United for progress
Anita Varshney's Story

"Sustainability is a transformation journey, which needs collaborative efforts across teams, technologies, industry players and sometimes even with your competitors"

How Anita integrated sustainability into SAP’s core products culture. core products and culture.

Anita Varshney, VP of SAP Sustainability Product Success & Customer Adoption. Anita is spearheading SAP’s sustainability initiatives, and helping to foster a culture of sustainability within the company and among its clients.

As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience

 

Sector: ERP software producer

 

Geography: Headquartered in Germany, but operates globally

 

Employees: over 105,000 employees from 157+ countries

 

Website: www.sap.com

Challenges
faced

Anita’s journey within SAP comes with numerous challenges. She’s driving change at two different levels . One being client-side, changing the industry for the better through software solutions. The other being internal, changing the way SAP works across the many issues they get to tackle.

 

One of the biggest changes was realizing that sustainability solutions couldn’t be one-size-fits-all across different industries.

"The biggest problem is that you can’t simply copy and paste. You can’t talk to a food manufacturer in the same way you would talk to a mining company – this is unique to sustainability because you need to understand the problems from their perspective"

Another major challenge is the lack of client expertise around sustainability. She provides insightful action to address this issue where she translates “goals set at the top” into actionable goals, creating a win win partnership both internally and externa lly to the company. Anita noted “We don’t have accounting experts sitting within the company who know what carbon accounting methods are needed for measurement”. This knowledge gap was a significant hurdle in her mission to weave sustainability into SAP’s fabric.

Actions
taken

Despite these obstacles, Anita takes small, consistent steps each day to drive change. She focuses on creating product features that enables companies to measure and report their environmental performance with greater precision.

 

 

Anita also made it a point to engage directly with customers from various industries. She actively listens to their unique needs and adapted SAP’s offerings accordingly.

"I was one of the earliest at SAP who truly advocated for the need to embedded sustainability into our customer conversations, based on innovations from a sustainability engineering team within SAP, leveraging the power of technology to address environmental challenges"
"It's not enough to just go on stage, have a beautiful one-hour event with 17 global goals stuck on my chest and do nothing about it.”"
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To bridge the knowledge gap between SAP and clients, Anita uses her strengths and deep understanding of SAP’s operations to educate and guide her engineering teams on sustainability concepts. According to her, clients need more than just Excel sheets to capture data. They need the right ESG system to measure their progress in an integrated way and use the outcomes effectively. She also co-authored a consulting guide with Accenture and UNGC, providing companies with a practical framework for integrating sustainability into their operations. Anita connects clients across industries who are facing similar problems, helping them learn from each other.

Recognizing a gap in SAP’s offerings, Anita pushed for the creation of a dedicated sustainability engineering team. Her efforts led to the development and integration of sustainability features into SAP’s core products.

 

Within SAP, Anita champions sustainability efforts such as transitioning to renewable energy and engaging employees through dedicated sustainability networks. She poses critical questions to the leadership team to drive internal commitment. Anita also actively participates in client-facing industry events and forums, sharing her insights and learning from other sustainability leaders. She values collaboration and is building alliances to accelerate progress on a larger scale.

Resonance
of impact

Anita’s persistent efforts started creating ripples of change, leading to significant shifts in operations and culture. By providing tools for accurate measurement and reporting, she empowers companies to better understand their environmental footprint, track progress, and identify areas for improvement. Her work led to the integration of sustainability features into SAP’s core products, making it easier for clients to manage their environmental impact. 

 

Her direct engagement with customers fosters stronger relationships, increasing the relevance of SAP’s solutions, and drives greater adoption of sustainability practices across various sectors. She connects people
across the industry and brings them on the sustainability journey.

"The requirement for deep climate expertise or a software which solves all problems on a press of a button is less important than it is made out to be. Sustainability is a transformation journey, which needs collaborative efforts across teams, technologies, industry players and sometimes even with your competitors."

Within SAP, her advocacy leads to increased renewable energy usage and the linking of executive compensation with sustainability goals. By showcasing SAP’s own journey and commitment to sustainability, Anita fosters a culture of responsibility within the company, encouraging employees to embrace sustainable practices both professionally and personally. Anita’s impact extends beyond SAP as her participation in industry events and forums facilitates knowledge sharing, fosters innovation, and strengthens the collective effort to advance sustainability across industries. By
launching her guide at the World Economic Forum and championing the formation of a sustainability-focused team, Anita paved the way for a cohesive ESG strategy, driving sustainable practices and fostering interdepartmental collaboration across SAP’s client base.

 

Through her relentless dedication and passion, Anita Varshney has turned everyday conversations into sustainable actions at SAP, creating a lasting impact that continues to resonate within the company and beyond.

What Anita found helpful during her ESG journey

Relevant resources to Anita's work