ESG

Environmental | Social | Governance

We connect people and technology for a smarter tomorrow
Annual Report
2023 Non-Financial Statement
Learn more about Software AG’s progress in creating a more sustainable future.
Presentation
ESG Presentation
Creating economic as well as ecological and social value

                Key International Conventions 
that we adhere to
            

  • UN Global Compact (see below)
  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, 1948
  • European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 1950
  • Tripartite Declaration of Principles of the ILO (International Labor Organization) on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, 1977
  • ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 1998 (especially regarding the following topics: elimination of child labor, abolition of forced labor, prohibition of discrimination, freedom of association and right to collective bargaining)
  • Convention of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Combating Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions, 1997
  • OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, 2000 

Software AG provides countless organizations with innovative technology and know-how in their search for solutions to growing social and environmental challenges. In this video four customers explain how they are using our technology to digitally transform their businesses to operate more efficiently and conserve precious natural resources.
The majority (84%) of organizations will prioritize commercial objectives over sustainability in the face of economic challenges. This is despite the fact that almost all (95%) leaders agree sustainability is either a top or high priority and a similar number (97%) agree that other firms’ sustainability credentials are either essential or important in their own buying decisions. The annual Reality Check reports seeks to investigate how technology initiatives can benefit both sustainability and commercial objectives.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Beschorner is the Director of the Institute for Business Ethics at the  University of St.Gallen. Defining sustainability, he says, is no easy task, let alone in combination with digitalization. Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) is about harmonizing these two fundamental aspects. In the following interview, he explains why it is long overdue to give CDR the attention it deserves.
Solar, wind and water power can supply enough energy to allow us to live comfortably on a sustainable basis.But how can we ensure they can supply us on a consistent basis? Sometimes the wind stops blowing, or the sun stops shining. Rivers ebb and flow depending upon the weather.It is important to find ways to deal with the natural fluctuations in these kinds of energy. One answer is SynErgie - a research project sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. SynErgie addresses demand flexibility in industry, one of the world’s largest energy consumers. Factories need huge quantities of electricity and heat to produce glass, paper or aluminum.
With the advent of renewable energy, industrial companies must be able to deliver energy-efficient production while contributing to energy grid stability. So, how does using a high percentage of renewable energy sources impact this goal? The PHI Factory project was designed to provide the answer. In December 2016, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy launched the project. The central idea was to design a digitalized and energy-flexible factory of the future, and to demonstrate that a factory can actively self-regulate its energy usage/costs, while also providing system services for the public power grid.

                    Software AG again scores C
                

CDP

Founded in 2000 as Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP has evolved into the world’s largest, most comprehensive dataset on emissions. This data fuels and tracks global progress towards building a truly sustainable economy for people and planet.

In 2022, we participated for the first time in the CDP. With the data we submitted, we achieved a C score (gamut F-A). The report was published via the CDP website in December 2022.

We submitted again in 2023, and CDP published scores in February 2024: we maintained our score of C signaling we perpetuated a level of awareness as to our climate reporting and initiatives.

                Our contribution to sustainable IT solutions
            

SMC
SMC’s products and solutions are used to automate industrial processes in sectors such as car manufacturing, food production, and electronics. Pneumatic technolgies need compressed air, and air compressors require electricity. Smart connectivity of IoT sensors is a way for automation to make a valuable contribution to climate protection by reducing consumption of compressed air, electricity and other energy sources, significantly improving carbon footprint and lowering energy costs. Digitalization is ideal for this purpose, since it allows to implement holistic solutions, track consumption with sensors, which are visualized centrally on a Cumulocity IoT platform.
Greenflex
GreenFlex helps companies and territories accelerate their sustainable development, decarbonization and energy efficiency initiatives. To bring energy and low-carbon performance projects to life, GreenFlex designs and implements practical solutions that reduce its clients’ energy usage while improving performance. The company’s strategy integrates distributed Industrial IoT sensors to measure and control energy equipment. Our Cumulocity IoT platform provides GreenFlex with a robust, high-performance solution to manage thousands of devices across customer sites. 
SMC

