Month: June 2023

Originally published in Otis 2022 ESG Report

Our vision, as industry leader, is to give people freedom to connect and thrive in a taller, faster, smarter world. We embrace the responsibility to honor the generations that came before us, to deliver for the generations of today and to sponsor the generations that come after us. It is about doing the right thing for our planet, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and the communities where we live and work.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is part of our culture, integral to setting our vision in motion and embedded in our long-term strategy. It is no coincidence that the principles of ESG align well with the foundation of our business: our Absolutes of Safety, Ethics and Quality.

Safety was core to our beginnings 170 years ago and remains a top priority in our work today – for colleagues who design, install or service our elevators and escalators and for the 2 billion passengers who ride on them daily. Our reputation is paramount, and we uphold the highest standards of Ethics through strong governance and a spirit of integrity – always doing business the right way. We believe that all of us “own” Quality. We deliver quality results at every turn across our production, installation, and maintenance and repair processes as well as sales, marketing and financial reporting.

Our business success requires continuous growth and improvement, and ESG is an area where we and our stakeholders rightly expect progress. Last year, in our inaugural ESG report as an independent company, we made clear our dedication to the four pillars that are fundamental to our ESG strategy: Health & Safety, Environment & Impact, People & Communities, and Governance & Accountability. We hold ourselves accountable with the added step of tying executive short-term incentive compensation to ESG goal performance – specifically, achieving gender parity among executives and managing our environmental footprint to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ESG advancement is embedded in our success through strong financial results and the impact we make in the communities where we do business.

In this report, we are pleased to share initiatives and progress toward our 13 ESG goals and our commitment to foster a more sustainable, inclusive world. We aim to transparently provide updates toward our goals while celebrating important milestones.

Among the updates in this report:

Health & Safety: We remain committed to achieving a zero-harm workplace and launched Field Standard Practices to identify, track and rectify areas of high-risk work activities. If an incident does occur, we perform extensive root-cause analyses to make improvements and help prevent recurrence.Environment & Impact: In a first for the elevator industry, our Florence, South Carolina, U.S., facility achieved gold-level TRUE certification for its zero-waste efforts. And we built a new factory in San Sebastian, Spain, that used certain sustainable construction materials and is powered by electricity generated from 100% renewable resources.People & Communities: We launched a set of programs to support us in accelerating development of diverse talent, female leadership and our culture of inclusion. These programs are helping us ensure that our workforce reflects the communities we serve. We are on a responsible and sustainable path to reach gender parity in our executive ranks by 2030, having increased female executive representation from 36% in 2021 to 39.2% in 2022.Governance & Accountability: Members of our Board of Directors are deeply experienced senior executives across sectors that include asset management, automotive, consumer products, manufacturing and professional services. We seek to enhance Board diversity in other dimensions as well. With the addition of our newest Board member in October 2022, six of our 10 members are women, racially/ethnically diverse or both.

As we continuously work to advance our strategy, culture and ESG goals, we are doing so from a position of strength. I am confident that in this report you, our stakeholders, will see tangible progress toward limiting carbon emissions, reducing and reusing energy, promoting equity, inclusivity and diversity, and providing opportunities for all. We look forward to continuing our ESG journey alongside you.

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SAP’s strategic commitment to sustainability and the comprehensiveness of its commercial offerings were highlighted in the IDC Sustainability Index for Software Providers: SAP (doc #EUR147190121, May 2023), placing SAP in the top three of 23 software vendors that were assessed using IDC’s sustainability framework.

SAP Solutions Enable Organizations to Record, Report, and Act on their Sustainability Ambitions

IDC reviews the roles of major ICT players’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts across three pillars: Technology as an Enabler, Technology Vendor Performance, and Technology for Good. During its assessment of software vendors, IDC has found that SAP performs exceptionally well compared to its peers. SAP’s strong performance stems from its commitment to making sustainability an integral part of its mission. This is reflected in the company’s customer offerings and the skills it is incorporating into the organization at global and regional levels.

SAP placed among the top three in the Technology as an Enabler pillar, outperforming the market average in all five main categories – monetization, sustainable software features and practices, ESG management reporting software, software for operational optimization, and advisory services and sustainable ecosystems. One of the main reasons for the placement is the efficient internal product standards that ensure applications or services are both cost efficient and resource efficient. SAP complies with several industry standards, including ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 22301, ISO/IEC 27018, and ISO 10012.

SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises is the umbrella cloud-based solution for a comprehensive package that can provide insights into organizations’ sustainable performance and can enable them to record, report, and act on their respective sustainability goals. Flagship solution SAP Sustainability Control Tower can provide customers with holistic steering and ESG reporting along the three main sustainability areas: climate action, circular economy, and social responsibility.

