TwoGo sounds pretty easy to use. It connects to a company’s calendar system (as long as it is compliant with the iCalendar standard) and helps employees manage their commutes along with other work duties. TwoGo can also be accessed through standard web browsers and mobile apps for iOS or Android.

There are obvious financial and environmental benefits to gain from TwoGo, like reduced travel expenses and emissions, but that’s not what TwoGo is ultimately driving at, according to Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer at SAP.

“It’s designed to start a conversation around all of the different aspects of carpooling from a financial, social and environmental perspective,” said Graf. It’s a physical engagement model. Employees see the direct impact they make instead of just thinking and talking about becoming more environmentally friendly.”

By carpooling, Graf believes employees may recoup lost time and money through networking and brainstorming on the road.

“Employees might start to think, ‘if we can accomplish this with carpooling software, imagine what we can do by adjusting supply chain software, logistics and finance to help people better track their impact,’” said Graf.

Are businesses on board? If we’re to go on the word of NOKIA and global travel agency Thomas Cook, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

To help locate desirable matches in an easy and clear way, TwoGo is powered by HERE, Nokia’s location cloud,which delivers one of the leading map and location experiences across multiple screens and operating systems.Christof Hellmis, vice president of Map Platform, Nokia, is convinced that many trend-setting developments for industries will result around the topic of location. “TwoGo is a particularly interesting service as it combines location, mobility, and sustainability in an innovative way,” he said at a recent press conference.

Dr. Julian Clemenz, head of sustainability management for Thomas Cook Central Europe, echoed similar sentiments in a recent press announcement:

“At Thomas Cook, we see sustainability holistically, which means getting employees involved to help improve operational efficiency, save energy and cut waste. TwoGo by SAP encourages employees to participate in reaching our goal to create a more sustainable future. As a member of the beta program and long-time SAP customer, we are happy to work with SAP to develop an application that helps us meet our sustainability targets, reduce costs for our company and employees and build a more social, connected company.”

Sure, everyone wants to build a more social, connected company these days but can a simple, ride-sharing app like TwoGo really make this happen? The devil is in the details and in the case of TwoGo, these critical details appear in the form of special capabilities, specific to the use case of commuting to work and back home.

“We’re giving people the confidence and security of an enterprise application combined with the fun and ease of use of a consumer app.,” said Graf.  “While the key driver for people to use TwoGo is to meet great people while commuting to work, we’ve added special capabilities like round trips, viral algorithms to keep adoption high and features that ensure identities can’t be faked. In essence, TwoGo leverages the human network that’s present in a company and enhances it to drive innovation and employee engagement.”

What do you think? Will TwoGo help businesses get on the right path to a more environmentally friendly and productive future?

Take a ride with me on Twitter @TClark01

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Sharing a Ride with the Top Brass

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.

WALLDORF —

“TwoGo by SAP is another great example of how our innovations help the world run better. We’ve combined our mobile and cloud technologies into a carpooling solution to help provide immediate economic, environmental and social benefits to companies and their employees,” said Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer, SAP AG. “As such, we expect TwoGo to not only help people and businesses save money and greenhouse gas emissions, but to also connect people more closely with each other and with the company they work for. It has been designed around employees with one single objective in mind: create the most effective, intuitive and beautiful experience possible.”

Organizations committed to sustainable business practices are concerned with creating value while mitigating their environmental impact. TwoGo helps companies meet that goal simply and effectively. For example, the solution offers cost-efficiency opportunities to companies with corporate fleets, such as how to minimize maintenance costs and preserve vehicle resale value. It also supports companies looking for a way to make vanpooling more affordable and effective by seeking riders to find and regularly fill the van. Finally, TwoGo helps organizations demonstrate their commitment to sustainability by reducing carbon emissions and engaging employees in that mission.

