For over 30 years, SAP has supported customers’ operational compliance with a substantial portfolio of environment, health, and safety (EHS) capabilities that increase safety performance and accuracy while reducing operational and compliance risks.
In recent years, amid the evolving regulatory landscape and interdependencies with other business areas, a new set of cross-process requirements have surfaced.
SAP’s answer is the shift from a reactive, centralized compliance management system to a proactive approach that adapts to an organization’s needs. We are transforming SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management from a monolithic system of record into a modular and connected suite.
Environmental management: from static tracking to intelligence
SAP solutions for environmental management address the management of waste and emissions as well as water and wastewater.
Updates to EHS solutions are intended to assist users in completing tasks more quickly and efficiently. For example, intelligent permit management is possible thanks to automated regulatory requirement extraction, making permit management tasks less tedious. In the future, proactive regulatory intelligence will prepare customers for the impacts of changing compliance requirements.
By focusing on proactive document extraction and a single entry point for compliance, customers can expect to benefit from reduced compliance preparation time and enhanced audit readiness.
Workplace safety management: from reactive to proactive
The updated workplace safety process orchestrates and extends the individual capabilities of safety performance management, operational risk management, and incident management.
Recent and upcoming updates leverage AI and increase usability to support safety instruction, reporting, and performance tracking — enhancing customers’ productivity and ability to demonstrate EHS value to stakeholders. More and better documented safety observation enable faster risk prioritization and preventive action, leading to fewer near-misses and incidents.
Capabilities include:
- Integrated risk assessments that connect hazard identification directly to operational controls and safety protocols
- AI-assisted safety instruction generation that equips teams with relevant information about hazards to health or environment and protective measures to prevent malfunctions, accidents, or emergencies
- Performance analytics that use real-time safety data to provide proactive insights for continuous safety improvement
By streamlining or automating manually intensive tasks like risk assessment and instruction document creation, your team can reduce time spent by as much as 65 to 70 percent, freeing them to focus on what matters. In addition to time savings, AI has the potential to reduce incidents and near misses by using simple and inclusive language in the instructions that reduces misconceptions by the executing workers.
Our EHS architecture evolution: from system of record to active, modular suite
Short-term, incremental improvements cannot meet the demands of modern EHS needs. SAP’s vision for EHS transformation will take us from the reactive to proactive, and eventually predictive by leveraging AI integrations. These solutions will give customers the competitive advantage in regulatory responsiveness and operational efficiency.
Find more insights from SAP’s recent Youtube live session, the demo video for AI-assisted Safety Instruction Generation, and the demo video for AI-assisted permit management.
Gunther Rothermel is chief product officer for SAP Sustainability.
