Earth Day is an important day at Esker. Reducing waste and paper use within businesses is something we feel passionate about — for both our customers and our planet. By automating business processes, organisations can almost completely eliminate the need for paper. It’s a win-win for both businesses and the planet.
Esker isn’t alone in its mission to make businesses smarter while making the world greener. In fact, many of our valued partners are making major strides in their industries to leverage technology that promotes sustainable business practices that have a real, positive impact on the environment. For Earth Day 2022, we wanted to put the spotlight on some of our key partners’ sustainability efforts and highlight how their initiatives are benefitting the planet.
To kick things off, here are some steps Esker is taking to go green and do its part for the planet, not only on Earth Day but every day:
- Paper waste reduction
Thanks to our cloud platform, we have helped businesses around the world automate nearly 2.9 billion sheets of paper. - Renewable energy
100% of Esker’s new customer environments are hosted in Microsoft Azure public cloud, which runs on 60% renewable energy. - Planet-friendly activities
We participate in Madison Bike Week by providing free “bike ready” tune-ups and host community cleanups annually.
SAP®
SAP’s purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives with sustainability at the core, with an objective to create a positive economic, environmental and social impact worldwide.
SAP’s products and services help deliver environmental and social impact on four dimensions:
- Holistic sustainability management: SAP’s sustainability and ESG reporting solutions contribute to a future where decisions in our global economy are made based on their sustainability impact. Example: SAP Sustainability Control Tower helps organisations connect their environmental, social and financial data holistically so they can steer their business towards sustainability.
- Climate action: SAP’s climate change solutions contribute to a future with zero emissions. Example: SAP Product Footprint Management enables organisations to assess and reduce greenhouse gas emissions of their products and operations along their entire value chain.
- Circular economy: SAP’s circular economy solutions contribute to a future with zero waste. Example: SAP Responsible Design and Production enables organisations to make circularity a key principle of product design and production. It helps them re-use materials, protect resources, eliminate waste, and build regenerative businesses.
Social responsibility: SAP’s social responsibility solutions contribute to a future with zero inequality. Example: SAP Business Network and our SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM) Suite provide the visibility needed to support organisations in integrating ethical and socially responsible sustainable business practices to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion across the entire value chain.
Oracle
Oracle always has the environment in mind. It’s set a target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and to halve the greenhouse gas emissions across operations and supply chain by 2030, relative to a 2020 baseline. Recognising that its use of natural resources can have a huge impact, Oracle is always looking for ways to maximise energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and minimise water consumption and waste generation across all operations, including how it runs Oracle Cloud.
Here are Oracle’s 2025 sustainability goals:
- 100% renewable energy use for Oracle Cloud
- 100% renewable energy use for Oracle Real Estate and Facilities
- 20% reduction in employee air travel emissions
- 100% of key suppliers have an environmental program in place
- 80% of key suppliers have emissions reductions targets in place
- 33% reduction in potable water use per square foot
- 33% reduction in waste to landfill per square foot
IBM
Did you know that IBM’s technology was used to clean up the most polluted lake in India? An IBM team processed images and data satellite images using IBM Geospatial Analytics (now part of the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite) to determine several water quality parameters and surfacing actionable insights to improve the lake’s water quality.
Like many of Esker’s partners, IBM is included in Sustainability Magazine’s top 100 companies, ranking 29th. IBM is a company that’s committed to climate and business risk management, resilience, emissions reduction and sustainable supply chains, and provides various supporting products for sustainability.
Fujifilm
The Fujifilm Group’s business originated with motion picture photographic film, a product for which lots of clean water and fresh air are essential to the manufacturing process. Therefore, the environment is inherently a top priority. It’s also a product which requires customers to “buy on trust,” since they cannot try it out beforehand. Thus, for the Fujifilm Group, an approach which emphasises environmental conservation and maintaining the trust of stakeholders has been a major premise at the very foundations of its business activities. This approach is the starting point for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and continues to be passed down within the Group, as the Fujifilm Group’s “DNA.”
To achieve sustainable development, the Fujifilm Group is working on various environmental issues under its Green Policy so that it can also be the leading company in the environmental field. In addition to reducing the environmental impact of production activities, Fujifilm is focused on cutting CO2 emissions and making effective use of water and other resources across the entire product lifecycle, reaching as far as the use and disposal of its products by customers.
Fujifilm’s 2030 sustainability goals include:
- Addressing climate change
- Promoting recycling of resources
- Addressing energy issues toward a decarbonised society
- Ensuring product and chemical safety
Stripe
Stripe not only recognises the importance of sustainability, but it’s actually built a product around it: Stripe Climate. With Stripe Climate, companies can actually remove carbon as you they grow their businesses. Users can direct a fraction of their revenue to help scale emerging carbon removal technologies in just a few clicks. A simple product is helping to cultivate and grow a group of ambitious businesses changing the course of carbon removal — and that’s pretty cool.
Actively taking steps to be greener isn’t just important for businesses — it’s important for everyone, and change on the individual level makes a bigger impact than most people think. The earth is our only home, and we have to take care of it. Click here to learn more about Earth Day and visit our website to learn more about Esker’s Corporate Social Responsibility.
-Written by, Taylor Bucher