For individuals, there are also significant benefits. In very large U.S. urban areas, the average commuter spends US $16 and 52 minutes going 32 miles round trip to work each day. TwoGo can help people save money and time. By carpooling, employees may recoup some of this lost productivity by encouraging networking and brainstorming on the road. In addition, TwoGo may create a more networked culture, helping employees to feel better informed and involved with their peers.

“At Thomas Cook, we see sustainability holistically, which means getting employees involved to help improve operational efficiency, save energy and cut waste,” said Dr. Julian Clemenz, head of sustainability management, Thomas Cook Central Europe. “TwoGo by SAP encourages employees to participate in reaching our goal to create a more sustainable future. As a member of the beta program and long-time SAP customer, we are happy to work with SAP to develop an application that helps us meet our sustainability targets, reduce costs for our company and employees and build a more social, connected company.”

To encourage wide-spread employee adoption, TwoGo can be used on various mobile devices, the Web as well as calendar applications. Once a company licenses the solution, employees can sign up online and enter ride-sharing preferences such as proximity, timing to and from work and willingness to leave the highway to pick up passengers. With some solutions, would-be carpoolers must go through lists to find the right partner. But with TwoGo, after preferences are entered, rides are instantly matched and communication is handled automatically via email or SMS. Moreover, TwoGo employs sophisticated algorithms designed to ensure that employees do not get stranded at work. To help locate desirable matches in an easy and clear way, TwoGo is powered by HERE, Nokia’s location cloud, which delivers one of the leading map and location experiences across multiple screens and operating systems.

“We are excited to partner with SAP on this new venture that we anticipate will bring accurate and comprehensive global maps, traffic information and routing capabilities to enterprise customers,” said Christof Hellmis, vice president of Map Platform, Nokia. “We believe that location will be the new frontier of technology across industries, and with HERE we aim to provide the best map functionalities for every use case and customer. TwoGo is a particularly interesting service as it combines location, mobility and sustainability in an innovative way. Powered by HERE, TwoGo can be accessible to commuters everywhere and at any time.”

TwoGo is for companies of all sizes. To gain critical mass, organizations can decide to allow employees to carpool with people working at neighboring companies that use TwoGo. Unlike current solutions on the market, TwoGo works with any iCal-compatible corporate calendar application, such as Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes or Google. This enables users to create and change rides within the context of their daily work schedule. People can decide to use TwoGo on the Web in English, German, Spanish or French. It accommodates international time zones, maps and measurement units. The mobile app can also provide administrators with reports on employees’ commuting habits and usage trends. With an affordable annual subscription rate, it is easy and affordable for companies to deploy broadly.

Deployed internally at SAP since July 2011, SAP estimates TwoGo has generated more than US $5 million in value for the company, specifically by helping to:

• Save costs related to commuting to work; for example, reducing fuel consumption and maintenance costs and increasing the resell value of company cars
• Avoid expenses related to employee travel such as reimbursements for fuel, limo services or parking
• Increase networking among employees by matching employees into carpools more than 36,000 times and adding 2,200 additional days of networking time among employees
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by helping to eliminate 400,000 miles of driving and avoid 88 tons of greenhouse gases.

To learn more, watch a video: “Overview: TwoGo by SAP.” For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom.

For more information, press only:
Robin Meyerhoff, SAP, +1 (650) 440-2572, robin.meyerhoff@sap.com, PDT
Hilmar Schepp, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-57679, hilmar.schepp@sap.com, CET
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com
Bridget Kemps, Edelman, +1 (650-762-2943, bridget.kemps@edelman.com, PDT

The SAP Integrated Report is about much more than how we deliver information about our performance. It speaks to our vision of what it means to create value in the 21^st century. No longer do financial results alone capture our ability to respond to the world’s challenges or serve customers. Instead, we are looking holistically at the interrelationship between our financial and non-financial performance. These linkages are not just important – they are the foundation of our future success.

We believe that the leading companies will be those that best navigate the major issues of our time, a global mix of environmental, social, and economic challenges. An integrated report signals that the business landscape has changed, and it is no longer possible to separate sustainability from the core of how we operate and what we deliver to customers. It is also a significant step towards truly integrated thinking, the precursor to developing a strategy and actions that ensure our future success, relevance and viability.

