Coupa BSM platform expands ESG support to help customers comply with German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act

Coupa Software, a leader in Business Spend Management (BSM), announced new capabilities to help companies comply with global regulations, including the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz (LkSG), as well as progress on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) targets.

Businesses face increasing pressures from investors, consumers, employees – and now global regulators – to improve sustainability and social impact, yet a recent Coupa survey revealed that companies are suffering from data blindspots, preventing them from fully complying with ESG legislation.

See related article: China releases its first ESG disclosure standard with Ping An’s participation

For instance, Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act comes into force on 1 January 2023 and requires companies with more than 3,000 employees in Germany to monitor supply chains for human rights violations and comply with environmental standards. However, nearly two thirds (65%) of businesses worldwide said they cannot tell if their closest suppliers meet ESG standards, and 57% admitted to not having an effective risk management system in place to ensure ESG integrity of supply chains.

“CEOs and business leaders possess the will to lead change and transform the way they conduct business, yet obstacles around data are causing them to fall short. This is where uniting the power of spend comes in,” said Rob Bernshteyn, chairman and CEO of Coupa. “A comprehensive strategy around business spend management that leverages data-driven insights from the community can equip businesses to proactively reduce risks, while also becoming more profitable and purposeful.”

Coupa’s Sustainable BSM solution helps businesses make more impactful spend decisions, and new capabilities announced at Coupa Inspire EMEA 2022 help companies improve sustainability and comply with ESG regulation.

Businesses will benefit from:

• Tailored Risk Assessment for Supply Chain Due Diligence: Customers can now request and manage supplier ESG compliance information specific to the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act through a digital assessment, and create reports to submit to German regulators.
  
• Visibility into Supplier Risk and Compliance Data: Customers have full, real-time visibility into supplier health, risk, and sustainability information when conducting sourcing events, as well as directly in supply chain digital twins, enabling proper vetting to ensure compliance.
  
• Collaboration Across Teams: Customers can operationalize risk management and embed it throughout procurement, supply chain, and compliance operations to rid silos. Coupa surfaces comprehensive supplier risk management information in context of every single spend decision at the time of decision making. 

“Global regulators have spoken: companies can no longer kick the can around on ESG. Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act is particularly strict, causing many businesses to scurry around to better understand their ESG risk, and ultimately mitigate it before the January deadline,” said Markus Hornburg, vice president global product compliance at Coupa. “Several other countries either already have related legislation, or are seriously considering it, leaving businesses to make sense of hundreds of nuances. Coupa’s Compliance-as-a-Service offerings solve this pain point for customers, helping global businesses streamline their approach to compliance. This gives customers confidence that their brand and bottom line is protected.”

Saint-Gobain, a global manufacturer, leverages Coupa to deliver on its mission to be the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction, and is being recognized at Inspire for its sustainable supply chain transformation.

“We are on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Breaking down silos and improving cross-team collaboration is crucial to accelerate our growth while having a positive impact on the environment. Coupa plays an important role in helping us achieve this goal. We are implementing advanced digital supply chain optimization schemes to challenge and optimize our CO2 emissions, operationalize our approach to sustainability, make progress on ESG standards, and reduce transport-related emissions by an average of as much as 20%,” said Philippe Boutonnet, director of supply chain excellence at Saint-Gobain.

“At PwC Germany, we are committed to helping companies implement the right processes and quality controls to orchestrate their supply chain end-to end. Coupa’s comprehensive approach to business spend management (BSM), which powers our Smart Network Buying (SMB) solution, provides a single source of truth to identify hotspots in supply chains, making it well poised to help companies comply with regulation across Germany and Europe. Together with Coupa, we can help companies prove compliance to make smarter sourcing decisions, while at the same time bring more efficiency and resiliency to supply chains,” said Jan Joachim Herrmann, partner at PwC Germany.

“Regulatory changes in many countries increase pressures on organizations to start making necessary ESG improvements in a short-term timeframe. To tackle these ESG challenges, it requires a clear understanding of regulatory requirements and transparency in a company’s supply chain and spend data. This is the baseline to identify which levers will help them reduce emissions, and develop a targeted plan to comply with governance, processes, and system changes for easier monitoring going forward,” said Stefan Löchner, partner at KPMG AG Germany.

For more information, visit coupa.com/SupplyChainDueDiligence

Source: PRNewswire