Interview Series: Monica Molesag

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Climatize

This week’s read time: 6 minutes

Welcome to the Green Digest Interview Series, our bi-weekly feature showcasing conversations with the industry’s leading voices - CSOs, sustainability directors, and other senior professionals shaping the sustainability landscape. Each edition dives into their professional journeys, hands-on insights, and outlook on the challenges and opportunities defining corporate sustainability.

These interviews are designed to be quick, insightful reads, offering you actionable takeaways and a personal glimpse into the people leading the way. Stay tuned for stories, strategies, and lessons that matter to you.

PRESENTED BY CLIMATIZE

Invest in U.S. renewable energy projects starting at $10

Climatize is a platform to invest in U.S. renewable energy projects starting at $10.

Over $8.6M has been transacted, helping fund solar installs on Tennessee farms, battery storage units in Georgia, energy efficiency upgrades at low-income homes in New England, and EV chargers at California community markets, among others. $1.8M+ has been returned in principal + interest.

While past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, previous projects have offered between 6-10% annual returns to investors. Interest rates vary by project, we recommend you do your research. Ready to Climatize? ⚡️

Climatize Earth Securities LLC is a Funding Portal registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), not endorsed by the SEC and FINRA. Investing in Crowdfunded offerings involves risk. You should review the risks of a particular investment, either alone or with a personal advisor before investing, and only invest if you can afford to lose your investment. 

PROFILE

This week’s guest:

Monica Molesag

Global Head of Sustainability Communications at SAP

As Global Head of Sustainability Communications at SAP, Monica Molesag directs integrated communications strategies that showcase customer success through SAP Sustainability solutions, as well as the company's progress toward carbon neutrality and circular economy goals. Monica has a master's in international marketing and 15 years of experience in corporate, executive, and sustainability communications across multiple industries and geographies. She is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

PRESENTED BY REUTERS EVENTS

Reuters Events: Sustainability Reporting USA 2025 (October 9–10, Boston)

Now a cornerstone in the ESG calendar, Reuters Events: Sustainability Reporting USA 2025 (October 9–10, Boston) convenes 300+ senior ESG, finance, and legal leaders to shape the next chapter of sustainability disclosure. With a legacy of delivering practical, actionable content, the event equips professionals to navigate regulatory change, from SEC climate rulings to CSRD alignment. Learn how AI and data governance can elevate your ESG strategy, and how to communicate transparently with investors and stakeholders.

With 50+ executive speakers and 65% senior attendance, this is your opportunity to build on trusted foundations and lead the future of sustainable reporting.

Find out more by visiting the event website here

As SAP's Global Head of Sustainability Communications, you sit at the intersection of product, strategy, and storytelling. What does it take to ensure that sustainability is not just a brand message but something that's deeply understood and prioritized across business units?

In my view, ensuring sustainability is more than a brand message (and is truly embedded in how a company operates) requires integration, actionable intelligence and business framing.

Firstly, integration means sustainability isn’t an initiative at the edge, but a thread through the core. For real impact, sustainability metrics should be embedded directly into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and operational workflows. This creates a bi-directional data flow: environmental insights inform business decisions, and business performance informs sustainability strategy. That’s how technology helps a business move from intention to impact.

Secondly, actionable intelligence is what turns data into direction. Reporting shouldn’t be for reporting’s sake. It should help extract the insights that help each business unit understand how sustainability can directly support their goals, whether that’s cost reduction, supply chain resilience, or product innovation. In other words, the insights that matter.

Thirdly, business framing is where Communications can truly become a catalyst for change. In my role, I act as a strategic partner to the business, translating complex sustainability data into clear, compelling narratives that speak the language of business leaders. It’s not only about making sustainability understandable; it’s about making it as undeniably relevant to goals like efficiency, resilience and market growth. Sustainability is the right thing to do AND how you future proof your business.

Getting this right takes nuance. When messages are vague or misaligned, the risk of greenwashing is real. That’s why I bring together communications expertise with deep sustainability fluency; to ensure that what we say is not only engaging, but credible and grounded in data.

At the end of the day, our most powerful stories aren’t just about what’s at risk, but about what’s possible. When sustainability becomes measurable, strategic, and tied to business value, it moves from being important to indispensable.

Internally, what are some of the most exciting sustainability shifts happening at SAP right now - whether it's operational initiatives, culture change, or how teams think about risks and opportunities?

One of the most exciting internal shifts at SAP is how deeply sustainability has become part of the operational DNA. This reflects the company’s SAP Runs SAP strategy, where SAP is both the developer and practitioner of sustainability solutions. That dual role strengthens the company’s credibility and ensures its tools are battle-tested in real business environments, including its own.

A major milestone was the internal deployment of SAP Sustainability Control Tower, which now goes beyond carbon tracking to support a much broader ESG scope under SAP’s Net Zero program structure. This isn't just about emissions; it's about how every sustainability-related decision, from IT to HR to finance, is informed by shared data and a common strategic vision.

I’m also seeing a real culture change. Sustainability has become a factor in everyday decisions, such as ordering IT equipment, where carbon footprint now influences procurement.