We also recognize that a single report does not capture the full complexity (and messiness) of change. What will it really take to achieve the vision of an integrated report? We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but we have picked up some lessons that are helping to guide our path:

1. Make it Material: Position sustainability at the center of how your company creates value.
Sustainability needs to reach far beyond your carbon footprint or energy savings to your strategy and services. As a leader in enterprise software, we are in the business of helping companies manage resources with IT. Today, they must manage resources that have historically been ignored, such as water, energy and intellectual capital. Our business success hinges on our ability to help our customers contend with everything from the explosion of mobile technology to the pressures of population growth and the strain on natural systems. Working to create a more sustainable world goes hand-in-hand with seizing new business opportunity by delivering software solutions that help customers manage the challenges that arise in their industries, be it resource shortage, urbanization, or environmental health and safety risks.

2. Engage employees: People need to understand how what they do creates a sustainable future.
I recently challenged our developers with the following “scary” question: Why do you go to work? Facing this question was a prime reason I became Chief Sustainability Officer of SAP. I encourage our employees to see a deeper purpose in writing code. They can have such enormous impact by developing software that lives up to our vision to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. For example, our technology is helping people consume banking services through their phones, gaining access for the first time to their own bank account or loan; we are creating new ways to manage transportation and run supply chains that are safer for consumers, workers and the environment. This uplifting impact is often forgotten as people are facing the stresses of their day-to-day jobs. We are therefore always aiming at uniting people around a shared vision and purpose.

3. Approach innovation differently: Shift from efficiency to transformation.
While greater efficiency brings tangible, bottom-line benefits, it will only take you so far: What comes after changing your light bulbs, or making your supply chain the most efficient it can be? We see leading companies go beyond efficiency. They embrace innovation and transformational strategies that not only serve as a source of differentiation, but may disrupt entire industries. For example, the automotive industry is embracing the new trend of the “sharing economy” and revolutionizing our ideas of car ownership, mobility and transportation. One example of how we have embraced such innovation ourselves is a new ride-sharing application that is helping us create social, environmental and economic benefits for SAP. TwoGo by SAP not only enables us to save money and reduce our emissions, but helps our employees connect with each other, enhancing our work culture. At the same time, we are supporting the core business of SAP, as we gain new insights into designing mobile, cloud-based technology. TwoGo is now poised to be a revenue-driver, as we offer it to other companies seeking to go beyond efficiency to change how we live and work.

4. Make it a strategic target: Embed non-financial measurements into how you steer the company.
When we report our employee engagement scores, we don’t say simply that our employees are important. We say that engagement is one of our four companywide objectives because it drives our financial performance and innovation. In fact, this linkage – between financial and non-financial measures – is at the heart of an integrated report. Companies with highly engaged employees achieve 12% more profitability and 18% more productivity than their peers, according to Gallop Consulting. Employee engagement also drives greater retention, which brings significant financial benefit. We have calculated that for every percentage point our retention rate goes up or down, the impact on our operating profit is approximately $80 million. Perhaps most important, engaged employees help us create more innovative solutions for our customers, as they assume a sense of ownership about the purpose and products of SAP. This recognition of how non-financial indicators enable us to create value means that our sustainability targets start to become indistinguishable from our business targets.

5. Create incentives for change: Understand why it matters.
Sustainability leaders must tailor their message to every line of business and how it creates value. With HR, sustainability attracts millenials, increases engagement and drives productivity. With the CFO, it contributes to margin. R&D cares about innovation, sales cares about new products and growth, and the CEO cares about long-term strategy. Speaking to each requires a deep understanding of the business and its players. I could not do my job if I didn’t know both the software industry and the culture of SAP. For change to happen, people must be convinced that sustainability serves both their own goals and the organization. An integrated report explains how, which is one of the reasons that it is such a valuable tool as we work to create a more sustainable future.

