SOPHIA MENDELSOHN
SRM
SOPHIA MENDELSOHN
TITLE: CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER
COMPANY: SAP INDUSTRY: SOFTWARE
Since 2023, Sophia has led SAP’ s global sustainability programmes as Chief Sustainability and Commercial Officer, after serving as Chief Sustainability Officer at Cognizant and JetBlue Airways.
shopping by highlighting retail partners with circular and resale options. It is the perfect example of how sustainability partnerships can transform supply chains – proving responsibility doesn’ t have to be a trade off with business growth and innovation.
Data-driven sustainability Adding to this momentum, Sophia Mendelsohn, Chief Sustainability and Commercial Officer at SAP, explains SAP’ s goal to reach net zero by 2030 is deeply tied to stakeholder expectations:“ Really good sustainability goals are always based on what your stakeholders want to see from the business.
“ In our case, we know customers, investors and our communities are looking to SAP to explain and reduce their carbon emissions,”
This requires a human-centric approach, Sophia adds:“ The main challenges in reducing carbon emissions are not necessarily the emissions themselves – it is the people. They’ re the change management around the emissions reduction that has to line up with your business incentives and needs.”
This is then amplified by embedding environmental stewardship, human rights and AI ethics across SAP’ s operations and supply chain.
“ Fundamentally, sustainability is a data play that supports and enhances generative AI,” she says.“ We all know AI is only as good as the data it can ingest and no dataset is good and complete without considering sustainability attributes. That’ s because every business, every product and every service depends on natural resource inputs and a stable climate.”
To operationalise these commitments, SAP tracks sustainability, emissions and AI through three pillars:“ The first is reducing emissions at the root cause. That’ s the energy that the data centre runs off and the size and fit of the large language model being used.
“ We have a wonderful customer, Chobani,” Sophia adds.“ They make ethically sourced and produced yoghurt – and they’ ve used SAP business AI to reduce their time spent on expenses by 75 %. Every time I hear them say that, I think that’ s 75 % of their time back to their core sustainability mission.”
Finally, she highlights the importance of leadership alignment:“ The CSO, the Chief Sustainability Officer, should be up first and foremost for the application of AI for their needs and goals.”
supplychaindigital. com 133