The World Economic Forum predicts AI could reduce annual emissions by three to six gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035.
Exploring this crucial crossover, global enterprise software provider SAP has published a new whitepaper, AI and Sustainability at SAP.
The paper outlines how the company integrates AI into its product ecosystem to enhance customer operations while addressing the critical challenge of developing AI systems responsibly. It represents a significant case study in balancing technological advancement with operational efficiency.
Optimising AI infrastructure performance
SAP is working to reduce the environmental impact of AI systems, particularly focusing on energy consumption alongside social and ethical considerations.
The company’s strategy involves enhancing the energy efficiency of its AI offerings, which could lead to emission reductions and optimised costs across the value chain.
All of SAP’s AI assets and processes developed under its direct operational control are optimised for energy consumption. According to the whitepaper, continued monitoring and proactive management of AI-related emissions will be essential to sustaining efficiency gains alongside declining costs.
This approach could offer insights for other organisations developing large-scale AI infrastructure.
SAP has created a Global AI Ethics Policy, which outlines rules of ethics for the development, deployment, use and sale of AI systems. This framework ensures that AI solutions are created with social and ethical considerations in mind, addressing potential economic, political or societal challenges that could emerge from AI deployment.
The whitepaper states that SAP wants to create responsible AI data supply chains by engaging partners and its external network, ensuring that models implemented by SAP are sourced and developed responsibly.
Matthias Medert, Global Head of Sustainability at SAP, says on LinkedIn: “AI is reshaping how the world works. But as its impact grows, so does our responsibility to ensure it scales sustainably.
“As AI becomes more powerful, it must evolve within planetary boundaries and be guided by strong ethical principles. Together, we are rethinking how AI is built, deployed and governed, balancing performance with efficiency and innovation with accountability.”
Enterprise AI applications in practice
According to the whitepaper, SAP Business AI can help automate the processing of internal and external data sources to transform insights into actionable strategies.
The report outlines how AI can be deployed to assist executives across different functions, such as helping Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) generate sustainability reports in 80% less time than without AI assistance.
The document also explores how Chief Operating Officers (COOs) can leverage AI to build efficient supply chains through AI optimisation algorithms that provide accurate demand forecasts and improved demand sensing in production plants and warehouses.
These applications demonstrate the breadth of AI’s potential impact across enterprise operations.
By integrating AI across multiple business functions, organisations can create a more cohesive approach to sustainability management.
The technology enables real-time monitoring of carbon footprints, automated compliance reporting and predictive analytics that help businesses anticipate regulatory changes before they take effect.
This holistic integration represents a shift from treating sustainability as a separate reporting function to embedding it within core business processes.
Dominik Asam, Chief Financial Officer at SAP, says: “The future of sustainability lies in connecting carbon and financial data in the Green Ledger – managing cash and carbon with the same rigour.”
“With AI, we can raise data quality, automate compliance across hundreds of global regulations and identify the smartest investments for decarbonisation,” Dominik explained.
“This is how we move from reporting sustainability to steering it as real business value.”
Scaling AI infrastructure responsibly
One company aiming to advance its approach to AI infrastructure is Microsoft, which has launched its Community-First AI Infrastructure initiative. This framework outlines how the company plans to build, own and operate its data centres whilst considering local community impacts.
The plan involves covering electricity costs, replenishing water used by data centres, creating jobs for local residents and investing in local AI training programmes.
Microsoft argues that large-scale infrastructure expansion is vital to economic growth and everyday improvements in people’s lives. The initiative reflects growing recognition that AI infrastructure cannot be developed in isolation from the communities it affects.
By prioritising local engagement and resource management, technology companies can build more sustainable and socially responsible AI ecosystems that benefit both business operations and the broader public.
Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer at Microsoft, says on LinkedIn: “AI is changing the world faster than any other innovation in history.
“The speed of its adoption, the surge in its demand and the rapid evolution of its capabilities are unlike anything we’ve seen before.
“And, like breakthrough technologies that have come before – including electricity, cars, aviation and the Internet – building the AI economy requires investments in new infrastructure.”
