As the world prepares for the upcoming UN climate conference in Egypt, episode 21 will be covering a recent roundtable discussion exploring the findings from our annual SAP Insights Sustainability study, and what this means for UK businesses.

It’s been almost a year since COP26 where the world came together in Glasgow to tackle the issue of climate change. After a couple of challenging years with the pandemic, it felt like a ‘reset’ moment for us all to once again consider the necessity of taking sustainability action and playing our part in protecting our planet.

It’s safe to say that the topic has never left the business agenda or indeed the public eye. With world leaders set to reconvene at the 27th annual UN meeting in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to discuss action to tackle climate change, it follows a year of climate-related disasters and broken temperature records.

As we build up to COP27, how are business leaders responding to this urgency to address climate action.

New research from SAP explores the motivations and barriers to environmental action within businesses, to understand both the progress we’re making and what still needs to be done.

In this episode we're joined by our expert guests:

- Michiel Verhoeven, SAP UKI Managing Director

- Stephen Jamieson, Global Head of Circular Economy Solutions at SAP (https://twitter.com/stephenjamieson)

- Gemma Baker, Accenture’s Managing Director for Sustainability

- Tim Embley, Group Research & Innovation Director at Costain

To explore the full 2022 SAP Sustainability report, visit https://www.sap.com/uk/documents/2022/10/7cb36cdb-4a7e-0010-bca6-c68f7e60039b.html

To learn more about SAP Sustainability solutions, visit www.sap.com/sustainability.

Episode 19 of the InnovationX Podcast focuses on what the future has in hold for public sector oranisations. As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic the opportunity to adopt new technologies to improve the way we deliver new public sector services is here.

Whether you want to become more agile, more resilient, or increase your capacity and productivity, government organisations are now maximising the latest cloud technologies to better meet the needs of their citizens.

A perfect example of this in action is Gloucestershire County Council which became the first UK public sector organisation to adopt RISE with SAP to modernise its IT and technology infrastructure.

We are joined by our expert guests:

• Steve Mawson, Deputy Chief Executive & Executive Director of Resources, Gloucestershire County Council

• Cheryl Millyard, Head of Business Service Centre, Gloucestershire County Council

• Satpal Biant, Head of Public Sector, SAP UKI

• Amanda Gardiner, Head of Industry Value Advisory, SAP UKI

• Dr Ruth Eberhart, VP Intelligent Government Management, Postal Services & Central Banks, SAP

• David Dinsdale, Industry Value Advisor, SAP UKI

Joining the corporate world can be quite a daunting experience for students, especially as we emerge from a global pandemic where so many of us have been working from home for two years. So, it’s important to embrace every opportunity thrown your way to make the absolute most of your internship.

As an Intern myself, I thought it crucial to create a guide for incoming interns and second year university students to learn from and apply to their own experiences.

In this episode, I’m joined by Ciara Sherlock, fellow intern and student at the University of Bath, who will be sharing some tips, tricks and words of wisdom to guide incoming and future interns through the process, from beginning to end.

Businesses once had to choose between profitability and sustainability.

Today the two go hand in hand.

From securing investment to attracting employees and customers, sustainability now has a major impact on the success of a business and on its future.

Studies show that while 90% of executives think sustainability is important only 60% of companies have a sustainability strategy.

In this episode, we feature an interview from the AIBF All Ireland Business Summit with Lindsey Rowe, Head of Purpose Programmes & Sustainability at SAP, about the impact a strong sustainability policy can have on a business.

Listed at No.1 on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for more than 15 years, SAP believes that together we can reimagine a world where profit is generated by sustainable practices. A world where we put ‘Eco’ in Economics.

SAP helps to create Supply Chain Economics, Consumer Economics, and Human Economics to enable a future with zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality.

SAP is the headline sponsor of the 6th Annual All-Ireland Business Summit.

In this episode I’m interviewing Gavin Critchley. Gavin works within the Customer Office for EMEA North at SAP.

I wanted to chat with Gavin simply because Gavin isn’t afraid to say it like it is and also isn’t shy of admitting that he’s.. well.. human! It’s refreshing to hear someone with such experience and seniority admitting that it wasn’t all mapped out and planned.

Join us as Gavin and I explore if we’re the only people that suffer / suffered with imposter syndrome. Do the people at the top suffer with it? Do they question their success? Do they too compare themselves to others? We also talk about a topic that I find extremely interesting – the use of social media and both its negative and positive effects in relation to this topic.

As always, happy listening and do pass this episode onto a friend or relative that you feel would benefit from listening to this 😊

The year is 2032, and Sci-Valley has adopted the latest innovations including highly efficient sorting and processing facilities that breaks down our plastic waste and provides materials for future production.

We also incinerate 50% of our waste to generate heat to millions of homes, alongside a compost facility that deals with our current food waste. However, as our population grows due to the popularity of the area, we are facing issues dealing with our residential and commercial waste as our facilities are all at capacity.

Sci-Valley needs YOUR help to sustain the ever-increasing number of inhabitants. To maintain enough resources, an acceleration within the production of food and drink is required. How can Sci-Valley become more intelligent?

In this episode we are joined by our SAP Hackathon 2022 winners - Deloitte, IBM and Atos to reveal their sustainable blueprints for future smart cities.