To learn more about our strategy, performance in 2012, and where we’re heading, please see our 2012 SAP Integrated Report at http://www.sapintegratedreport.com.

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.

WALLDORF —

The world is experiencing dramatic shifts in economy, technology, society and the environment. Organizations are struggling to fully understand the short and long-term business impact of those changes. To help its customers effectively do this, SAP has made a commitment to develop innovative technology solutions that help the world run better and improve people’s lives. In doing so, SAP helps companies take a more holistic approach to performance and customer success. SAP is working to reframe how it — and its customers — approach problems and create solutions that move beyond improving efficiency, and support transformational change.

As such, an integrated report both facilitates and reflects this new way of thinking about value creation. SAP assesses its performance through four company-wide objectives that balance financial and non-financial measures: revenue growth, margin expansion, customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Many of SAP’s non-financial performance indicators impact those objectives. The integrated approach to reporting allows the company to highlight the dependencies between financial and non-financial performance more easily.

One example of a holistic approach to value is the impact of a ride-sharing application that SAP developed to be used internally by employees. Within just one year, SAP employees in Germany generated more than 22,500 carpools, avoided more than 500,000 kilometers of driving, created an additional 1,400 days of networking and saved 47 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. SAP has estimated the value through cost savings in company fleet and travel, networking and emission reduction generated by the solution during the first year at EUR2.3 million.

“Our integrated approach shows that the business landscape has changed, and the information needed to evaluate performance must change with it,” said Werner Brandt, chief financial officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP AG. “Considering our past financial results and our financial outlook alone does not adequately capture our ability to respond to today’s challenges or demonstrate how we create value. Our future success depends on a holistic approach which helps us — and our customers — navigate the social, environmental and economic contexts in which we operate.”

“The lack of stability demonstrated by the financial crisis, allied to the need for more sustainable practices, has led to a crisis of confidence by investors of business,” said Paul Druckman, chief executive officer, International Integrated Reporting Council. “These events show we need a wider, more complete picture of corporate performance, rather than only the financials, focused on an organizations strategy, prospects, governance and value creation. SAP is one of the leading members of our Pilot Programme that has made substantial progress in their journey to drive truly integrated thinking in their decision-making process at the highest levels.”

For more information, visit www.SAPIntegratedReport.com and the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and @sustainableSAP, and join the conversation with the hashtag #sapintegrated.

For more information, press only:
Robin Meyerhoff, +1 (650) 440-2572, robin.meyerhoff@sap.com, PDT
Daniel Reinhardt, +49 (6227) 7-40201, daniel.reinhardt@sap.com, CET
Jim Dever, +1 (610) 661-2161, james.dever@sap.com, EDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com

WALLDORF —

The target was missed because of an increase in Scope 3 emissions, primarily due to more air travel. This rise was partly compensated by higher efficiency in facilities and data centers. In 2012, SAP also grew its use of renewable energy from 47 to 67 percent globally.

SAP has an ongoing commitment to carbon reduction, sustainability, helping the world run better and improving people’s lives. Accordingly, the company recently announced a EUR 3 million commitment to join the Livelihoods Fund. The Livelihoods Fund is a social investment company that supports rural communities through the restoration of their ecosystem and environmental resources while also providing its investors – such as SAP – with carbon offset credits.

Since 2008, SAP has achieved a EUR 220 million cost avoidance compared to a business-as-usual scenario.

SAP measures its social metrics based on employee retention, women in management, employee health and employee engagement. All four areas improved in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to 2011, and either met or exceeded 2012 targets. Of note, women in management increased from to 18.7 to 19.4 percent over the previous year and employee engagement rose two points to 79 percent.

“SAP continued to make progress in 2012 toward its long-term sustainability goals. Most importantly, we are making progress in driving sustainability further into the heart of our business strategy,” said Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer, SAP. “However, as many organizations with very strong revenue growth experience, we are challenged to mitigate our environmental impact at the same time. I am thus pleased that we have taken important steps to further reduce our emissions in the future.”

