Newsbyte: SAP Greens Its Cloud, Will Power Data Centers and Facilities With 100 Percent Renewable Electricity in 2014

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Mar 24, 2014, 03:00 ET

WALLDORF, Germany, March 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it will power all its data centers and facilities globally with 100 percent renewable electricity starting in 2014. The shift will help minimize the company's carbon footprint as it moves to a cloud business model, and will help eliminate carbon emissions caused by its customers' systems by moving them into a green cloud.

This news was included in the recently released 2013 SAP Integrated Report, which noted that the company's overall energy efficiency remained steady while greenhouse gas emissions increased from 30.0 grams CO₂ per euro of total revenue in 2012 to 32.4 grams CO₂ per euro in 2013. At the same time, absolute carbon emissions increased by 12 percent. As customers increasingly leverage SAP® software in the cloud, systems that previously ran at customers' sites are increasingly running in SAP data centers and have become part of SAP's total emissions.

SAP is reiterating its commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from operations to levels of the year 2000 by 2020. Not only is the company taking these transformational measures to meet these absolute targets and mitigate the environmental impact of cloud computing, but it has also launched the following innovative programs:

A new initiative to subsidize and encourage electric vehicle adoption for German employees, a project that began in 2014 with 60 electric vehicles and will help to extend charging infrastructure and optimize the operations of electric vehicles in SAP's fleet management.
In 2013, SAP built the first LEED-certified building in all of Brazil and achieved EMS ISO14001 certification for its Budapest, Palo Alto and Vancouver offices.
The successful launch of TwoGo by SAP, a mobile app that encourages carpooling within public and private organizations, supports efforts to reduce the cost of fuel, parking and business trips and emissions, as well as enhance employee networks.
SAP invested EUR3 million in the Livelihoods Fund, which plants trees and conducts clean energy projects in underserved rural areas to both restore their ecosystems and offset carbon emissions globally. With support from SAP and others, the Livelihoods Fund has planted more than 100 million trees in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

"Committing to 100 percent renewable electricity in our data centers and facilities is a natural consequence of our business model shift into the cloud," said Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer, SAP. "By delivering our industry-leading cloud solutions in an environmentally friendly fashion, we expand our competitiveness in the cloud software market while further enhancing our sustainability leadership. It's a beautiful example of how SAP puts sustainability at the core of its value creation."

Key non-financial results from this year's report include:

Eighty-nine percent of employees agree with the statement that SAP needs to pursue sustainability as a strategic priority.
Overall the percentage of women in the workforce slightly increased in 2013 to 31 percent from 30 percent in 2012, and the percentage of women in management increased to 21.2 percent in 2013 from 20.8 percent in 2012.
While there was a slight dip in employee engagement scores, SAP's score is industry-leading at 77 percent in 2013 compared to 79 percent in 2012.

Join a Twitter Discussion: The Challenges of Maintaining Sustainable Growth, Friday April 11

On Friday, April 11, at 8:00 a.m. PDT, SAP will participate in a panel discussion on Twitter jointly hosted by Aman Singh, editorial director of CSRwire (@AmanSinghCSR, @CSRwire), and Nick Aster, founder and publisher of Triple Pundit (@triplepundit).

The chat will address the challenge of maintaining sustainability business successes during economic growth. Panelists include Peter Graf (@PeterGGraf); Aron Cramer, president and chief executive officer, BSR (@aroncramer); and Nigel Topping, executive director, CDP (@topnigel). Join the discussion by following the participants and the hashtag #SustyBiz. Questions can be submitted ahead of time to [email protected].

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and @sustainableSAP.

Media Contacts:
Robin Meyerhoff, +1(650) 440-2572, [email protected], PDT
Bettina Wunderle, +49 (151) 12187931, [email protected], CET

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

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SOURCE SAP AG