Companies in Hong Kong see sustainability a direct path to future business success and improved revenues, with over 55% saying it has a strong or moderate effect on their long-term competitiveness and profitability, according to a latest research study from SAP.
The study also shows that companies in the city are already seeing the growing role sustainability plays in their 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.
These are some of the key highlights of the Hong Kong results from the recently released SAP Environmental Sustainability Report, which surveyed over 6,600 business leaders across 40 countries/regions and 29 industries. From Hong Kong, there were 140 respondents, including C-level executives and sustainability leaders, who shared insights about how environmental sustainability affects companies’ profits
The study also sought to gain better understanding of the forces motivating investments in environmental sustainability; and, how businesses collect data to measure their progress and inform decision-making.
“Enterprising business leaders in Hong Kong realise 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."
Esmond Tong, managing director, SAP Hong Kong
Indeed, the study shows 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.
Accurate sustainability data needed
As Hong Kong companies realise that sustainability can help drive business success, they require high-quality accurate sustainability data to gain visibility.
“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."
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.
Tong pointed out that reliable technologies will be instrumental to support them collect comprehensive and high-quality environmental sustainability data.
“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,” he said.
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 analyse 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.
“Our 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,” Tong said. “SAP also leverages our business networks, development platforms and partner ecosystem to achieve customized, scalable transparency for sustainable business impact.”
