Greentech Lead India: SAP Labs India has a large
eco-friendly campus in Whitefield, Bangalore that is spread across 23 acres of
land of which 30 percent is built up area and the remaining 70 percent left
open for greenery. This spacious green campus is also the home to several
species of resident and migratory birds and variety of flora. SAP Labs India is
investing in sustainability related solutions that help organizations manage
and save their energy requirements. In an email interview, V R Ferose, managing
director, SAP Labs India, talks about green initiatives.
What are the new / planned green initiatives of SAP
Labs in India?
There are multiple initiatives adopted to ensure that our
campus remains eco-friendly. These include, replacing heavy energy-consuming
desktops with energy-efficient laptops, ensuring all buildings in the campus
get ample natural light during working hours, to save on consumption of
electricity. Also, we have installed several energy saving gadgets for
high energy consumable equipments like chillers, lower rating AC units and
replaced low energy efficient light fittings with high energy lights like T5
and LED, made provision for rain water harvesting and reuse of waste water. An
Organic Waste Management unit, set up within the campus, converts approximately
400 kilograms of food and garden waste generated everyday into pure organic
manure. This compost (manure) is used for landscaping within the Labs India
campus, and the rest is distributed to NGOs or employees for their home
gardens. To encourage employees to use non fossil fuel vehicles, we put in
place a very attractive electric car policy in collaboration with Mahindra
Reva. Employees availing this policy can own an electric car at very low
monthly cost and also avail a host of benefits like free charging points,
reserved parking space, extended warranty period and routine maintenance and
service.
What is the difference (approach, projects,
targets, achievements) between Indian and global initiatives?
At a global level, SAP has announced a long-term
strategic focus on sustainability, covering its own operations as well as
solutions for customers for sustainable business practices. Even though our
carbon footprint is lower than that of organizations in other industries with
comparable revenues, we are striving for significant reductions. SAP has
announced its commitment to a 51 percent reduction of total greenhouse gas
emission by year 2020 from 2007 published baseline levels. This will return SAP
to its approximate year 2000 emission levels. At SAP, our purpose is to help
the world run better and improve people’s lives. In designing our strategy to
realize this purpose, we have looked at two main areas: sustainability and
innovation. We have incorporated these core pillars into every aspect of our
business: our solutions, our own operations and our social investments. These
enable us to achieve what many have historically believed to be in opposition
— sustainable growth and profitability. In India we adopt the global
initiatives and have also put in place certain initiatives specific to the
local needs. Meanwhile the needs differ in India, and that definitely results
in a much localized approach to our initiatives. SAP Labs India is as well
heavily investing in sustainability related solutions that help organizations
manage and save their energy requirements. These, of course, reach our
customers globally.
How do you ensure that you are getting support from
employees to achieve green targets?
Organizations need the buy-in from employees to make
their sustainability initiatives successful. SAP Labs is no exception to this.
That said, we are overwhelmed by the responses and the enthusiasm our employees
have displayed in driving our sustainability charter. They not only actively
participate in the initiatives, but also are involved in framing policies and
practices that will helps us in our Green initiatives.
What are your new goals on carbon emissions?
SAP Labs constantly works towards building an
organization that can make an environmental change. Therefore we have made a
pledge to reduce our carbon footprint levels to the year 2000 by the year 2020.
We are taking several measures that include creating a zero waste campus,
inducing employees to opt for electric car over fossil fuel ones. We take pride
in the fact that through our solutions, we not just affect our own sustainable
operations, but also impact the businesses of close to 175,000 customers
worldwide. So, our solutions help these businesses adopt sustainable practices
and in effect impact the energy needs and emissions of majority of the world’s
businesses.
Are Indian corporates becoming more aggressive about
sustainable projects?
The need for sustainable growth is a global concern and
more organizations are addressing this need. Many policies are being framed to
ensure environment protection and Initiatives are being made to go green, be it
in terms of just the campus or the overall functioning in terms of reducing our
carbon impact and conservation of resources. Being a global organization, SAP
drives its sustainability initiatives and encourages its employees to be a part
of an emerging change as well.