SAP Sustainability solutions deliver company-wide functionality and industry-specific features that can help you incorporate sustainability in business at scale by embedding operations, experience, and financial insights into your core business processes.

One clear example is SAP’s commitment to helping companies track carbon accounting with more precision and control by using actual data across their business operations and supply chains in sync with financial flows. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal about carbon accounting, Sebastian Steinhaeuser, chief strategy officer at SAP, shared his thoughts on why companies need carbon accounting: “We need to standardize how we do carbon accounting globally because, today, companies still take different approaches based on individual solutions, which aren’t easy to compare. We need carbon accounting with the same accuracy, detail, and transparency as financial accounting and standardizations like the SEC or ISSB so that we also operate all on the same common framework of rules like we do in financial accounting today.”

The Technology Vendor Performance pillar comprises five categories – governance, social sustainability, supply chain for company operations, operational sustainability, and environmental sustainability. SAP outperformed the market average and was among the top five performers across these categories.

Sustainability has always been embedded as a part of SAP’s governance. Strong evidence of SAP’s commitment to sustainability is the inclusion of sustainability KPIs in all Executive Board members’ compensation plans. Additionally, every quarter, SAP reviews sustainability practices, publishes financials, and selects sustainability KPIs. SAP adheres to various non-financial reporting standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Taskforce for Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), Climate Disclosure Project (CDP), and European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

SAP supports programs such as Targets for Women in Management, Women to Watch, Inclusive Mindset Challenge, Fair Pay Initiative, Business Women’s Network, Black Employee Network, and Pride@SAP to promote diversity and inclusion. SAP is one of the few companies that impose an internal carbon tax, although that carbon tax applies solely to new projects and activities that require the consumption of fossil fuels. SAP also charges an internal carbon price for business flights in most countries they leave from, thus incentivizing the use of eco-friendly alternatives, such as traveling by train.

SAP was placed in the top five in the Technology for Good pillar. SAP achieved a maximum score due to a strong global corporate social responsibility (CSR) and volunteering presence. SAP employees contributed over 117,000 hours of pro bono time and committed 27.6 million euros globally to common good causes. Employees’ understanding of social and environmental issues is deepened through the 614 virtual and on-site volunteering opportunities.

As IDC points out in the report, the importance of sustainability in SAP’s strategy and business model can be traced to the company’s mission statement: “[Our purpose is] to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. We strive to achieve this as both an enabler and an exemplar of sustainable business. In addition, we want our own business operations and practices to be intelligent, sustainable, and inclusive.” SAP is committed to multiple sustainability milestones, including carbon neutrality in its own operations by the end of 2023 and achieving net-zero emissions along its value chain by 2030.

About the IDC Sustainability Index

IDC evaluated SAP’s performance against more than 130 parameters present in IDC’s Technology for Sustainability and Social Impact (TSSI) framework for software vendors. IDC’s TSSI Index offers a view of the current state of the European ICT industry regarding sustainability and social impact. The assessment focused on SAP’s three core areas – ESG achievements, sustainability portfolio of products and solutions, and altruistic initiatives that provide technological solutions.

IDC selects vendors for profiles based on their overall sustainability performances measured against a predefined criterion, their proactivity on sustainability issues, and their provision of information in a transparent manner. Some of the other vendors like Adobe, Benchmark ESG, BMC Software, Eset, Genesys, Goby, IBM, IFS, Logo, Microsoft, MobileXpense, NetApp, OneTrust, Oracle, Persefoni, Sage, Salesforce, ServiceNow, SoftwareAG, Sphera, TietoEvry, and Wolters Kluwers were also assessed.

IDC’s Sustainability Framework is built on three pillars – Technology Vendor Performance, Technology as an Enabler, and Technology for Good. SAP performed exceptionally well, outperforming the industry average on each of the three pillars and all 15 major categories that were assessed.

For more details, download the full report here.

June 6, 2023 /3BL Media/ – GRI CEO Eelco van der Enden is in the ASEAN region from 5-13 June for a series of high-level meetings with companies, regulators, policymakers and stakeholders, on a mission raise the profile and application of sustainability reporting.

Following a successful visit to the region in March (when Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines were the focus), this time Mr van der Enden’s itinerary will prioritize Indonesia alongside a return to Singapore. His public engagements include:

Ecosperity Week 2023 (6 June, Singapore): Eelco will provide a keynote address on the theme ‘accelerating trust and transparency in a world on fire’, at this major gathering of business leaders and public sector representatives from across Asia-Pacific.Binus University and GRI co-hosted event(12 June, Jakarta) – The evolving role of universities: Rising up to the global sustainability challenge: Addressing around 700 students and academics, Eelco will explore why universities need to get involved in the sustainability transition, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.IDX (Indonesian Stock Exchange) and GRI co-hosted session(13 June, Jakarta) – The future of sustainability reporting: Forum for regulators and listed companies: Eelco will be joined by I Gede Nyoman Yetna (Listing Director of IDX) and Antonius Hari (Head of Capital Market Regulation, OJK – the Indonesian Financial Services Authority), to share about developments in the disclosure landscape.