To learn more, visit www.sapsustainabilityreport.com. For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and @sustainableSAP.

Media Contacts:
Robin Meyerhoff, +1 (650) 472-2572, robin.meyerhoff@sap.com, PST
Evan Welsh, +1 (610) 203-9742, evan.welsh@sap.com, EST

There’s significant optimism about emerging countries, and rightly so. But words like “emerging” and “high-growth” conjure images of widespreadprosperity. The everyday reality is very different. For example, despite significant economic expansion, millions in India still live below the poverty line—over 70 percent of the population by some estimates. While approximately 6 percent of urban households have internet access, that figure drops to less than half a percent of rural homes. The situation in Brazil reveals similar discrepancies. Although over 45 percent of the population in Brazil has internet access, widespread high speed access that’s necessary to run a business remains elusive due to the limited availability of affordable services. Yet the burgeoning middle class–195 million people with growing purchasing power—gives entrepreneurs in Brazil a huge market opportunity. And bear in mind, about 96 percent of jobs in Brazil come from small and mid-size businesses.

That’s why SAP’s partnership with Endeavor Global, Endeavor Brazil, and India’s National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) to support entrepreneurs is an exciting way to kick off 2013. Working together, these organizations will identify promising entrepreneurs in Brazil, India and other emerging countries. Selected entrepreneurs will receive access to SAP employee volunteers and mentors, plus innovation grants and technology support from SAP. To be considered for participation, entrepreneurs must have:

• a proven business model
• a focus on innovation and positive impact on society, and
• potential to scale using technology

SAP has made a substantial commitment of 2 million euros to this worthy initiative. Endeavor Global brings a worldwide reputation for program success. It’s been recognized by no less than New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as “the best anti-poverty program of all.” Endeavor CEO Linda Rottenberg says Endeavor has supported 700 entrepreneurs who have created 200,000+ jobs and generated revenues of over 5 billion dollars in 2011.

The important of entrepreneurs to economic growth worldwide cannot be overstated. Private and public sector partnerships like these aim to provide promising innovators with a path to success that ultimately impacts us all.

This post originally appeared on SAP Business Trends.

WALLDORF and DAVOS —

“Today’s entrepreneurs are the bedrock of tomorrow’s economy,” said Bill McDermott, co-CEO, SAP. “We believe in the ‘Power of Small,’ and the vital role that the private sector plays in helping small businesses and entrepreneurs. Technology has already helped them to become more resilient to market changes with innovative business models and efficient operations; it is at the heart and soul of their business. The task is now to identify and support small businesses leaders that have all the ingredients to execute their magic growth formula, accelerate innovation, and create jobs for the common good. With this initiative, SAP is making a clear commitment to invest in their long-term future by providing talent, technology and capital.”

Selected companies will have a proven business model, a focus on innovation and societal impact and a propensity to scale using technology. Selected entrepreneurs will receive access to high-potential employee volunteers and mentors and technology support from SAP, as well as innovation grants from SAP Foundation, a corporate advised fund at Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Ultimately, the joint initiative will facilitate the growth and development of innovative companies that will help transform their communities.

Enabling New Job Creation
According to a recent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey sponsored by SAP, the world needs to create more than 500 million new jobs by 2020 in order to provide career opportunities for the currently unemployed as well as young people who will join the workforce. The bulk of this challenge falls on countries in the developing world, including Brazil and India. Entrepreneurs are putting in place a variety of measures to help ensure they are well-positioned to exploit growth opportunities. At the top of the list is funding. Forty-one percent of small businesses are seeking new financing to take advantage of the opportunities available to them.

“As Endeavor enters its 15th year, we are proud to have selected and supported 700 entrepreneurs who have created over 200,000 jobs and generated 2011 revenues of over 5 billion dollars,” said Linda Rottenberg, CEO, Endeavor. “We look forward to expanding on that record in additional countries and with the help of partners like SAP.”

