Interview

SAP: Redefining ESG as Value and Driving Community Collaboration at Summit

At the ESG Summit 2025, Markus A.W. Hoehner speaks with Mathias Boettger of SAP about the company's commitment to the event and its perspective on the evolving role of ESG from compliance to tangible value creation. Boettger emphasizes the importance of community collaboration in advancing sustainability efforts.

Event
ESG Summit 2025
Market
Europe
Segment
C&I
Technology
Format
Interview
Interviewer · EUPD Group
Markus A.W. Hoehner
CEO & Founder · EUPD Group
Guest · SAP
Mathias Boettger
Sustainability Principal MEE · SAP
Filmed ·Petersberg near Bonn·Runtime 02:11Interview ·
InterviewESG Summit 2025 · Petersberg near Bonn
02:11
Filmed on site · No editorial direction beyond question set · Captions auto-generated, reviewed by EUPD Research

Key takeaways

4 points · 02:11 video
  1. Community Collaboration for ESG
    SAP views events like the ESG Summit as crucial opportunities to bring the industry together, share solutions, and collectively address current challenges in sustainability. This engagement aims to strengthen brand awareness and foster collaborative problem-solving.
  2. Maintaining Market Leadership in Sustainability
    As a market leader in business process software, SAP continuously works to address all relevant topics, with a particular focus on gathering comprehensive information within the sustainability sector. This proactive approach supports its ongoing leadership.
  3. ESG Redefined as Value
    Mathias Boettger stresses that ESG should not be viewed merely as reporting or regulation, but fundamentally as a source of value for businesses and the broader community. This redefinition signifies a shift from compliance to strategic imperative.
  4. Value as a Future Policy
    Promoting the inherent value of ESG is presented as an essential 'insurance policy' for the future, highlighting its strategic importance beyond mere adherence. Combining efforts to promote this value is seen as critical for collective achievement.

Strategic Engagement with the ESG Summit

SAP's motivation for supporting the ESG Summit 2025 stems from a desire to leverage the platform to showcase its solutions and enhance brand awareness within the sustainability community. Mathias Boettger highlights the necessity for industry stakeholders to convene and collaborate, particularly given current challenges. The company views such gatherings as essential for collective problem-solving and advancing sustainability initiatives across the European energy industry. This approach reinforces SAP's commitment to fostering a collaborative environment to address complex issues together.

"we see this as a tremendous opportunity to provide our solutions here to, to make us our brand aware within the community" Boettger · 00:22

Redefining ESG: From Compliance to Value Creation

Boettger articulates a shift in perspective for the ESG industry, moving beyond its "childhood" of basic reporting and regulation towards a phase of "maturity." He contends that despite some struggles within the sector, the fundamental understanding of ESG must evolve to encompass its true potential. A core message from SAP is that ESG is inherently about creating value. Boettger emphasizes that industry efforts should focus on combining resources to promote this intrinsic value, rather than solely focusing on regulatory adherence. This redefinition positions ESG as a strategic imperative and an "insurance policy for the future."

"It's not reporting, it's not regulation, it's value." Boettger · 01:43

Two questions on the stand

Chapters · click to jump
00:13
SAP's Strategic Engagement with the ESG Summit
Mathias Boettger explains SAP's motivation for supporting the ESG Summit 2025, highlighting its role in fostering community collaboration and showcasing solutions.
00:43
Sustaining Market Leadership Through Collaboration
Boettger discusses how SAP maintains its leadership in business process software by addressing all critical topics, particularly in sustainability, and emphasizes collaboration with partners like EUPD.
02:02
The Future of ESG: Value Over Compliance
Boettger advocates for redefining ESG beyond reporting and regulation, positioning it as a fundamental driver of value and a crucial "insurance policy" for the future.

Interview transcript

Auto-generated · reviewed · ~3 min read
What, um, motivated you to support the ESG summit and how do you see its impact in the industry and in the community? So we see this as a tremendous opportunity to provide our solutions here to, to make us our brand aware within the community and we see that is necessary to gather as a community to see how we can bring in together, especially in those time as we are now facing. Your Company has achieved great success over all the past years. How do you maintain this leadership and how are you appreciating the collaboration with the EOPD group as well? Uh, yeah, for sure. We are broad market leader in, in business process software and, um, we are working hard to to be that, and that means that we have to address all kinds of, uh, topics. Yeah. Specifically within the sustainability area. We, we need to gather all information we can get and that's why it's really necessary that we can work together with you guys and, and, and working in those things. What messages you would like to give the industry, the ESG industry for the future? ESG As Came out of the childhood? Yeah. Now we are facing puberty thumb tower maturity, but we are struggling a little bit within the ESG industry and that's why we need to really see what is ESG. It's not reporting, it's not regulation, it's value. And we have to be aware that we are combining our efforts into promoting the value we can give and this is what we can do and we can achieve together. And this is definitely the insurance policy, uh, for the future. Thank you very much.
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Frequently asked questions

SAP views the ESG Summit as a critical platform to present its solutions and enhance brand visibility within the sustainability community. Mathias Boettger emphasizes the necessity for industry players to gather and collaborate, especially amidst current challenges, to collectively advance ESG initiatives.

As a leader in business process software, SAP sustains its position by actively addressing all relevant market topics, with a particular focus on the sustainability sector. This involves dedicated efforts to gather comprehensive information and engage in strategic collaborations, such as with EUPD, to stay at the forefront of industry developments.

SAP advocates for a fundamental shift in perception, asserting that ESG is primarily about value creation, rather than solely reporting or regulation. Mathias Boettger encourages the industry to unify efforts in promoting this inherent value, seeing it as an “insurance policy” for future resilience and success.