This is resonating externally. SAP was recently honored with the 2025 Responsible AI Impact - Special Collaboration Award at the 2025 SustainableIT Impact Summit. These recognitions validate that this internal transformation is not just performative; it’s progressive, systemic, and impactful.

How do SAP tools, like the Green Ledger and the Sustainability Control Tower, help clients make sustainability measurable, actionable, and tied to business outcomes?

SAP solutions turn sustainability from a reporting requirement into a strategic business driver by addressing the fundamental challenge many organizations face: disconnected sustainability and financial data.

SAP Green Ledger represents a paradigm shift in how businesses manage sustainability. It synchronizes emissions data with financial data, like accounts and invoices, addressing the critical problem that carbon is typically calculated differently and stored separately from financial metrics. By calculating along lines of business, not just carbon scopes, and storing this information alongside financial data, SAP Green Ledger brings together the CSO and CFO, enabling leaders to use financial and sustainability data in tandem to drive better decisions.

SAP Sustainability Control Tower serves as the central intelligence hub for sustainability metrics, breaking down data silos that plague traditional sustainability initiatives. Unlike disconnected reporting systems or data lake approaches, it integrates sustainability metrics with operational and financial information, revealing direct relationships between environmental performance and business outcomes. 

Together, these solutions enable organizations to:

1. Transform fragmented compliance data into structured, audit-ready intelligence that helps them stay ahead of regulations while leveraging data insights to build resilience against supply chain disruptions.

2. Convert consumer preference metrics into revenue opportunities, recognizing that 73% of buyers factor environmental performance into purchasing decisions.

3. Translate investor sentiment data into capital advantages, as 77% of investors prioritize companies with robust environmental metrics.

4. Deploy AI to analyze integrated datasets, uncovering cost-saving opportunities invisible to traditional analytics.

By connecting sustainability metrics with business performance indicators, these tools help each executive leverage integrated data to drive both business transition and operational efficiencies.

SAP has been investing a lot in AI. What are the most promising use cases where SAP is using AI to accelerate real sustainability outcomes, either internally or through client-facing solutions?

Indeed, AI is changing how organizations approach sustainability, and SAP is at the forefront of this transformation. The question is no longer whether to use AI, but how to invest in it responsibly and strategically to create impact.

SAP customers are already leveraging Business AI capabilities that deliver tangible value:

• In SAP Sustainability Control Tower, AI accelerates ESG report generation with editable templates, generative text, and visualizations, reducing reporting time by 85% and data collection time by 98%.

• In SAP Sustainability Footprint Management, AI automates emission factor mapping by intelligently matching products to thousands of lifecycle assessment database entries, complete with confidence scores.

• In SAP Green Token, AI automatically validates and extracts data from supplier declarations, minimizing errors and increasing processing speed.

Beginning August 2025, SAP is launching several powerful AI-driven innovations in beta that will streamline operations across environmental, health and safety (EHS) and product compliance workflows:

• AI-assisted permit management in SAP S/4HANA for EHS environment management will simplify compliance by automatically extracting key data from permit documents and proposing relevant follow-up tasks.

• AI-assisted safety observation reporting with Joule, SAP’s AI copilot, will enable intuitive incident reporting through a conversational interface, reducing barriers to shopfloor safety documentation.

• AI-assisted safety instruction generation will suggest appropriate safety protocols based on risk assessments and job hazard analyses, supporting proactive prevention.

• AI-assisted compliance information processing will automate the extraction and mapping of critical data from declarations, certificates, and safety data sheets, improving accuracy while freeing teams from tedious manual work.

These intelligent capabilities help customers reduce costs, mitigate risk, and drive business performance across reporting, carbon management, circularity, and regulatory compliance.

Finally, what principles or practices do you think are most important for staying focused and motivated while working in such a fast-evolving and complex sustainability landscape?

For me, staying focused and motivated in the fast-moving world of sustainability comes down to curiosity, clarity, and resilience.

First, curiosity is my engine. The sustainability landscape is constantly shifting, from new regulations and technologies to evolving stakeholder expectations. That complexity can feel overwhelming, but I’ve found that approaching it with a curious mindset turns it into a source of energy. I carve out time every week to explore new research, case studies, and cross-industry innovations. It keeps me learning and keeps our messaging relevant.

Second, I stay grounded in clarity of purpose. For me, sustainability isn’t just a professional field but a transformative force. While the environmental and social imperative is my number one motivator, I find the business potential aspect of sustainability fascinating. That alignment between purpose and business value is powerful, and it’s important. 

I’ve learned that acknowledging complexity head-on is not discouraging; it’s what motivates me to drive meaningful action.

Whether it’s transforming internal operations or equipping clients with smarter tools, Monica gave us a clear look at how SAP is turning sustainability into measurable progress. We hope you enjoyed the interview.

We’ll be back in two weeks with more hands-on insights from sustainability leaders. 🟢

PARTNER WITH US

Increase your brand awareness and visibility by reaching the right audience and target market. Showcase your company, solutions, services, products, reports, surveys, events, or other content in front of our highly targeted audience of +4,250 Sustainability & ESG professionals. Contact us at [email protected] if you think we can partner in some way.