| Status | |
| Owner | Stefanie Schwartz |
| Stakeholders | Marie Flourie, Alexander Lefeu, Gilles Madjarian |
Succinctly describe the issue or problem statement that this Decision addresses. Why is a decision required? What business or technical problem does it address?
Determine the best solution option for carbon footprint management as part of Scope 3 aligning with ERP project principles for a way to understand where emissions come from at operational, procurement, market level. GBUs currently have no one priority. There is no one version of the truth. A decision is required as to which the tools should manage the business process and system process for product carbon footprint (PCF) management, potentially replacing current tools in the Sustainability landscape.
Summarise the recommendation being made for the reader, leaving the pro/con evaluation and exact decision-making process to the subsequent sections.
A way to understand where emissions come from at operational, procurement, market level enables Syensqo to start taking action on group targets. Accuracy is key in the To Be solution to govern and implement solution going forward. It needs to be based on a data flow which represents one version of truth. Collecting PCF data from our suppliers is instrumental to understand our upstream scope 3 baseline and measure our progress. Acting with our suppliers to reduce our scope 3 emissions is key to reach Syensqo's climate commitment and support product competitiveness.
Enables to start taking action on group targets.
The recommendation for managing carbon footprint in Syensqo is the implementation of SAP Green Ledger.
Explain the context in which the decision is being made.
Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) is the quantity of greenhouse gas emitted to manufacture a product from cradle to the exit gate of the Syensqo plants. The related frameworks are the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) and Together for Sustainability (TfS), a joint initiative of chemical companies.
As governments worldwide tighten climate regulations, monitoring and reducing all emissions PCF management supports companies to avoid legal and financial penalties, especially in relation to Scope 3.1 emissions. Regulations focus more on reporting on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), hence PCF not currently enforced to be provided by regulations. Key driver is the customer impact on buying decisions focusing on more PCF friendly products. There is currently no related single priority for Global Business Units (GBU). Emissions impact when buying and selling to understand kg of CO2 to get a product to the customer. It is of importance to customers striving for lower CO2 and greener products. Syensqo's aim is to take control of what is happening in the supply chain. The company needs to record and report on the activity data and emissions factor. Currently this data is built up by experts or sourced from external databases.
There is an expectation that Syensqo should adopt a mainstream integrated solution for carbon footprint management at this point. A way to understand where emissions come from at operational, procurement and market level enables Syensqo to start taking action on group targets. Economic accounting and carbon accounting same: buy raw materials, production, transport, man power, waste. Sustainability footprint management for Syensqo can be split as follows:
This KDD covers the direct emissions as part of Scope 3 only. Hence, the following activities are to be considered as part of the scope for this KDD:

Resource and time constraints are currently hindering to go beyond Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) e.g. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Regulations focus more on reporting ESG than on PCF. Customer impact deciding to buy more PCF friendly products. Some customers may stop selling otherwise. Business continuity impact. PCF also needed for corporate ESG disclosures, especially 3.1.
Digital sustainability of the current solution has enabled the Syensqo for the first time ever to have product level accounting for Sustainability. Few other companies are at same stage. Historically PCF accounting was executed at plant or group level only.
There is an ongoing procurement initiative in Syensqo for pressuring vendors as part of scope 3.1 emissions (purchased goods an services). Scope 3 emissions encompass in 15 different categories all indirect emissions generated throughout an organization's value chain, from the extraction of raw materials to the disposal of products. Scope 3.1, one of those 15 categories, specifically refers to the carbon emissions associated with the products or services an organization purchases. These emissions are bought in from suppliers and are often beyond the organization's immediate control. Stakeholders, including investors, customers, and regulatory bodies, increasingly demand transparency and action on Scope 3.1 emissions. Failure to comply can lead to reputational damage and financial consequences.
The 2023 Syensqo Annual Integrated Report reflects the drive to manage and reduce the footprint (see References, Chapter 4. Climate and Nature - 4.1.2 Management approach). Syensqo has set a 2030 target to reduce by 23% Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions as compared to 2021 from its 'Focus 5' categories both upstream and downstream in the value chain, which represents over 73% of the total Scope 3 emissions. Syensqo's 'Focus 5' categories of Scope 3 GHG emissions are:
The list of all categories relating to Scope 3:

In Syensqo Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions are estimated as follows:
Calculation
The calculations are fully manual today with some queries developed.
The calculation of Scope 3.1 emissions according to GHG Protocol can be a complex task. There is a choice of four different methods. The more effort these methods require, the better the results they produce:
The calculation of Scope 3.4 and 3.9 emissions for chemical shippers generally use and activity-based calculation method to estimate transport carbon emissions. This calculation method is based on volumes, distances and emission factors for the different modes of transport. It is important to select the most appropriate emission factor values for each mode of transport. The shipper can use either a default average emission factor for each mode or emission factors specific for his operation. The default average emission factors used could be based on the average
emission factors recommended by Alan McKinnon, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK in his report “Measuring and Managing CO2 emissions” prepared for the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), see references. Syensqo could use these recommended average emission factors as a default for the calculation of their transport emissions as per 'Guidelines for Measuring and Managing CO2 Emissions from Freight Transport Operations' (see references) by the European Chemical Transport Association (ECTA).
Changes to carbon footprint could reduce the emission factor. Optimisation of the process can lead to less consumption, measured at plant, and change of BOM based on lower conception. Otherwise it is possible to change provider for energy supplies to reduce emissions factor. Selecting suppliers with lower footprint.
Current ESG Landscape (new slide)
There are a number of applications currently in use, which contribute to carbon footprint management in Syensqo. Current tools such as BW Cerise and PCF should be replaced.
Data
Largely required from raw materials. Needs request from suppliers, otherwise Syensqo has to rely on industry data.
Dedicated project on carbon footprint
Managed by Philippe Chevaux (Sustainability DT) eg. estimation on product footprint. Project finish by end of 2024.
Clearly describe the underlying assumptions which informed or limited the choices available, or impacted the decision: cost, schedule, regulatory requirements, business drivers, country footprint, technology, etc. Include links as necessary. This section is important because a future change in circumstances might invalidate some key assumptions, which then prompts a decision to be revisited.
Implementation of related SAP functions, dependencies.
Capture any constraints or limitations inherent to the recommended option. This could be aspects which, if changed or removed in future, could cause the decision to be revisited or invalidated. For example, a constraint might be that a new product has significant gaps in important functionality, which caused an older alternative to be recommended. If those gaps are closed in future, this might cause the decision to be invalidated.
The following areas of Sustainability footprint management for Syensqo are out of scope for this KDD:
Describe the impact of the decision on other aspects such as other processes, infrastructure, other SAP modules or systems, data cleansing and migration, developments, automations, interfaces, in-flight projects, etc.
The decision may translate into business rules which enforce the decision and will require configuration. List these business rules here. For example, "An Outline Agreement cannot be created via the RFQ process. An awarded RFQ can only result in a Purchase Order".
List the options (viable options or alternatives) you considered. These often require a longer explanation with diagrams, or references to other documents (links are best, but attachments are also possible). Use enough detail to adequately explain what you considered so that a project or business stakeholder reviewing this decision will not come back and ask "did you think about...?"; this leads to loss of credibility and questioning of other decisions. This section also helps ensure that you considered enough suitable alternatives rather than just copy/pasting SAP's recommendations.
SAP solutions to calculate and manage the full range of corporate, value chain and product-level GHG emissions. It presents a future-proof solution for transactional carbon accounting to enable more precise and granular tracking of emissions across business operations and supply chains.
By embedding sustainability data into core business processes through ERP, executives can achieve a holistic, enterprise-wide performance capability.
Combines financial and environmental data to enable deep insights and effective decision making at different points across the business process.
Business decisions need to consider environmental costs. The Green Ledger allows for thses costs to become visible up front.
Makes it easier for businesses to accurately account for the carbon they produce across their value chain. Given the fact that SAP handles 70% of the world’s business transactions, it will also – when it launches next year – be the largest solution of its kind available.
“To truly make progress and create a more sustainable world, it’s important that enterprises take action on the carbon they’re producing,” explains Jesper Schleimann, SAP’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer. “But the only way to do that is to have actual data so they can make business decisions.”
Couple the need for action with an increased need for transparency from investors, employees, regulatory bodies, and customers, enterprises are being pushed to make sustainability an integral part of their business blueprint.
available within the RISE and GROW with SAP programmes.
Next up is the Sustainability Footprint Management solution, which tracks what’s flowing in and out of the business, such as the actual footprint of a product, the materials used to produce it, the packaging, and the transportation. Footprint Management collects that data, maps it out, and gives an overview of what’s really driving impact at a much more granular level.
Step three in the journey is the soon-to-be-launched Sustainability Data Exchange, the ‘real visionary part’ says Jesper.
“The Control Tower gives you the impact overview, the Footprint gives you the detail, but you’re still using business averages to gauge how much carbon you’re producing,” he says. “We want partners to help their customers to move away from averages and start using actuals, to start getting sight of actual data from their suppliers, and their suppliers’ suppliers.”
It’s here that SAP really ‘begins to differentiate on a global level’. The Data Exchange will become a standard-setting engine that allows businesses to exchange data, securely, across value chains, thus unlocking ‘the carbon calculation of impact’.
By adding in the fourth element, the Green Ledger, businesses will be able to act on the insight they have in front of them.
“Of course, you can take action at any stage but the Green Ledger will help to make bigger, bolder, decisions that become integral to what a business does; embedded across the enterprise.”
Just as financial ledgers detail the value that moves across an enterprise – how much money has been made, where it should be invested – with the Green Ledger, businesses will know which activities are driving their carbon footprint so they can look at where and how they can reduce it and make better decisions.
Decribe the option in sufficient detail for a reader familiar with the subject matter to understand it properly
Carbon footprint management was briefly investigated by Syensqo about three years ago and disregarded whilst SAP was still in the development phase for this solution.
SFM provides you with the full picture of your carbon footprint and enables you to Record, Report, and Act to decarbonize your value chain. The calculations integrate supplier data and existing ERP business data – dramatically improving the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of emissions calculation and management.
Here's a summary of the key benefits:
The capabilities of SAP Sustainability Footprint Management can be broken down into five major steps along your footprint journey: You start with acquiring master and transactional data from your connected business system, then you combine those data with emission factors to evaluate the environmental impact. Based on that, the application is calculating the sustainability footprints. Afterwards the calculated footprints can be analyzed in detail, and they can be integrated back into connected business systems. The capabilities and footprint journey, and what is already available with the current release, are visualized in this metro map:

SAP Sustainability Footprint Management offers various options to reuse ERP data, including master data and transactional activity data (material movements). It integrates with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA (2021 and later) out-of-the-box, while other ERP systems can be connected via Public APIs. An IT project is needed for this integration, with SAP Services support available. Additionally, data can be imported via flat-file uploads using templates. Freight-transport specific master data entities like plant or supplier locations can be imported via file upload. The system further offers a starter package, including location information for various transportation hubs and vehicle data for different transport modes.
We plan to enhance the SAP S/4HANA integration in future releases, including replicating product cost estimates for footprint calculations and reusing master data in freight transport calculations. Further, we plan an integration with SAP EHS Environment Management for incorporating GHG emissions calculations, and connections to Business Networks like SAP Ariba and Catena-X for data collection and sharing, supporting the PACT-Standard.
After importing business data from your ERP system, SAP Sustainability Footprint Management helps evaluate the environmental impact of this data by importing and managing emission factors. Today, we’re focusing on climate change impact through Global Warming Potential (GWP) in CO2-equivalents (CO2e). The plan is to extend to other impact categories, like water or land use in the future. Emission factors can be imported via Excel-file from primary sources, representing actual data directly from your suppliers, or secondary sources, such as lifecycle assessment (LCA) databases, representing industry averages. SAP partners with ecoinvent and Carbon Minds, to provide LCA content through the SAP Store, allowing easy import into the application. You can further utilize custom data from your operations or LCA software tools or use estimated proxies for specific materials or activities. To support the move from average to actual footprint calculation we plan to launch an API for sharing product footprints along the value chain, adhering to global standards like the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Partnership for Carbon Transparency (WBCSD PACT) and the Together for Sustainability (TfS) initiative. This will provide direct access to supplier footprints, simplifying the mapping process and improving data quality with primary data. We further plan to integrate with SAP Sustainability Data Exchange to leverage its carbon sharing capabilities.
The application further provides a functionality to map emission factors to your purchased products, based on your imported ERP data, at different granularity. It auto-generates a mapping template with prefilled information like products, commodity codes, and suppliers. You can edit this template in-app or via a CSV file, and associate emission factors to each item via filtering and searching your imported emission factor databases for the best match. For improving this process, we plan to introduce automated mapping recommendations, a mapping wizard with validation checks, and an API for external providers. These improvements aim to boost user experience and automation. Our goal is to achieve intelligent emission factor mapping using AI technology, allowing automatic and transparent mapping.
Our goal for SAP Sustainability Footprint Management is to address the entire product lifecycle – from cradle to grave. With the current release, we’re already covering cradle-to-gate, therefore including upstream emissions from material acquisition & pre-processing and transport, as well as direct emissions related to own production activities. We plan to include downstream emissions (product use and end-of-life) in future releases. Reflected on the corporate footprint, we’re covering the corresponding GHG Scope 1, 2, and 3 categories related to material, freight transport, and facilities. More Scope 3 categories associated to downstream emissions and people transport are planned for future releases.
You can maintain individual inventory scopes in the system to define the organizational boundaries of the footprint calculation, including companies, plants, and value chain steps. The application uses energy flow models to connect energy-related elements with the resources replicated from the ERP system. This includes energy carriers, energy sources, resources (e.g., assembly line or oven), and infrastructure (meters, process infrastructure, and facilities). These elements can be fully modeled and updated, allowing for the creation of models using a list display or a graphical flow modeler with drag-and-drop functionality:

When a direct energy flow connection is unavailable, you can set allocation rules to distribute emissions to products and GHG Scopes and Categories. Currently, fixed factors are used for distribution, but further automation - e.g., based on product mass - is planned for future releases.
SAP Sustainability Footprint Management calculates a company's total carbon footprint and attributes emissions to products and corporate overhead, aiming to achieve a balanced emission level throughout all production stages. Two methods are provided: Calculating Organizational Footprint Inventories, which considers GHG Protocol Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and requires input data like energy bills, meter readings, and manual emissions. It’s leveraging the imported master and transactional activity data, the mapped emission factors, as well as the energy flow model and allocation rules that have been set up previously, to calculate the footprints. The second option is Calculating Product Footprints, which provides insights into a plant's product footprints by uploading a Bill of Material (BOM)-like Excel file. The calculated footprints can be monitored in an easy-to-read graphical format with drill-down possibilities into main emission drivers. A Sankey Diagram is the core tool for investigating emission results, offering transparency on input factors, such as purchased energy. You can explore various levels of detail, including calculation data and formulas, to understand the carbon footprint emissions. The app allows publishing results to connected SAP S/4HANA Cloud or SAP S/4HANA systems.

Integration Scenarios
Emission Factor Management
Carbon Footprint Calculation at scale
Carbon Footprint Analytics
integration with SAP sustainability solutions e.g. SAP Product Footprint Management (PFM)
Transportation Management (TM) allows you to calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during manual planning and vehicle scheduling and routing (VSR) optimization. It is possible to specify carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per weight and distance unit for your trucks. These CO2 emissions are taken into account during manual and automatic planning and displayed in road freight orders.
Decribe the option in sufficient detail for a reader familiar with the subject matter to understand it properly
It tracks all aspects of environmental impacts allowing an auditable process for calculations emissions.
SAP plan to enhance the SAP S/4HANA integration in future releases, including replicating product cost estimates for footprint calculations and reusing master data in freight transport calculations. Further, we plan an integration with SAP EHS Environment Management for incorporating GHG emissions calculations, and connections to Business Networks like SAP Ariba and Catena-X for data collection and sharing, supporting the PACT-Standard.
Capabilities:
Benefits:





SAP Roadmap:

Outline why you selected a position. The best format could be a pro/con table (sample below), but is up to you as the author. You must consider complexity, feasibility, cost/effort to implement, but also ongoing operational impact and cost. You must consider the program principles and explain any deviations in detail. This is probably as important as the decision itself.
Option A - SAP Green Ledger | Option B - As Is | Option C | Option D | |
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Insert links and references to other documents which are relevant when trying to understand this decision and its implications. Other decisions are often impacted, so it's good to list them here with links. Attachments are also possible but dangerous as they are static documents and not updated by their authors.
2023cSyensqo Annual Integrated Report
