SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) announced the general availability of the SAP Green Ledger solution, the most comprehensive carbon accounting system globally that integrates directly with customers' financial data.
Part of SAP Sustainability solutions, SAP Green Ledger allocates carbon emissions to specific economic activities and transactions captured by ERP solutions from SAP. This innovation empowers organizations to accurately account for, analyze and report carbon footprints across products, services, and organizational units.
Addressing the growing consensus that decarbonization is required to combat climate change, SAP Green Ledger helps companies:
Track and account for carbon footprints in relation to their financial impact
Lower emissions alongside financial optimization and thus facilitate carbon budgeting
Establish carbon planning for carbon neutrality and net zero targets
Benchmark departments, business units and profit centers from both a financial and environmental perspective
Prepare for sustainability audits
Improve supplier-based processes to decrease carbon emissions in the supply chain (2025)
SAP Green Ledger builds on existing financial and ERP solutions from SAP that are established in thousands of companies worldwide. By extending these solutions to integrate emissions data, businesses can make more informed, sustainable decisions that link environmental impact with financial performance, enhancing compliance, efficiency and transparency.
"Enormous investments are required to abate CO2 in order to curb global warming. Besides smart, reliable regulation also accurate data on emissions along the supply chain is paramount to trigger the necessary investment," said Dominik Asam, CFO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. "Only by moving from averages to actuals - audited at reasonable assurance - can freeriding and greenwashing be avoided, thereby protecting such valuable investment and our planet. SAP Green Ledger delivers precisely that."
Today, SAP Green Ledger provides a first step for businesses to address regulatory requirements by integrating financial and environmental data. It helps companies navigate the complex global landscape of sustainability regulations, such as EU CSRD*, while establishing a scalable foundation over time, to adapt to evolving regulations such as EU ETS** and EU CBAM†, as well as to international standards such as ISSB††. The launch of the solution marks the beginning of a new era in carbon accounting systems, which are expected to significantly impact businesses worldwide as decarbonization becomes a legal and market imperative.
SAP Green Ledger was developed with support from companies such as Accenture, Deloitte, EY, PwC and TCS (Tata Consulting Services) as well as with pilot customers such as Covestro. Covestro is currently evaluating SAP Green Ledger in an early pilot phase and testing the linking of carbon dioxide values to SAP Green Ledger, as they are generated during the manufacture of specific products in the supply chain.
Accenture is helping organizations achieve their net-zero and sustainability targets in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. "As organizations seek to gain visibility into both the financial and environmental performance of their businesses, SAP Green Ledger can provide the sustainability metrics and insights needed to enhance decision-making that reduces emissions, drives efficiencies and optimizes performance," said Stephanie Jamison, global resources industry practice chair and global sustainability services lead at Accenture. "As a strategic co-innovation partner, Accenture helped shape the development of SAP Green Ledger and can apply our understanding of the technology and its capabilities to help our clients get the most for their organization."
Through its Strategic Advisory Group for Green Ledger, SAP was able to gain insights from Deloitte's breadth and depth of knowledge in sustainability measurement and reporting. "SAP Green Ledger offers new levels of precision in carbon accounting for organizations as they track, manage and report their greenhouse gas emissions, and provides leaders with a holistic view of the costs and benefits of sustainability initiatives, enabling them to make data-driven decisions that can build business resilience," said Jennifer Steinmann, Deloitte Global Sustainability Business leader.
Deloitte is working with companies as they adopt sustainability disclosure standards and get ready for assurance. "Technology solutions can help generate traceable, bottom-up emissions data," said Veronica Poole, Deloitte Global IFRS and Corporate Reporting leader. "Leveraging the robust governance and controls of enterprise systems is needed to help organizations achieve the rigor that enhances corporate accountability and enables a move to reasonable assurance."
Norman Emmenlauer, partner for CFO-Led Sustainability at EY Business Consulting, said about SAP Green Ledger: "This is a solution that integrates carbon accounting into the core financial processes, making sustainability a tangible part of business operations."
Carina Schoellmann, partner for ESG Data & Tech at EY Technology Consulting, added: "This solution will help our EY clients by seamlessly integrating carbon accounting into their financial systems, enabling more informed and sustainable decision-making."
Amy Brachio, EY global vice chair for Sustainability, pointed to the strategic nature of the topic: "Sustainability is at the heart of everything organizations do; business operations such as procurement, manufacturing and logistics are great examples. SAP Green Ledger will enable granular and auditable data capture across the value chain, supporting organizations to transform ESG from compliance exercise to value-creation strategy."
Sameer Shah, partner at EY Technology Consulting, added: "SAP Green Ledger is a game changer for sustainability practitioners, providing the tools needed to measure, manage and report on carbon emissions with the same rigor as financial data."
"Having participated in the pilot program, we're excited to see the launch of SAP Green Ledger, an essential digital approach for integrating carbon accounting and management into strategic business operations," explained Will Jackson-Moore, global sustainability leader, PwC UK. "With SAP Green Ledger, businesses can seamlessly align financial performance with sustainability goals, while achieving the transparency and precision needed for real-time emissions reporting and resource management. Building on this foundation, PwC is developing CSRD-ready content to enable end-to-end reporting and steering, helping organisations meet regulatory requirements, prioritise sustainability at the C-level, and drive meaningful change in environmental accountability. We're proud to support our clients in leveraging SAP Green Ledger to navigate complex sustainability challenges, achieve measurable decarbonisation and progress toward net-zero commitments at speed."
SAP partner TCS has also cooperated on SAP Green Ledger, with a focus on accelerating action to achieve carbon neutrality. TCS Enterprise Solutions Global Head Vikram Karakoti said, "With our participation in the pilot program for SAP Green Ledger, TCS is embracing innovative sustainability solutions to build a better future. This will enable organizations to move beyond regulatory compliance and make sustainability a growth engine. By embedding carbon data into the enterprise planning process, organizations can unlock previously unexplored areas for growth, transformation and environmental renewal."
*The EU's CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) defines the rules concerning the social and environmental information that companies have to report. It entered into force on 5 January 2023. **The EU ETS (EU Emissions Trading System) is a "cap and trade" system to reduce emissions via a carbon market. Since 2005, it requires polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, covering emissions from the electricity and heat generation, industrial manufacturing and aviation sectors - which account for roughly 40% of total GHG emissions in the EU. †The EU CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) is the EU's tool to put a fair price on the carbon emitted during the production of carbon-intensive goods that are entering the EU, and to encourage cleaner industrial production in non-EU countries. CBAM will apply in its definitive regime from 2026. ††The ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board) is developing - in the public interest - standards that will result in a high-quality, comprehensive global baseline of sustainability disclosures focused on the needs of investors and the financial markets.
For more information, financial community only: Alexandra Steiger, +49 6227-7-60437, investor@sap.com, CEST
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