German giant misses its emissions target, slowly moves towards the green cloud for its customers

SAP has announced that it will power its data centres, and all other facilities, using 100% renewable electricity, pushing an environmentally friendly message as the software giant moves towards a cloud business model.

The news was included in SAP’s 2013 Integrated Report, which was made available last week, with overall energy figures creeping up – a fact the company put down to simple business growth.

Greenhouse gas emissions went up from 30.0 grams CO2 per euro of total revenue in 2012, to 32.4 grams in 2013, while total emissions amounted to 545 kilotons CO2, missing the company’s stated target of 460 kilotons. 2012 saw 485 kilotons, so it was maybe an ambitious figure set out in the first place.

SAP has an even loftier overall goal: to have emissions from operations by …