SAP recently created a dashboard for Endeavor that illustrates how Endeavor companies grow revenue and jobs 2.4 and 5.4 times faster respectively than comparable firms. Furthermore, Endeavor entrepreneurs typically pay their employees twice the average salary.

In particular, SAP and Endeavor Global plan to:

• Develop mentorship opportunities linking SAP employees to emerging entrepreneurs in over 15 emerging economies worldwide, including Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Greece and South Africa, focused on technology innovation, design thinking and business leadership engagements
• Drive technology innovation initiatives, including design thinking workshops and the development of an online entrepreneurship platform that tracks progress globally and allows for interaction among entrepreneurs across multiple geographies
• Participate in Endeavor’s Investor Network, which provides introductions for qualified institutional and venture investors to successful emerging market companies

Expand Activities in Brazil and India
“There are 4 million registered companies in Brazil, of which 30,000 are high-growth and responsible for 57 percent of jobs in Brazil,” said Juliano Seabra, managing director, Endeavor Brazil. “Today, Endeavor Brazil supports 57 companies in Brazil. The partnership with SAP will catalyze Endeavor Brazil’s network of high-impact entrepreneurs by helping more high-growth companies access capital and mentors, creating a new generation of successful entrepreneurs.”

SAP and Endeavor Brazil plan to:

• Select 50 emerging entrepreneurs who will receive a custom package of benefits, including access to Endeavor Brazil’s planned online platform and skilled volunteering opportunities with SAP employees
• Select 20 emerging entrepreneurs from among the group of 50 who will receive an entrepreneur package from SAP with a growth grant, a technology evaluation and SAP exclusive mentorship
• Establish an online community that tracks and monitors the entrepreneurial environment in Brazil. In-depth pilots will be run with local stakeholders in specific cities in Brazil by Endeavor and Professor Daniel Isenberg, global Ecosystems expert, bringing together all key entrepreneurship stakeholders to create a joint action plan for a better entrepreneurial environment in selected cities. The first pilot will take place in January 2013 in Rio de Janeiro.

“High-potential entrepreneurs are critical for India to create the tens of millions of jobs it needs over the next decade,” said K. Srikrishna, executive director, NEN India. “By investing in developing mentors and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, NEN and SAP will enable more entrepreneurs to grow and create the jobs India needs.”

SAP and NEN plan to:

• Train 30 mentors across India who will support 300 emerging entrepreneurs in India
• Select 100 SAP experts who, through skilled-based volunteering assignments, will help emerging entrepreneurs with their specific technology requirements
• Select up to five emerging entrepreneurs who will receive a technology assessment, technology solutions and an innovation growth grant from SAP

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom.

About Endeavor
Hailed by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as “the best anti-poverty program of all,” Endeavor is leading the global movement to catalyze long-term economic growth by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating the best high-impact entrepreneurs around the world. To date, Endeavor has screened more than 30,000 entrepreneurs and selected 726 individuals leading 455 high-impact companies.

With support from Endeavor’s worldwide mentor network, these high-impact entrepreneurs:

• Have created over 200,000 jobs
• Generated over $5 billion in revenues in 2011
• Inspire future generations to innovate and take risks

Headquartered in New York City, Endeavor currently operates in 16 countries throughout Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia. As the high-impact movement expands globally, Endeavor will continue to prove that anyone with a big idea can succeed, from Silicon Valley to Latin America, the Middle East, and beyond.

About National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)
National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) inspires, educates and supports high-potential entrepreneurs to create high-value jobs. NEN does this by building institutional capacity and a robust entrepreneurial eco-system. Today, it represents India’s largest and most vibrant entrepreneurial community. The backbone of the NEN Community comprises of more than 550 member academic institutes with 1200 entrepreneurship faculty and 400 student E Cells; NEN E Clubs, driven by the NEN Alumni and open to the public. These bodies organize an astonishing breadth and depth of programs across the country that create and support entrepreneurs. In addition, the NEN members support each other individually to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions. For more information, visit www.nenonline.org

Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews. 

