Scope 3 Accounting Platform with SAP BTP

Elia Group

Challenge

In 2022, the Sustainability team of Group’s Strategy Dpt. and the Procurement Dpt. decided together that a tool is needed to collect carbon footprint related data from suppliers in order to use these numbers in an improved scope 3 report. After discovering that life cycle assessments (LCA) of supplier vary widely and are not standardized, the need was added to include a LCA tool for various asset classes according to a common methodology. We found no software that could deliver one-in-all solution for these tasks (collection – calculation – reporting), so we decided to build it ourselves.

Solution

We host a web application on the SAP Business Technology Platform, using the SAPUI5 framework which follows the SAP Fiori Design Guidelines to facilitate a user-friendly data transfer. Suppliers log on through a secure connection and receive notifications of new input requests. Internal users (Elia Group buyers, technical experts etc.) access the platform via SSO on the SAP Fiori launchpad and perform a sanity check of the input before the LCA tool calculates the carbon footprint. Many elements of the SAPUI5 library are used to aggregate, visualize and analyze the data.

Outcome

We managed to set up an SAP Fiori app built from scratch that delivers on data collection from external users, automated calculation and a robust scope 3 reporting tool that incorporates data from different sources. For the annual non-financial report of 2023, we are for the first time using numbers obtained with our own software. Users are starting to be aware of the scope 3 impact of infrastructure projects and maintenance activities. We have laid the foundation for in integrated reporting system based on supplier data that will continue to grow over the coming years.

Of spend is no longer calculated with external emission factors (a standard practise with high uncertainty and no way to improve)

0items

are individually checked (in real-time) and layered to use the best available data quality to produce the scope 3 report of one year

Of spend was calculated on internal estimations within the first 4 weeks of the launch

We recently launched our Scope 3 Accounting Platform. It will give us transparency on the carbon footprint […] of our investment activities and further drive the maturity level of our scope 3 data.

Marco Nix, CFO ad interim Elia Group, Capital Markets Day 2023

Application Realization Digram of Elia Group

What I like about the Scope 3 Platform is that it provides clarity on the key pillars of our value chain emissions. In addition, it is an essential tool to improve the quality of the respective data.

Ralf Segeth, Sustainability Manager, 50Hertz

Contributing Partner

Antwerp

Located in the port city Antwerp, Belgium, Flexso’s AppHaus offers a creative space to drive customer innovation through Design Thinking. The innovation lab team follows the principle “technology turns human”. Their co-working space includes a workshop area with writable walls and three smaller breakout rooms that can host up to 25 workshop participants in a cozy and productive atmosphere.

originally published on SAP Innovation Awards 2024 entry page.

Customer

Elia Group

Headquarters
: Brussels, Belgium
No. of employees
: 3,400
Website
: https://www.eliagroup.eu/

Elia Group is a transmission system operator for the high voltage grid, supplying 30 million end users with electricity through its subsidiaries in Belgium (Elia) and East Germany (50Hertz).
They are a driver of a successful energy transition, helping to establish a reliable, sustainable and affordable energy system. Digitalization and Sustainability are two core elements of their strategy, which is reflected in their ambition to develop their own software to track the decarbonization of their supply chain.