SAP has announced SAP Responsible Design and Production, a new solution for developing sustainable goods and transitioning to a circular economy. This is the most recent addition to a growing range of sustainability-focused software solutions that assist organizations in improving their measurement and data management skills.
Scott Russell, a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and head of Customer Success, said, “Every year, we use almost twice the number of resources than the planet can regenerate. Business can play a crucial role in keeping value in our systems for longer through a smart, responsible product design that reuses resources rather than disposing of them. There is inherent complexity in designing products that eliminate waste and use responsible materials, but SAP Responsible Design and Production tackle that complexity and offers a ‘gold-standard solution to our customers, helping to deliver circular products and achieve a regenerative economy.”
The SAP Responsible Design and Production solution enables brands to expedite their transition to circular-economy business practices as sustainable business rules, such as plastic taxes, are implemented. The new solution enables businesses to obtain a better understanding of material flows as they go through their operations, as well as track and comply with rapidly changing laws, particularly those relating to the product packaging and plastics. Managing materials and regulatory data are becoming one of the most challenging challenges facing the consumer goods industry today as organizations build more sustainable products.
Businesses can integrate circularity principles into core business operations with SAP’s new solution, helping to avoid waste and generate new value by developing goods to be sustainable from the start. A shampoo brand manager, for example, has visibility into the entire product lifecycle, including their extended producer responsibility (EPR) duties and market-specific plastic fees. This visibility aids the brand manager in making waste-reduction design improvements as well as judgments about how to minimize the costs of downstream reuse and recycling systems.