Held on 10th and 11th February, the 48 hour challenge hosted by SAP UKI Innovations Labs, saw 11 teams use SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to imagine new ways to feed and manage the smart cities of the future.

We are joined by our expert guests:

- Nadine Elsham, SAP

- Vivien Boche, SAP

- Sara Martin Morante, Deloitte 

- Will Powell, Deloitte

- Dionisios Nikopoulos, Atos 

- Russ Turner, Atos

- Kumud Singh, IBM 

- Stani Baxter, IBM

Check out this video to learn more about the hackathon: https://sapvideoa35699dc5.hana.ondemand.com/?entry_id=1_otu9l995

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In this episode I’m interviewing an award winning Great Taste business, mmm that’s right. I’ve tried Madeleine & Co’s (https://www.madeleineandco.uk) madeleines and they are super tasty. Light and crispy on the outside, yet moist in the middle, YUM.

Marie and I used to work within the same team at SAP. Marie decided to leave her corporate job at SAP in August 2019, to follow her passion in creating Madeleine & Co.

Marie shares with us her journey and it was certainly a journey to where she is today.

I love that the decision for Marie to leave her corporate job has not only let Marie turn her baking passion into a reality but it has also led Marie into creating an additional business. Marie is now a life coach who is now helping those who are in the same position as she once was – I just love this! 😊

Listeners, wherever you are, I’m not trying to convince you to all leave your jobs.. what I am trying to do is to remind you that you can follow your dreams, make a change, give that niggling idea in your head a try. Listen to your gut. Life’s too short.

Marie, it’s lovely to see you so happy and once again thank you for sharing your journey with us and being open and honest. I personally can’t wait to see what you do next!

As part of SAP’s continued response to the social justice movement, SAP announced the launch of its Pro Bono for Economic Equity program in the UK, a pro bono volunteering program designed to foster economic equity for black-owned businesses and social enterprises.

It provides the opportunity for employees to share professional skills and expertise as pro bono volunteer consultants to help solve critical business challenges for black-owned businesses and social enterprises that are impacted by social and racial injustices in the UK.

In this episode we are exploring the experience of one of the SAP teams that volunteered to support the UK Black Business Show as part of this programme. The UK Black Business Show (https://www.ukblackbusinessshow.co.uk) was created to inspire and connect black business owners and professionals. Through exhibits, deep-dive workshops, interactive panels, and seminars, delivered by industry pioneers, this event enables personal, professional and corporate development.

I am joined by the following guests:

• Hemang Desai, Global Program Director for our Social Sabbatical Portfolio, Corporate Social Responsibility

• Alix Hinson, team lead at SAP Concur

• Chigozie Benson, support engineer at SAP

• Shantanu Goswami, Director regional center of excellence at SAP

• Michael Adeniya, Chief Operating Officer for the UK Black Business Show

In this episode, SAP UKI Managing Director Michiel Verhoeven speaks to Sandeep Seeripat, Global Chief Information Officer at Twinings, to discuss how the business is embarking on a transformation programme as it looks at ways it can better engage with its customers, while ensuring supply-chain reliability and operational efficiency.

In his role Sandeep is responsible for driving digital transformation across the business focusing on business outcomes through executing with excellence. Prior to Twinings, Sandeep was Global IT Delivery Director at Kimberly-Clark.

In this episode we discuss the latest research from SAP Insights which looks at the challenges faced by organisations in meeting their sustainability goals, how circular economy solutions can overcome these barriers, and also look ahead to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) that's taking place in Glasgow.

We are joined by the following expert guests:

- Michiel Verhoeven - Managing Director, SAP UK & Ireland

- Stephen Jamieson - Global Head of Circular Economy Solutions at SAP. In his role, Stephen leads the creation and development of the industry solutions needed to keep products in use, design out waste and regenerate natural systems. (https://twitter.com/stephenjamieson)

- Wouter van Tol - Head of Government, Sustainability and Community Affairs at DS Smith globally. Central to this is its "Now and Next" sustainability strategy, which is focused on the Circular Economy.

- Michael Groves - Founder and CEO of Topolytics. Michael is a geographer with a PhD in earth observation, with over 20 years’ experience in environmental management and sustainability reporting. (https://twitter.com/geogroves)

- Professor Peter Hopkinson - Peter is Director of the University Exeter Centre for Circular Economy that brings together academic researchers, business, policy makers and civic society to support the transition to a circular economy. He set up and ran the world’s first MBA in circular economy and a global on-line executive education programme for leading global businesses, innovation companies and educators. He is most concerned with developing the scientific evidence base for circular economy theory and practice at varying scales and within different industrial contexts.

You can read about all the latest SAP Insights here: https://news.sap.com/uk/2021/10/generation-regeneration-uk-businesses-must-overcome-sustainability-hurdles-to-capitalise-on-green-opportunity-sap-research-finds/

If you want to learn more about the circular economy, join this free online course to learn about the advantages of an inclusive circular economy. Discover how a circular economy can help us tackle the impact the linear economy is having on the planet, people, and modern businesses: https://open.sap.com/courses/ce1

To keep updated on other podcast episodes, follow twitter.com/SAPUKIreland