As businesses worldwide seek to embed sustainability in end-to-end operations, SAP similarly aims to deliver environmental, social, and economic impact through its suite of enterprise products.
In this year’s second Sustainability Solutions Overview webcast (streaming Friday, April 28; 11:00am–12:00pm CT; register here), attendees will hear from Hitesh Patel, Product Manager for SAP S/4HANA Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) Environment Management, about the product’s new waste management process.
Open to both ASUG members and non-members, the webcast will allow Patel to dive into the recently redeveloped module while educating attendees around how to systematically manage waste from generation to disposal, identify waste minimization opportunities across all levels of an enterprise, and ensure compliance with waste generator regulations.
Inside SAP Environment Management
“If you go back 50-70 years in U.S. history, there have not been many regulations related to managing air emissions, water discharge from manufacturing locations, or the waste that you produce,” said Patel. “That’s the premise of SAP S/4HANA EHS Environment Management.”
Part of the SAP EHS Solution Portfolio for Sustainable Operations (along with Workplace Safety), SAP Environment Management focuses on helping customers to manage processes related to air emissions, greenhouse gas management, wastewater management, compliance management related to environmental legislation, and—now—waste management. Its overarching goal is to support inventories and track outputs, so as to help organizations manage environmental impact.
Within SAP Environment Management, the waste management module helps customers to manage what Patel calls a “cradle-to-grave” process for waste, from generation to disposal: “Where is the waste generated? What sort of waste is it? How long is it stored on site? Is it hazardous waste or nonhazardous waste? Is it transported using a regular shipping manifest, which we can receive a copy of and keep on record for many years?”
In addition to providing systematic management of waste and identifying opportunities for waste minimization, the module is intended to drive cost allocation or reduction, as well as reduction of penalties due to non-compliance.
“Customers want to be compliant at all times, which drives the need to adopt a software so that they have a consistent, auditable process across all their facilities, in how they handle the generation, storage, characterization, transportation, and confirmation of disposal of waste,” Patel said.
In his webcast, Patel will talk through benefits of the waste management process, detail its feature functions, and lay out how customers producing hazardous and nonhazardous waste can track it, ensure compliance, and identify those reduction opportunities. Among those benefits are 360-degree compliance, operational continuity, and less waste, with the module creating a more intuitive dashboard view for big-picture visibility.
Patel will also discuss the waste analytics app within the module and its ability to allow customers to analyze their waste, with future functionalities also including the ability to produce regulatory reports such as the U.S.-mandated biannual hazardous waste report.
A Response to Customer Demand
Previously, waste management had been overseen through a separate application from SAP ERP Central Component and heavily used by large chemicals industry customers to track waste throughout their facilities and ensure compliance with worldwide legislations. On SAP S/4HANA, the process is now included as a part of SAP Environment Management, which also supports air emissions management calculations and quantifying water discharges.
Patel believes the new and improved module will make it easier for companies operating across multiple countries to comply with varying legislative requirements by providing a framework for tracking production of waste, characterizing waste as hazardous or nonhazardous, orchestrating and financing transportation and safe disposal of waste, and identifying waste minimization opportunities.
“Once you have all these areas tracked, you can then look at and evaluate, per plant, what amount of hazardous waste you’re producing, what the largest of those streams are, and how you can reduce them,” Patel explained.
SAP consulted with a customer engagement initiative (CEI) council throughout developing the module, soliciting input from both long-time and net-new customers located in various countries and jurisdictions to understand their needs for waste management. The CEI will continue to meet quarterly over the next few years, informing the product's development until it reaches a certain level of maturity.
For more, register to join Patel on April 28 for a deep dive into the new waste management process of SAP S/4HANA Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) Environment Management. This webcast is free and open to both ASUG members and non-members.