SAP SE and BT Group have announced a visionary new partnership to show how carbon accounting could be standardised by piloting the recently launched SAP Sustainability Data Exchange (SDX).

SAP SDX enables BT Group to collect, trace and share carbon data across its own supplier base, providing unparalleled visibility into the carbon footprint of its products and services. BT can then share this information directly with business customers when they purchase products through SAP Business Network. Furthermore, BT can complement this with data-driven insights from its Digital Carbon Calculator and Carbon Network Dashboard to help customers optimise their own IT for both carbon and energy.

Key to BT’s Group’s decision to select SAP SDX was its adherence to the carbon data interoperability standards set by the Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT), hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). This means that global and UK business customers do not have to implement their own carbon accounting platforms to calculate, collate and share emissions data. Instead, they simply request it through SAP SDX for their BT products and services.

BT Group is the first UK organisation to adopt this process, sending a strong signal of intent to standardise sustainability reporting across global value chains, tackle Scope 3 emissions and drive environmental progress. This will also contribute to the delivery of the BT Group Manifesto pledge to help customers avoid 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. 

Sarwar Khan, Global Head of Digital Sustainability, Business, BT Group, said: “Typically, value chain emissions represent a greater proportion of a business’ carbon footprint than operational emissions. Tracking, measuring and acting on these and bringing more suppliers and partners on the journey will not just accelerate net-zero targets, but set a new precedent for sustainability reporting. Collaboration fuels progress and access to data is fundamental to getting it right.”

“The lack of standardisation in sustainability reporting has been a roadblock to progress for too long” commented Ryan Poggi, Managing Director of SAP UKI. “This creates confusion and an inability to validate real change. Our partnership with BT gives us an opportunity to refresh the guidelines and offers a blueprint for a universal standard in sustainability reporting. The aim is to create an environment for organisations to transparently tackle global challenges together.”

SAP SDX merges granular and accurate carbon data with financial transactions on the SAP Green Ledger. It provides businesses with unmatched insights into their environmental footprint and standardises how to communicate learnings and action across value chains. In adopting SAP SDX, BT Group can request product-level carbon data from key suppliers, support smaller partners to calculate their carbon footprint and securely share and standardise this information across its value chain. To build scale, BT Group is working with key partner Cisco to deploy SDX to receive product carbon data for core network devices, simplify and secure data exchange with business customers backed by its global connectivity services, and boost traceability.