Business Trends
Sustainability, Renewability, and Profitability: A Data-Driven Approach to Pursuing all Three
There was a time when “purpose-driven initiatives” were considered something extra that corporations did — a sacrifice of a portion of profits to help make the world a better place. Today, however, they are integral to the success of businesses.
Sustainability and renewability are differentiators for customers and can help reduce waste, bringing in a provable positive ROI. Today’s Triple Bottom Line puts people, profits and the planet on equal footing.
As companies juggle climate change, COVID-19, changing regulatory landscapes, and a growing emphasis on corporate responsibility, the path forward is becoming clearer. Companies are embracing sustainability and renewability as business practices. This new focus is the topic for this episode of Better Together: Customer Conversations.
For the podcast part of the episode, we sat down with Hanno Schoklitsch, CEO at Kaiserwetter, and Professor Sally Eaves, CEO of Aspirational Futures, to discuss what it means for companies to embrace purpose-driven initiatives as a means for growth and success.
Here are a few key takeaways from the conversation.
Tech Investments Drive Sustainable Success
In chatting with Hanno Schoklitsch, it became immediately evident that renewable and sustainable investments are an integral part of the future of business. According to Hanno, data made available through new tech investments will drive innovation in renewability and sustainability.
His company, Kaiserwetter, is leading by example: “We knew we needed intelligence. Intelligence meant all kinds of technologies—like IoT, for instance—to get the data. That’s followed by artificial intelligence to really use the data, and to make the data more useful for our clients,” he says. Kaiserwetter uses this data to identify the right investments businesses can make to promote sustainability and provide positive ROI.
It’s All about the Triple Bottom Line
One of the biggest takeaways from the conversation with Sally Eaves is that the concept of sustainable governance is shifting—sometimes reluctantly. Often, it’s a matter of convincing stakeholders that purpose-driven initiatives don’t come at the cost of profits. Sally urges persistence.
“Showing stakeholders that investment in renewables is good for business, as well as society, is making it really clear that this is a shared value proposition. It’s not an either or,” she says. “I’ve talked before about the fact that I think, quite often, people think you either have for-profit or, at the other end of the spectrum, you have to make guarantees for social enterprise. What I’ve been very keen to emphasize, and advocate is that you can do both.”
More companies are coming around to the idea of the Triple Bottom Line: people, profits and the planet, all on the same plane. It’s not about people vs. profits vs. planet—it’s about weighing them equally.
Full Discussions are Available on SAP.com/BTP
- Listen to the Better Together: Customer Conversations thought-leadership podcast for more insights into what it takes to create what it takes to realize renewable and sustainable solutions.
- Check out the LinkedIn replay where we dig into the practical details on how Kaiserwetter Energy Management Assets leveraged SAP Business Technology Platform for purpose and profit. This is where the conversation takes a practical ground-level approach to embracing purpose-driven practices and laying the groundwork for better social governance.
Additional customer success stories that address these same topics:
Pregis – Packaging at Pregis runs best with SAP
Make systems that provide packaging solutions for all different industries. They wanted to become more intimate with their customers and provide better customer services. SAP helps them to avoid machine downtime, which leads to higher customer satisfaction.
Signify – Transforming into a data-driven enterprise with SAP Analytics Cloud
To achieve cost savings, simplification and better insights, Signify, a spin-off of Philips, needed a standardized analytics platform. SAP Analytics Cloud empowers Signify to make fact-based decisions more quickly – ultimately enabling the company to offer their customers better products and services.
SAP customers are doing incredible things with technology — it’s always inspiring to see what happens when innovation and initiative meet our platform. Better Together: Customer Conversations is your chance to hear their informative, inspiring stories.
Stay tuned! In the next episode we’ll discuss “Achieving Real-time Customer Insights” with Mustafa Mustafa, Sr. Director, Analytics and Technical Shared Service, Ferrara Candy Company. He knows first-hand how cutting-edge speed, agility, and accuracy helps Ferrara keep each of its brands – from faithful standards to its newest acquisitions – performing at their peak.
I’d love your input on what topics you’d like us to cover in the future and feedback on the questions we should be asking. Do email us with your thoughts and if you’d like to be a guest on an episode.
I hope you’ll join our next conversation.