SAP: Companies will manage sustainability with AI the same way they manage finances

Artificial intelligence (AI), when embedded in business applications, is already enabling companies to manage sustainability, emissions, and decarbonization goals with the same precision they apply to finance and accounting. The assessment comes from Wolfgang Dierker, Global Head of Government Affairs at SAP, in an interview with Convergência Digital during the Summit Agenda SP+Verde, a pre-COP30 event held in São Paulo on Wednesday (Nov. 5). “Thanks to AI, we can make sustainability something alive, measurable, and transform it into business value,” Dierker said.

He explained that the use of AI in enterprise software allows companies and public organizations to track and verify progress on environmental targets with far greater accuracy. “Many institutions struggle to determine exactly how much progress they’ve made because they lack detailed, process-level data. That’s changing with the advances in AI embedded in business applications,” he noted.

According to Dierker, SAP is working to integrate AI into its solutions to enable organizations to monitor sustainability indicators, ESG commitments, and measurable targets – including initiatives that have direct impact on people and the planet. “Just as we account for currency in financial ledgers, we can now account for carbon emissions – tracking what’s produced, offset, or avoided, and understanding the organization’s real progress,” he explained.

Dierker referred to this approach as a green ledger, a framework that could play a decisive role in bringing transparency to decarbonization efforts and strengthening trust among investors and governments. “The magic lies in applying the same rigor we use to measure profit and financial performance, but now to emissions, energy use, and water consumption. With AI, we gain clear metrics and detailed insights that show exactly where emissions occur and how to optimize resources,” he said.

SAP’s executive also emphasized that AI’s evolution must be accompanied by public policies that ensure both safety and innovation. “It’s vital to provide AI that is secure and trustworthy, but equally important to give companies room to innovate,” he argued. For Dierker, sustainability and artificial intelligence are not competing goals, but complementary forces. “Sustainability is an enabler of AI, and AI is the tool that allows us to understand and accelerate sustainable progress.”