Earth Day And Beyond: How Business Networks Boost Sustainability Efforts

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By Paige Cox, Senior Vice President and Global Head of SAP Business Network

When peace activists and environmentalists founded Earth Day in 1970, it’s unlikely they foresaw that technology companies and other industry giants would carry their goals forward over fifty years later.

Back then, few could have imagined cloud-based business networks or digital supply chains either. But thanks to the visibility made possible by both innovations, businesses today have an unparalleled opportunity to achieve meaningful environmental objectives not only within the four walls of their organizations but across those of their trading partners as well.

At a time when shareholders, employees and other key stakeholders have lent unprecedented support to embracing ethical supply chains and sustainable business practices, transparency becomes imperative.

No longer is it sufficient for business leaders to verify that their own operations meet high environmental standards. Increasingly, they must confirm that those of their suppliers — and even of their suppliers’ suppliers — do so as well. For enterprises seeking accountability rooted in data, digital commercial networks offer a breadth of visibility previously unknown.

Consider the opportunity for procurement. According to the International Monetary Fund, global business-to-business e-commerce represents $23.9 trillion in volume, exceeding business-to-consumer sales by a factor of six.

Imagine if the world’s buyers and suppliers had visibility into each other’s interconnected operations, their records on the responsible stewardship of natural resources, their practices in the ethical sourcing of labor, their patterns in awarding business to historically underrepresented groups of people, and other socially relevant metrics. Imagine if, through technology, business leaders could align their brand values with those of their trading partners.

SAP’s Ariba Network and ecosystem of partner applications make this a reality, helping organizations to can gain deep, data-driven insights into trading partners across a range of operational and social criteria, while at the same time managing risk, mitigating disruption, optimizing supply chains and collaborating on innovation on behalf of mutual customers.

Procurement, meanwhile, represents only one major facet of the networked economy through which businesses are advancing their sustainability efforts. Another is logistics.

Through SAP’s Logistics Business Network, organizations connect with business partners to manage end-to-end logistics transactions, pursue collaboration and glean insights from mutual operations. Aided by the Network’s material traceability option built on blockchain technology, consumers and businesses alike gain transparency into the provenance and processing of food along its circuitous journey from farm to table and everywhere in-between.

The clear benefit is actionable insights as well as accountability. Does a product contain locally sourced ingredients? Does it meet necessary dietary restrictions? Does it contain known allergens? Does it uphold minimum freshness standards? Does it include any ingredient subject to safety recall?

Offering ready answers to these and related questions, the Logistics Business Network’s material traceability option harnesses the power of data to reinforce sustainability throughout supply chains, ultimately reducing waste, which, according to a United Nations report from March 2021, accounts for 17% of total global food production.

Beyond procurement and logistics, perhaps the most striking example of a business network advancing the aims of sustainability is SAP’s Asset Intelligence Network, by dramatically reducing the need for energy-intensive activity in the first place.

Let’s suppose a utility business operates wind turbines spread across a rural prairie, or a telecommunications firm installs cell towers along a remote stretch of highway, or a soft-drink distributor maintains vending machines strategically located in beach communities brimming with thirsty tourists.

These assets require periodic maintenance, sometimes unexpectedly. By connecting such assets with Internet-enabled sensors, businesses create digital twins in the cloud, thereby increasing the predictability of maintenance while often reducing its frequency. This can add up to substantial savings when physical assets span distant locales.

But enterprise platforms such as SAP’s Asset Intelligence Network, Ariba Network and Logistics Business Network bring about much more than cost savings. They also further environmental objectives. Only with the data-driven insights acquired through digital business networks can organizations ensure regulatory compliance, widen the circular economy and achieve efficiencies that enable measurable progress toward greener outcomes.

As these networks become increasingly integrated, businesses large and small can anticipate a future where visibility, transparency and accountability — all anchored in data — produce a cleaner, more sustainable future for us all.