Sustainability: Strategically Profitable

Those factors led to an internal study of the sustainability opportunity about two years ago. SAP developed a list of the opportunities, talked to over 100 customers and partners to get their views and then presented the findings to its executive board. The board accepted the findings and that led to the ongoing efforts to enhance the company's products and services.

Today, says Graf, SAP has a two-part sustainability strategy. First, the company has become a role model for how a large company could address sustainability both by policy and principles, and by using technology. Second, the firm works to enable its customers to address sustainability.

As SAP started down its own path to develop sustainability, Graf notes, the company also learned that software tools weren't very well developed to gather and collect information as part of a business process. There were no links to common master data or organized workflow and little built-in reporting standards. Consequently, the company identified several different opportunities to create or improve existing tools.

 Additionally, SAP has developed and introduced a product designed to aid a company in creating, gathering and monitoring data and reporting its own sustainability goals. This product, SAP Sustainability Performance Management, was released in December 2009, and many customers are running it in their operations. SAP uses the report for its own sustainability management team meetings and quarterly executive reviews.

These efforts have produced results for SAP. In 2009, the company realized 90 million euros (about $120 million) in savings and a reduction of 15 percent in carbon emissions. Those savings were realized by reducing business flights 30 percent, cutting electricity use 7 percent, reducing paper use 25 percent and increasing the use of renewable energy by 33 percent.

Financial Services

AXA Group, a global financial services and insurance business, has had a sustainable development department since 2001. The company has a three-part sustainability strategy, says Alice Steenland, vice president of corporate responsibility (CR), in Paris. The first part focuses on structuring the approach to CR through clear key performance indicators (KPIs) and governance structures. The second element focuses on differentiating the company's work in a key area of corporate responsibility.

"We have chosen risk research and education, which is obviously very closely linked to our core business," says Steenland. "We have large amounts of information on financial risk, environmental risk and other risks. We feel it is part of our responsibility to share that information with society, so we have numerous programs around risk education throughout the group. We also have a 100 million euro research fund, which finances fundamental research on risk."

The third part of AXA's strategy is the engagement of employees. Sustainability and corporate responsibility programs work only if all employees believe they're part of their daily jobs, Steenland says. "It's not a communications exercise; it's just part of the way we want to do business — every employee needs to be involved. We are trying to get employees to think about how they can best do this. As a result, one major initiative we launched in the beginning of the year was an online forum, where we asked employees what responsibility meant to them and in what areas they felt the group needed to be doing more. We had about 10,000 people connecting and talking with their senior managers about these programs."

AXA's sustainability efforts have paid off. Steenland says that the company is well regarded by the socially responsible investment (SRI) ratings agencies, and responses from AXA's stakeholder groups have been positive. "I think people do see the connection between the core business and the fact that it entails, in and of itself, a sense of responsibility," she says.

Health Care

Roche has been named Super-Sector Leader in Health Care in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) for the second year running. This top ranking among the world's leading sustainability-driven health care companies is a reflection of Roche's commitment to its employees, communities and the environment, and positions Roche as a global leader in the management of sustainable business practices. Roche has been included in the DJSI World and STOXX since 2004 and first achieved the title of Super-Sector Leader in Healthcare in 2009.

"We are extremely pleased to be recognized again as the Super-Sector Leader in Health Care for the second year in a row," commented Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche, in a press release. "Sustainability is at the core of our business practices, and this positioning reflects our commitment to running our business in a way that is ethical, responsible and creates long-term value for stakeholders. Our ongoing sector leadership position will also provide an incentive to further develop our sustainability strategy while continuing to deliver innovative treatments for patients with unmet medical needs."

Roche's activities in the area of sustainability include reducing energy consumption and improving energy efficiency, thereby decreasing its carbon footprint. Additional programs include involvement in local community charitable initiatives, remuneration and benefit programs that reflect the dedication and value of its employees and ultimately the development of new approaches to bring medically valuable and sustainable health care products and services to patients around the world.