Flexso ESG Reporting SAP Sustainability Control Tower

SAP Sustainability Control Tower: Turn your ESG ambitions into reality

March 8, 2024

5 minutes

Analytics SAP S/4HANA Digital Supply Chain

To comply with the EU’s most recent Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), companies will be obligated to eliminate all forms of greenwashing and report more transparently about ESG efforts. But that’s easier said than done. Luckily, SAP has developed a complete product strategy around sustainability to help. SAP Sustainability Control Tower, for example: a powerful cloud solution that makes it easier to set KPIs, monitor progress, report on your ESG-goals and act on them.

Sustainability is undeniably a hot topic today. As you might already have noticed, new regulations are coming into force on every institutional level. Ok, the number of coming regulations on waste, packaging, emissions, CSRD, … and the number of new disclosures that companies will need to produce in the upcoming years can be quite overwhelming, a little scary perhaps. But why not seize the momentum to gain speed on your competitors? 🚀

Company responsibles may feel the new situation as an additional barrier to their economic development. But this new regulation framework can be transformed into an opportunity if the company solves the paradigm of switching sustainability regulations from costs to investments and from constraint to competitive advantage.

With its brand-new sustainability portfolio, SAP has developed a bunch of new intelligent cloud solutions to support your business in taking the most efficient route on your sustainability journey.

Take the SAP Sustainability Control Tower (SCT), for example. The ultimate reporting platform for CSRD, EU Taxonomy and GRI compliance is now running on the SAP Business Technology Platform, and can be linked to your system in no-time. End 2023, our experts shared their vision on ESG Reporting in a webinar. Rewatch the full session here 👉.

What gets measured, gets managed

SAP Sustainability Control Tower (SCT) integrates sustainability data from SAP solutions and third-party applications with your business processes. In this way, the system creates a single point of truth for all your environmental, social, and ESG-activities.

For one, that sure makes it a lot easier to handle today’s variety of reporting requirements and regulations. However, it also provides unprecedented insight into where your company stands in terms of its ESG ambitions, and what you should focus on.
Want to enrich your core system with the rich SAP offering on sustainability? Extend your SAP core solutions in the proper way.

More specifically, SAP Sustainability Control Tower offers three capabilities that help companies step up their sustainability game:

Record company data with out-of-the-box SAP and third-party integration. The result? Faster time to value and granular data visibility.
Report regulatory compliant ESG metrics covering common frameworks based on an open and extensible solution.
Act and plan your future with actionable insights, forecasts, and targets. Track initiatives and optimize business processes to make an impact.

SAP Sustainability Control Tower in action: EU Taxonomy

Under the CSRD, EU companies have to disclose how much of their turnover, operational expenditure (OPEX), and capital expenditure (CAPEX) is spent on ‘sustainable activities’. This helps companies to be clearer and more transparent, make informed decisions, and integrate ESG factors into their business strategies. Moreover, it enables cross-company and even cross-sector comparative analysis.

To help companies determine which proportion of turnover, OPEX, and CAPEX is spent on sustainable activities, the EU introduced the EU Taxonomy. This framework provides robust assessment criteria to determine whether an activity can be considered environmentally sustainable.

With SAP Sustainability Control Tower, navigating the EU Taxonomy becomes a lot easier. Set up according to EU standards, the tool automatically splits turnover, CAPEX, and OPEX data into what is eligible and aligned with the EU Taxonomy. For example, you can see with which economic activities and to which legal entity each KPI is linked. In addition, it also shows what the specific criteria are for each activity, and whether you are aligned or eligible (but not yet aligned).

Want to get more transparency on your product costs? Read more on SAP Product costing.

Towering advantages – in just 15 days

As a tool to step up your organization’s sustainability efforts, the SAP Sustainability Control Tower offers multiple advantages:

It’s a single source of truth: the data integrated in the system can be re-used for all your reporting obligations – from EU Taxonomy to GHG emissions reporting.
It offers inbound and outbound APIs for third-party applications and standard integration with other SAP solutions.
Regular updates ensure you’ll stay aligned with changing regulations, forever.
Its drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to use, even for non-technical employees.

In conclusion, SAP SCT is a super handy tool to comply with sustainability regulations. Moreover, it can be used with S/4HANA cloud directly or via SAP Datasphere, depending on your SAP RISE package. As a bonus, implementation takes no longer than 15 days. What’s more, thanks to the expertise of Flexso, SAP Control Tower can perform its first run-through within 15 days of installation.