Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, the company operates regional offices and data centres all over the globe.
German-based software company SAP is growing at an astonishing rate, and with the IT sector responsible for 2% of global GHG emissions, the company wants to reduce its carbon footprint to year 2000 levels by 2020. SAP identified renewable electricity as pivotal in reaching this target and in early 2014, announced its commitment to 100% renewable energy in all its data centres and facilities worldwide. In January 2015, SAP became one of the first companies to join the RE100 initiative.
While SAP has made significant efficiency gains, electricity still makes up 25% of its CO2 emissions. Moreover, cloud storage solutions are an area of massive growth potential for the company, but they require further energy-intensive data centres.
To reach its RE100 commitment, SAP decided to invest in high quality renewable energy certificates (RECs) with eco-label certification. All of SAP's purchased renewable electricity is now EKOenergy certified. In 2017 SAP sourced EKOenergy labelled electricity from South Pole for all its operations in North America and Europe. EKOenergy certifies electricity from renewable energy installations that fulfil additional sustainability criteria. Through the purchase of EKOenergy, SAP is ensuring that its operations are powered with renewable electricity – all while contributing to the EKOenergy Climate Fund, which finances new off-grid solar projects in communities in developing countries.