- BCG and SAP will provide transparency on sustainability ‘at the push of a button’ and deliver impact based on a combination of strategy, technology, and business model change, with BCG and SAP solutions that can be ready to use within weeks
- BCG and SAP want to help accelerate companies in their journey to zero waste and zero emissions. BCG and SAP can enable companies to achieve emissions reductions of up to 40%[i]
- Early-adopter companies can realize more than a 10% market premium in many industries[ii]
BOSTON, March 28, 2022: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a leading strategy consultancy, announces a partnership with SAP, a market leader in enterprise application software. The joint transformation offering will allow companies to identify the business value in sustainability, setting the right climate ambitions and powering an actionable sustainability roadmap.
The SAP and BCG partnership will help companies tackle the generational challenge of climate change and respond to increasing investor pressure and ever stricter regulations. Research from analyst firm IDC shows that sustainability has become a top business priority.[iii] “According to one of IDC’s recent end user surveys, three-quarters of executives involved in their company’s sustainability initiatives believe that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors are ‘very important’ for the enterprise value of their organization,” said Bjoern Stengel, the global sustainability research lead at IDC. “BCG and SAP have both been at the forefront of operationalizing sustainable transformation with their clients, and this partnership will further help IT buyers use sustainability-focused technology strategically to achieve their goals.” SAP and BCG offer market-leading solutions in three areas that are of particular relevance in a sustainability transformation—strategy, business model change, and technology innovation— to complement their respective efforts in the sustainability space.
To help companies accelerate on their net-zero-emissions journey with an up to 40% emissions reduction potential,i BCG and SAP will enable companies to integrate leading-edge carbon-tracking measurement and intelligence into their core business operations and strategic decision making. Combining two market-leading solutions in BCG’s CO2 AI and the SAP Product Footprint Management solution, the partnership targets Scopes 1, 2, and 3 via BCG’s CO2 AI as well as an integration into core SAP software through SAP Product Footprint Management.
To help achieve zero waste in supply chains, SAP and BCG will assess the circularity opportunity in a company’s portfolio across its entire supply chain and product portfolio. Based on BCG’s CIRCelligence and the SAP Responsible Design and Production solution, this offering will enable customers to accelerate the zero-waste journey.
The sustainability transformation efforts of customers will be guided by a Holistic Steering and Reporting solution backed by the SAP Sustainability Control Tower solution and BCG’s Compliance Target Operating Model to help ensure that the transformation is driven with a focus on business value and that companies comply with all regulatory requirements.
“Sustainability presents a unique opportunity to create a lasting, positive impact for future generations, but no organization can achieve its sustainability goals alone,” said Christian Klein, the CEO and a member of the executive board of SAP SE. “Being sustainable requires coordination across the value chain, and this is where SAP’s partnership with BCG plays a key role. Bringing together BCG’s expertise, tools, and services and SAP’s technology, our Sustainability Transformation offerings give companies the transparency, actionable data, and strategic guidance they need to successfully tackle sustainability end to end and create value for all its stakeholders.”
This new partnership is designed to effect enterprise-wide change, spanning complex supply chains and creating business value from sustainability.
“I firmly believe that an organization’s environmental impact will soon be as important to its key stakeholders as its financial performance. Early movers in sustainability can experience more than a 10% market premium.ii This is an enormous opportunity for companies around the world. This partnership with SAP will allow our clients to transform at an unprecedented pace,” added Christoph Schweizer, BCG’s CEO.
The Sustainability Transformation offering from BCG and SAP is deployed at lighthouse customers right now with an expected broader launch in the third quarter of 2022.
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About Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholders—empowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.
Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.
[i] Close, Faure, & Hutchinson (2021): How Tech Offers a Faster Path to Sustainability
[ii] Aré, Berthaud, Fuisz-Kehrbach, Haloui, Hutchinson, Loureiro, Perzanowski, Rhodes, & Semmel (2022): Sustainability as Advantage
[iii] IDC 2021 ESG Business Services Survey