STW
Bavarian company STW (SensorTechnik Wiedemann) is helping London busses
keeping the air cleaner with our Cumolocity IoT platform by:

  • Hitting milestones for NOx and particle emissions reduction
  • Enabling smart data collection and predictive maintenance
  • Integrating CANbus, sensor data and cloud systems
Alfabet for sustainability
Recognition of enterprise IT as a significant contributor to the world’s carbon footprint continues to grow. By rethinking IT in the light of a company's sustainability strategy and goals, it is possible to reduce these environmental costs—and drive greener operations across the organization. The first step is acknowledging one central challenge: the need to view sustainability as a holistic endeavor between IT and business. As an industry leader in enterprise architecture and strategic portfolio management, Alfabet provides the capabilities required to leverage IT as the backbone of a corporation's green transformation. 
ARIS for sustainability
Long before sustainability and ESG became front and center, ARIS was helping organizations achieve greater end-to-end visibility and the transparency needed to make better business decisions. ARIS can serve as a company’s single source of truth—so that anyone, anywhere, anytime can contribute to business transformation. Business Process Management makes sustainability goals become reality. It anchors ESG to the core of operations. It bases company goals on real data, makes them transparent and holds owners more accountable. This is how processes are making our world a better place. 
Cumolocity IoT for sustainability
IoT solutions are making it easier to support a more sustainable future by connecting the physical world. On land and in the oceans, IoT devices help organizations understand the environment so society can act more responsibly. With knowledge comes the ability to prevent and reverse damage to our planet and its inhabitants through smarter actions, smarter production, and smarter consumption. IoT enables an organization to meet new sustainability goals at each step of the IoT maturity curve. No matter what stage they an organization reached in its IoT journey, Cumulocity IoT helps bring the sustainability goals to life. 
FIND MORE IDEAS ON HOW SOFTWARE AG CAN ENHANCE YOUR SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH IN OUR
SUSTAINABILITY ARCHIVES
Blog

                Research projects in sync with the UN SDGs
            

Slimming down our IT waste
Nothing lasts forever - that’s especially true when it comes to technology. These days, laptops, notebooks, smartphones, tablets, PCs, TFT monitors, and printers are being used for a few years only before they get replaced. As a consequence, the number of obsolete devices is constantly growing. In the interest of reducing waste and saving raw materials, European standards and national regulations require used technology products to be channeled into IT remarketing. Eco-friendly and sustainable methods to process old IT equipment have become the norm. This is why in German-speaking countries (DACH region), we at Software AG have been collaborating with certified IT waste-disposal specialists for many years. 
Employee Health & Wellbeing

At Software AG we care

We are dedicated to motivating employees to adopt a healthy lifestyle and supporting their mental and physical health. A successful corporate health management program helps improve the health of employees, reduces physical and mental strain from work, prevents disease, and increases employee satisfaction and commitment.

                Codetermination in employee representation
            

The world currently faces many challenges, including those associated with the environment, the global economy, health, social issues as well as the political macro. In these times it is more important than ever that we at Software AG reaffirm our strong commitment to Human Rights across all parts of our operational ecosystem – with, and for, our employees, customers, partners, and suppliers as well as the communities around us. 
Harnessing the power of our diversity
We are progressing in our efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion across the organization.  This has included a variety of initiatives in response to employee feedback gathered via regular employee surveys and targeted DE&I listening sessions. Among the actions taken to date is the establishment of a new senior global role focused on DE&I together with the formation of a global team of DE&I Ambassadors to champion diversity across the organization.

                Human Rights – at the heart of our corporate culture
            

The world currently faces many challenges, including those associated with the environment, the global economy, health, social issues as well as the political macro. In these times it is more important than ever that we at Software AG reaffirm our strong commitment to Human Rights across all parts of our operational ecosystem – with, and for, our employees, customers, partners, and suppliers as well as the communities around us. 

                Our Codes of Conduct
            

Employee Code of Conduct
Incorporated in the Software AG new-hire onboarding process
Partner Code of Conduct
Integrated element of the Partner Self-Registration Process 
Supplier Code of Conduct
Mandatory element of the supplier onboarding process
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