For more information, press only:
Evan Welsh, +1 (610) 203-9742, evan.welsh@sap.com, EST
Robin Meyerhoff, +1 (650) 440-2572, robin.meyerhoff@sap.com, PST
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EST; press@sap.com

WALLDORF —

“This investment supports our vision of helping the world run better by improving people’s lives,” said Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer, SAP. “It confirms our sustainability commitment of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to the level of year-2000 by the year 2020, representing a decrease of more than 50 percent. To date, we have achieved a reduction of 18 percent and avoided cost in excess of more than EUR 220 million over the last four years.”

SAP’s carbon reduction strategy is based on three pillars:

• Accelerate the profitable reduction of energy consumption by SAP
• Enhance the purchase of green electricity (currently at 67 percent globally)
• Offset part of its emissions in an innovative way

“SAP is executing across all three pillars to achieve our target reduction,” said Peter Rasper, executive vice president of Global Finance Infrastructure, SAP, and SAP representative on the board of directors of Livelihoods Fund. “Through our partnership with the Livelihoods Fund, SAP will not only purchase carbon credits and offset emissions, but we will produce carbon credits. This provides an innovative, affordable and partnership-oriented way to reduce our emissions that will once again underline our leadership in the sustainability space.”

Piloted by Danone in 2008, Livelihoods Fund supports projects that link carbon sequestration, restore biodiversity and fight poverty. This platform allows common investment business partners to pool their resources and skills together, to support their shared vision for social responsibility. Livelihoods Fund has so far invested in several large-scale projects in Africa and Asia. A prominent example is the restoration of 10,000 hectares of mangroves in Senegal by 450 villages reconstituting their food ecosystem of fish breeding and crop protection. Another example is the plantation of 6,000 hectares of agroforestry with 20,000 small farmers in India, which will provide a mix of fruits, timber and cash crops under shade. While improving the livelihoods of impoverished people, these two projects will also sequestrate 1.5 million tons of CO₂ over 20 years.

“SAP’s decision to invest in Livelihoods is a confirmation of the company’s leadership on sustainability,” said Bernard Giraud, co-founder of Livelihoods Fund and president of Livelihoods Venture, the Fund Advisor. “We welcome SAP’s engagement on reducing its carbon footprint while contributing to create social and environmental value through an innovative business model. And we expect that they will also bring a lot to the Livelihoods approach.”

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and @sustainableSAP.

Media Contact:
Evan Welsh, +1 (610) 203-9742, evan.welsh@sap.com, EST

WALLDORF —

SAP Incident Management allows organizations to quickly set up a company-wide incident management process to avoid accidents. With analytics and a dashboard to visualize data, the rapid-deployment solution guides companies through the investigative process of helping EHS and operations professionals better understand why past incidents have occurred and how to prevent future ones from reoccurring.

As a rapid-deployment solution, the incident management functionality of the SAP EHS Management application is packaged with software, pre-configured content and pre-defined services that streamline the implementation process at a fixed price and within a designated timeframe. Companies can have a full system up and running typically within 90 days with fewer costs and risks. Once this incident management solution is in place, companies can expand their operational risk management system or implement a mobile safety reporting solution to help support a more proactive safety culture.

SAP Incident Management is the latest in a line of rapid-deployment solutions designed to quickly meet safety and environmental goals in order to support sustainable operations. SAP Rapid Deployment solutions for health and safety, product and safety, stewardship, product life-cycle management and energy management are all currently available.

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and @SAPrds.

Media Contacts:
Martin Gwisdalla, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-67275, martin.gwisdalla@sap.com, CET
Robin Meyerhoff, SAP,  +1 (650) 440 2572, robin.meyerhoff@sap.com, PST
Anthony Suarez, Burson-Marsteller, +1 (212) 614-4331, anthony.suarez@bm.com, EST