s sustainability solutions have on its customers. Because so many organizations use SAP systems, including over half the Fortune 500, the task of measuring impact proved quite challenging. SAP’s impact stories ultimately became one sentence statements that describe the magnitude of impact each solution has, often reaching global significance. In order to craft statements that were as transparent, conservative, accurate and effective as possible, Wheeler worked with many different stakeholders to develop sound methodologies.

Potential Impact

Wheeler is continuing his engagement through November and expects the final statements, which will be available in SAP’s 2011 Sustainability Report, to be truly impactful.