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Which approaches are used to create transparency and identify optimisation potential?

Every company decision leads to direct or indirect environmental influences. This is particularly true of the chemical industry, whose products are used in numerous value chains. Knowing as precisely as possible the effects associated with this is a prerequisite for the development of sound and implementable sustainability strategies.

With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations has defined 17 fundamental goals in order to direct the focus of all 196 UN member states more explicitly to the area of environmental and climate protection and the associated concept of sustainability. In the meantime, numerous companies are anchoring the SDGs in their corporate strategy and are accordingly setting sector-specific priorities. Three goals are particularly relevant for the chemical industry, and significant positive effects can be achieved if they are consistently implemented:

• Affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) includes the sub-goals of continuous optimisation of the energy efficiency of the company's own processes, internal climate protection goals in relation to the company's own production, expansion of the renewable energy infrastructure, including the use of various technologies for the storage of renewable energy, and economical energy use.
• Sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12) can first be ensured by increasing the quality and efficiency of production processes, based on sustainable management of materials/raw materials in supply chains and efficient use of energy, raw materials, by-products, etc. This makes it possible to reduce waste, recycle and optimise the use of raw materials.
• Climate protection and adaptation (SDG 13) require a forward-looking and permanent change in thinking, concrete ideas and measures to combat climate change and its effects, an increase in the energy efficiency of one's own processes, a reduced carbon footprint of one's own products, and an emphasis on the selection of "sustainable" suppliers.
  
  

The forementioned goals are also essentially correlated with other sector-specific guidelines, such as the "Sustainability Guidelines for the Chemical Industry in Germany", which were already developed in 2013 as part of the chemical industry's sustainability initiative.

Gain an overview: Where does the company stand in terms of sustainability?

All in all, there are numerous starting points on which companies in the chemical industry can base their sustainability strategies and identify concrete tasks. Each company must individually analyse and define which SDG it can specifically contribute to. First of all, it is necessary to develop an objective picture of where the company stands with regard to the various dimensions of sustainability and in which areas the greatest positive effects can be achieved. Against this backdrop, opportunities are needed to analyse processes in relevant business areas, identify weaknesses and potential for improvement, and determine clarity about the carbon footprint.

This consideration must be based on a comprehensive process and structural analysis, for which an interplay of different methods and instruments is necessary. The central approach to this is "process mining" – a method that uses data to reconstruct the actual processes in organisations and thus allows for a comprehensive overview and support in the operationalisation of strategies. Where are resources wasted? Are there sub-processes that take too long? Where do redundancies, inefficient interfaces and workflows exist? Where does the process deviate from internal and external compliance rules, and where do workarounds arise? What dependencies exist between the individual (sub)processes? Which performance and process indicators can be defined and optimised?

Process mining can be applied at numerous company divisions and levels. With regard to the sustainability strategy, on the one hand, it offers the opportunity to identify complex, cross-divisional and cross-functional issues. Based on the SDGs and their sub-goals, companies can assess to what extent they are affected by them and are then able to evaluate which aspects could contribute to an improvement in sustainability. On the other hand, an objective and quantifiable picture of the status quo, such as that of the CO2 footprint of the entire value chain, can be obtained in order to plan effective optimisation measures. These then flow into the company's sustainability strategy.

Powerful tools for process analysis

An analysis of the above exemplary questions requires a comprehensive knowledge of specific processes, framework conditions and structures in the chemical industry. This knowledge forms the basis for the use of powerful instruments that have established themselves on the market.

The solutions from SAP Signavio in the area of process management and business process intelligence, Celonis in the area of process mining, and SAP PaPM in the area of performance management and reporting have proven particularly successful.

• SAP Signavio is a business process management solution from the SAP product family. The SAP Signavio Process Manager visualises processes and decisions in the company and thereby creates the basis for meaningful business process management. As a BPM solution provider, Signavio helps to visualise end-to-end processes and to derive efficient process transformation approaches. The solutions offered can be seamlessly integrated into sustainability projects and used to gain clarity about dependencies and interdependencies. SAP Signavio has successfully positioned and established itself in the market as a holistic suite in the area of analysis, design and improvement of business processes, as well as management of process changes.
• Celonis is the global market leader in the field of execution management and enables companies to control their ERP-supported business processes in a data-based and intelligent manner. Transaction data from business processes can be evaluated, visualised and analysed using the Process Mining technology co-developed by the company. Process mining reveals inefficiencies within core and sub-processes. With the information gained, processes can be optimised and rationalised in order to free up capacities, for example. This technology can be used in almost all areas of a company, such as procurement, finance, sales or manufacturing.
• SAP Profitability and Performance Management (PaPM) is a powerful tool that manages and executes complex calculations, rules and simulations. Dedicated data models are not required for this, so the solution can be used very flexibly. SAP PaPM is based on the three pillars of data processing, arithmetic operations and the business evaluation of simulations. SAP PaPM calculates environmental and social impacts based on highly complex and detailed models, e.g. the carbon footprint at the product level across all levels of the value chain or the carbon footprint throughout the company's processes, including what-if simulations. This allows conclusions to be drawn about energy- or resource-intensive processes, possible causes of waste to be identified, and effective solutions to minimise the ecological footprint to be derived. Thanks to innovative bottom-up calculations, the carbon footprint at the product level can be determined during the different phases of the product life cycle. In addition, SAP PaPM enables value chain sustainability management by also specifying the influence of suppliers and their precursors and services and incorporating them into calculations.

Transparency as the first milestone on the road to a sustainable company

Initiatives to improve the sustainability balance can be particularly successful if they are not considered in isolation. Significant progress can be achieved, in particular, if the corresponding objectives and programmes are operationalised and made measurable, but, above all, analysed together with the central business processes and resource flows in the organisation.

To achieve this, the data in the company's own systems must be used comprehensively, both by applying proven, sector-specific adapted methods and best practices and by making use of the innovative tools that are now available. The challenge here lies in bundling suitable instruments with process and sector knowledge along with methodological expertise.

This approach ultimately paves the way for a fundamental transformation process in which economic, social and ecological factors are no longer viewed as strictly separate areas but as integrated and equally important elements of a corporate strategy that is successful in the long term.