ETHICAL TECHNOLOGY
“ Sustainability still mostly tends to come up when companies are being audited on their carbon emissions and need to demonstrate that they have the tools and procedures in place to measure and document carbon output – or else face severe fines ”
FRANCES SNEDDON CTO , SIMUL8
broader gains . These include benefits in areas such as carbon emission monitoring and reduction , and better overall decision making to help reduce costs while improving resource management . The end result is a more proactive , rather than passive byproduct approach when it comes to ERPlead sustainability .
One example is Simul8 ’ s work with a Houston-based oil and gas company that was regularly transporting large amounts of equipment from the US to the Middle East . “ We modelled the alternative routes available to assess the cost versus carbon implications of each option ,” Sneddon explains . “ This process compared journeys across sea , air and land , the added carbon costs from transfers and delays along a route , and the number of containers needed for transporting the cargo . This amalgamation of data into a single model generated the evidence needed to make an informed decision on the best balance of cost and sustainability , since they had the full picture in front of them .”
79 % of consumers are changing their purchasing preference based on sustainability ( Orange Business Services )
An example of ERPlead sustainability on a smaller scale can be found in Bantham Technologies ' work with the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust in the UK . Having deployed an ERP solution , the trust saw noticeable increases in efficiency and cost reduction , in addition to drastically lowering its carbon emissions as a result .
By processing an average of 3,000 e-forms per month across 100 remote workers , the trust expects to use 165,600 fewer sheets of paper while reducing its annual travel by nearly 500,000 miles . This will result in lowering CO2 emissions by over 180 tonnes over a single year , with considerable savings to boot . Those 100 remote workers will save over 11,000 hours in travel time and administration , with annual cost savings estimated to be over £ 200,000 .
Built on sustainability While ERP solutions can improve logistics and supply chains , companies should also consider how the systems themselves are run , to recoup extra savings . Implementing an ERP strategy on the public cloud , for example , is something that can greatly affect overall costs and impact on the environment , while negating the multiple headaches associated with companies running their own on-premise solutions – namely having to worry about security , data redundancy , updates , and balancing resource consumption with demand .
42 April 2021