Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and four UAE manufacturers leverage SAP Sustainability Control Tower at COP28 to showcase green credentials

In preparation for COP28, the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MoEI) and four UAE manufacturers have been working with global technology giant SAP SE to demonstrate the outcomes and benefits of various sustainability strategies in the Emirates. The showcase evaluates the four companies’ environmental programs using SAP’s Sustainability Control Tower, and will be on display at the Green Zone at Expo City from November 30 to December 12.

The four sustainability-focused manufacturers are Agthia Group PJSC, a food and beverage company; Crown Papermill, a producer of tissue paper jumbo rolls; RAK Ceramics, a manufacturer of ceramic tiles, porcelain tiles and sanitaryware; and Exeed, a supplier in the construction industry. The companies shared several years’ worth of environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, which were processed by the SAP Sustainability Control Tower in collaboration with SAP partner msg, and then consolidated in SAP Analytics Cloud solutions for an industry view. The SAP solution would normally be implemented by individual companies, but this showcase demonstrates that data from multiple companies can be consolidated to offer an industry or country-level analysis of sustainability performance and to identify challenges or areas for improvement, which could then be addressed through new policies or regulations.

His Excellency Eng Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs at MoEI, said, “Collaboration is key to our green energy transition and to ensure the UAE meets its net zero by 2050 goal. This showcase with SAP is a great example of how the public and private sector can work together to achieve our shared objectives. By leveraging technology to assess individual and joint environmental impact of various industries, we can measure our progress holistically and identify sectors where extra effort is needed to ensure all organizations are working effectively to meet our collective objective toward climate neutrality. The ministry is actively enhancing efficiency in the industrial sector, urging manufacturers to reduce their energy consumption and emissions through investments in cutting-edge technologies as part of the National Energy and Water Demand Side Management Program 2050.”

The SAP Sustainability Control Tower ensures comprehensive, robust and auditable ESG performance, enabling company-wide goal setting, regulatory compliance and automated reporting. It gathers data from technology solutions such as SAP S/4HANA, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, and the insights gained enable companies to set targets, monitor progress and manage their sustainability performance and decisions.

Sergio Maccotta, Senior Vice President of SAP Middle East Africa – South, said, “SAP is committed to supporting the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative. In addition to advising and supporting companies to align with this initiative, SAP aims to help organizations to accelerate this goal wherever possible, having moved our own net zero emissions target forward to 2030. We hope that this showcase, based on real scenarios and data, will demonstrate to companies, industries and governments how collaborative efforts and consolidated data collection can drive sustainability impact at scale, and steer global zero-emission strategies. The Sustainability Control Tower is the cornerstone of SAP’s sustainability portfolio, and can be used to deliver actionable insights at every level – company, industry or country wide. It is also flexible enough to be used by any type of company: as visitors can see, each of the four companies in our showcase faces different challenges when it comes to reducing its carbon footprint, despite all being in the manufacturing sector.”

Macotta added that the organizers’ hope is that enterprises of all sizes and across all sectors will leverage advanced technologies such as the SAP Sustainability Control Tower to measure and achieve ambitious goals, and collaborate to reduce their carbon footprint and achieve the UAE’s 2050 net zero objective.