What Is the SAP Green Ledger?

SAP Green Ledger as the central carbon accounting solution is built on SAP BTP as a true software as a service (SaaS) solution.

Key development paradigms are a micro-service architecture, interoperability and connectivity to any other system type, rapid deployment of the solutions, and continuous feature delivery. Thus, SAP Green Ledger splits its core components to individual services:

• Master Data for connecting and collecting master data from the connected SAP S/4HANA system
• Carbon Data Collection and Carbon Import for entering carbon emissions values into the carbon accounting hub
• ▪Posting and Allocation for creating postings to accounts within the carbon ledger
• ▪Allowances and Liability for managing carbon related special treatment of certifi­cates and material movements like those subject to CBAM regulation

Reporting, dashboards, and simulation are, following SAP’s cloud strategy, deferred to SAP Analytics Cloud, integrated into SAP Datasphere and soon also to SAP Business Data Cloud. Within the SAP Green Ledger application, there are other small microser­vices for shared or federated infrastructure tasks like auditing and business logging.

As the figure below shows, SAP Green Ledger operating on SAP Business Technology Platform must receive master data from SAP S/4HANA in the very first step. The most important master data con­sists of company codes and the chart(s) of accounts, qualified by a distinct origin sys­tem ID. This data is the basis for all postings of carbon within the carbon accounting application. Further master data may be imported by the master data microservice and distributed to the respective microservices that need them, like cost objects or materials to the carbon collection or posting services.

The carbon import service consumes material movements from the finance applica­tion within SAP S/4HANA. Material movements are aggregated by supplier, material, and time period, imported to SAP Green Ledger with their account assignments and allocations to further accounting objects. The carbon emissions reflecting the mate­rial movement are provided by either a data set imported by the user or by an exist­ing carbon footprint (e.g., from SAP Sustainability Footprint Management).

After the initial carbon import, the emissions, which are broken down into their respective GHG Protocol scope, are allocated in the same fashion and by the same metric as the underlying financial allocations. This process is facilitated by the post­ing service with the integrated allocations component and rules engine.

The carbon collection service serves all scenarios, including the case in which carbon emissions data cannot be imported into SAP Green Ledger as a data set but must be created manually. After posting a manual carbon entry into the carbon ledger, the emissions are then further allocated either manually or based on rules derived from similar financial flows in a dedicated (and selected) SAP S/4HANA system.

Meanwhile, the allowances service gathers all postings to the carbon journal that con­tain data on special embedded emissions, like those related to CBAM, and are flagged accordingly. Those emissions are posted to distinct accounts as liabilities, and, in parallel, purchased offsetting or covering certificates are maintained as assets.

There is a multitude of supporting microservices, which are shared and commonly used by all other services for business operations. For example, the business-logging service tracks and logs all business-relevant data creation and data processing, while the audit log service tracks and logs all changes to configuration and master data. Other services facilitate data privacy obligations and distribution of data (whose details are beyond the scope of this post).

Once all the carbon data is properly (carbon) accounted for, it is pushed to an SAP Datasphere instance, where it is combined with the financial data from the ERP sys­tem. Because SAP Green Ledger allocates and posts data to the same accounts and accounts hierarchies that the main SAP S/4HANA system providing the master data does, carbon and financial data can easily be combined and then made further avail­able for SAP Analytics Cloud reporting. In SAP Analytics Cloud, the user can then see the carbon values alongside the financial values and report on the same dimensions.

In the not-so-far future, SAP will (likely) transition its customers to SAP Business Data Cloud, where data from SAP Green Ledger, SAP S/4HANA, and other SAP solutions will already be integrated and marked in advance by SAP. This will eliminate much of the effort required to set up reporting structures and data clean-up or consolidation; SAP Business Data Cloud will also likely act as a substitute SAP Datasphere as a mid­dle-layer for joined carbon and financial reporting.

Within SAP Green Ledger (but not shown in the previous figure), an embedded SAP Analytics Cloud reporting feature is available, but only on carbon dimensions. Because data from finance systems is added only later in the data structure, the embedded SAP Analytics Cloud reporting feature in SAP Green Ledger enables reporting, embedded into the central carbon ledger, on carbon values. The dimensions for reporting and structuring the data on are still the same as they are in the combined financial report­ing, but since financial values are missing, the reporting still lacks the monetary aspect.

Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the e-book Introducing Carbon Accounting for Sustainability with SAP by Julia Ackermann, Bastian Distler, Christoph Ernst, Jens Freiberg, Dominik Schwarz, Christopher Sessar, Mike Szabo, Nico Wottke, and Julia Zicke. This author team brings together expertise from SAP, BDO Germany, and beyond, covering product management, sustainability, accounting, and financial reporting. Together, they contribute deep knowledge in SAP S/4HANA finance and risk, SAP Green Ledger, and global reporting practices.

This post was originally published 9/2025.