Sustainability Helps to Drive Revenue Growth but Hong Kong Companies Lack High-Quality Data to Move Forward

HONG KONG, Jan. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A research study from SAP found that enterprises are connecting sustainability to revenue growth and long-term competitiveness. However, they are dissatisfied with their sustainability data due to a lack of scope, transparency and frequency. To that end, reliable technologies will be instrumental to support them collect comprehensive and high-quality environmental sustainability data.

The SAP Environmental Sustainability Report, developed by the SAP Insight Research Center in 2022, surveyed over 6,600 business leaders across 40 countries/regions and 29 industries. From Hong Kong, 140 respondents, including C-level executives and sustainability leaders, shared insights and helped build a better understanding of:

• How environmental sustainability affects companies' profits
• The forces motivating investments in environmental sustainability
• How businesses collect data to measure their progress and inform decision-making.

Key findings from Hong Kong:

• Surveyed Hong Kong companies consider sustainability a direct path to future business success and improved revenue with over 55% indicating that sustainability has a strong or moderate effect on their long-term competitiveness and profitability.
• Sustainability also plays a large role in Hong Kong companies' financial results. Over 40% of the respondents believe that environmental issues are already impacting their business outcomes or will be so in less than five years.
• About 40% of the surveyed Hong Kong companies take action on sustainability to drive revenue and profit growth as well as to develop new products or offerings.
• As Hong Kong companies realize that sustainability can help drive business success, they require high-quality accurate sustainability data to gain visibility. However, only 11% of the Hong Kong respondents are completely satisfied with their environmental data. Their dissatisfaction stems from three top reasons 1) the data is not collected frequently; 2) the data is incomplete and 3) the lack of transparency in data calculation.

Esmond Tong, Managing Director, SAP Hong Kong said, "Enterprising business leaders in Hong Kong realize that sustainability is a contributing factor to drive business growth while supporting them to be more environmentally responsible. It is no longer just a cost implication," said "Embedding comprehensive sustainability data collection into their operations not only facilitates data-driven decision-making but also supports companies to future-proof their long-term success."

SAP offers SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises, a portfolio of sustainability-specific business applications that deliver transparency and measurement capabilities across the supply chain, allowing companies to move toward lower carbon emissions and more sustainable operations. It includes:

• SAP Sustainability Control Tower, which imports company-wide data from both SAP and non-SAP systems to create audit-ready data. Companies can automate data collection with pre-built data integration, APIs and file imports; build a single sustainability data foundation to understand performance in relation to finance, HR, real estate, operations, and more; and set actionable targets in their core processes, forecast outcomes, and analyze scenarios; and
• SAP Footprint Management, which enables companies to calculate carbon footprints for their products and across the value chain. It considers the entire product lifecycle by integrating into companies' SAP S/4HANA Cloud or SAP S/4HANA system and reuses existing business data to combine with environmental factors. This helps companies to disclose their products' environmental footprints to regulators and enable them to make their products more sustainable.

While challenges around sustainability data integrity and transparency still exist, this research leads to an understanding that companies expect better access to improved sustainability data to generate better business outcomes. SAP's vision is to help companies become intelligent, sustainable enterprises by embedding sustainability data into core business processes and acting on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects holistically. SAP also leverages our business networks, development platforms and partner ecosystem to achieve customized, scalable transparency for sustainable business impact.

To learn more about SAP's sustainability solutions, please contact us at +852 2150 2799 or visit our website www.sap.com/hk.

About SAP

SAP's strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers' businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people's lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com/hk.