3.19 million pounds.
That’s how much minerals, metals, and oil the average American with a life expectancy of about 79 years will consume during their lifetime. The amount we need every year is rising. Today, each person needs more than 40,000 pounds of minerals and metals per year.
These numbers demonstrate the accelerating demand for the resources needed to build our phones, our electric cars, our computers. But minerals and metals are often mined in unsafe working conditions, including forced and child labour. Businesses often face corruption in their supply chains, while a lack of enforcement of regulations coupled with a lack of capacity in producing countries has contributed to human rights violations, pollution, and environmental damage.
Regulators, stakeholders, customers, and employees are increasingly demanding for transparency around how and where minerals and metals are sourced – particularly when they originate from conflict and high-risk areas. While companies strive to respond to these demands, they also want to have a positive impact on the local communities and environment their resources come from.
Business software maker SAP and social enterprise Knowledge for Impact have partnered to develop an innovative impact monitoring and due diligence software solution for companies needing more transparency in how they source minerals and metals. Knowledge for Impact was established by IMPACT, a non-profit global leader transforming how natural resources are managed in areas where security and human rights are at risk.
Through this collaboration with SAP, Knowledge for Impact is adapting IMPACT’s due diligence systems and integrating impact monitoring to determine how sourcing affects development, peace, and gender equality. This will allow SAP’s customers, who source minerals such as cobalt, to know where their minerals came from, have information about risks along the supply chain and understand the impact their sourcing has on the community.
Knowledge for Impact deploys IMPACT’s field-tested approaches to supply chain transparency in the natural resource sector, with an additional deep expertise in monitoring and evaluation, supported by advanced and relevant technology, adapted to local contexts. It develops innovative solutions with local partners to support transparency and enable artisanal producers and their communities to benefit from the value of the data they provide.
IMPACT has decades of experience working with local partners across Africa to transform how natural resources are managed in areas where security and human rights are at risk.
The partnership is an initiative led by SAP’s One Billion Lives, the company’s flagship social entrepreneurship program. The aim of SAP One Billion Lives is to help solve the world’s biggest social problems by bringing together the best the company has to offer: its people, technology, data assets, and a vast ecosystem to develop a portfolio of lean, sustainable, shared-value impact ventures, operating at startup speed. Since its launch in 2016, projects have helped hundreds of thousands of people.
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About Knowledge for Impact
Knowledge for Impact is a social enterprise established by IMPACT to support partners to confidently know what type of lasting change they are making on the ground. At the same time, it empowers local actors in the supply chain to own their data and claim its value to advance development, peace, and equality. For more information, visit https://impacttransform.org/en/knowledge-for-impact/.
About SAP
As the Experience Company powered by the Intelligent Enterprise, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want — without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables more than 437,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com .