Eelco van der Enden said:

“The fact that every top 100 company in Singapore, and 78% of those in Indonesia*, use the GRI Standards underlines the significant opportunities in the region to unlock the power of transparency as a force for change. The next stage is to raise the quality of disclosure and further cascade the adoption of impact reporting.

To do so necessitates stakeholder joint-working, including companies, governments, regulators and investors. Over the coming days, I look forward to strengthening relationships with ASEAN-based organizations, to drive forward sustainability reporting throughout the region.

I will also update businesses on GRI’s collaboration with our colleagues at the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and EFRAG in the EU. Particularly given the timeframe for these standards to become available, GRI reporting is all the more relevant to meet the information needs of investors and other stakeholders.” 

Eelco van der Enden will also meet with the Singapore Government’s Chief Sustainability Officer; Temasek (Singaporean national investment company); and member companies of the GRI ASEAN Consortium. In Indonesia, Eelco will meet senior officials from: the International Finance Corporation; Saka Farma; Medco Energi, PwC Indonesia; PT-ABM Investama; SECO Indonesia; and GIZ Indonesia.

The GRI ASEAN regional network opened in Singapore in 2019. With a global HQ based in Amsterdam and Brussels, GRI also has locations covering South Asia (New Delhi), Greater China Region (Hong Kong), Africa (Johannesburg), North America (New York), and Latin America (Bogota).

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing the global common language to report those impacts. The GRI Standards are developed through a multi-stakeholder process and provided as a free public good.

*KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting 2022

This is an exciting time for Bath & Body Works with the release of its first ESG report. What excites you the most about being at the company and helping to lead its ESG journey?

It’s great to be back in my home state of Ohio, and I’m excited to join Bath & Body Works on its ESG journey. I come to work every day inspired by my smart, passionate colleagues who are committed to doing the right thing, and that positive energy has been fueling so much of the ESG progress to date.

Since I joined Bath & Body Works in December 2021, we’ve been learning, growing and connecting across the organization and framing ESG as a collective effort in which everyone’s role is important to our success. What excites me is that while formalizing ESG within the company is new, sustainability work has been taking place for years. It’s now a matter of organizing our priorities, refining and building the programs needed to support the work and taking our internal and external stakeholders along for the ride. What also excites me is the incredible support from our Executive Council and Board of Directors who understand the value ESG brings to the business.

In thinking about the company’s ESG strategy/commitments, how did you prioritize the work? Is there an area that you are especially passionate about moving forward?

In order to create the most meaningful and impactful ESG strategy, it first needs focus. So, we started this work by conducting a prioritization assessment to better understand the interests and needs of our internal partners and external stakeholders, including investors, topical experts and, of course, our customers. As a result, we created our ESG strategy focused on six priority areas, each supported by near- and longer-term commitments.

When I look at our ESG strategy and commitments, I believe each of these topics link up nicely with one another, and we will quickly find that work against one goal supports progress in multiple areas. It may sound cliché, but it’s impossible for me to pick an area where I’m more passionate about driving forward than another because I see all of these working hand-in-hand to move the company toward a more responsible and resilient future. Take, for example, our work around the sustainable sourcing of our ingredients. When we progress along that journey, it can also help deliver enhanced product transparency, as well as help with improving our social and environmental impacts — all of which can deliver more sustainable products that we know our customers want.

What does success look like for ESG at Bath & Body Works in the coming years?

When I think of the year ahead, I think of one word — progress. We’ve set meaningful goals that will require significant collaboration, investment, thoughtful planning and solid execution to ensure success. For example, we’ve set goals around climate change and carbon emissions, which are to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions 50% by 2030. To accomplish this, we’re actively looking at how to leverage renewable energy as one of the means to deliver against that goal. At the same time, we are conducting a baseline assessment of our Scope 3 emissions, which will take time. This will span across our entire value chain — from sourcing our ingredients all the way to the end of product life. Once we collect that information, we’ll be looking to set an ambitious goal for the entire value chain in 2025, aligned to the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), to ultimately move toward climate neutrality. It is said, ‘little by little, one travels far.’ I’m confident that we will make steady progress and by next year we will have additional data and outcomes of the work that demonstrates the progress we’re making step-by-step and day-by-day as we take care of the things that matter most.