When people think "SAP," few think "green." Doug Merritt wants that to change.

As one of the world's leading ERP vendors, SAP is actually in a unique position to understand the specific workings of today's enterprises - from manufacturing to supply chain to HR and beyond. Executive VP Merritt says SAP is leveraging that expertise to help customers to optimize energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact.

Speaking at the GoingGreen conference in Davis, Calif. today, Merritt outlined how SAP is working to improve corporate social responsibility and called on other software vendors to learn from SAP's green agenda.

The world - and the executive suite - is much more aware of ethical business practices and corporate social responsibility today, according to Merritt. Where these were "nice to have" attributes in the 1980s, these ideals are "must haves" in today's business world.

"The ability for organizations to ignore or not participate in different dimensions of corporate responsibility is beginning to be a non-option," said Merritt. There is a "new investor framework" through which companies are evaluated on a combination of economic, industrial, societal and environmental benchmarks.

Interestingly, Merritt says many companies are voluntarily stepping up and reporting their progress against these new benchmarks. In fact, a recent study found that economic benefits were the most significant driver for taking action in the area of corporate responsibility.

Employee motivation was another driver of sustainability efforts, cited by nearly half of companies. "Workers are looking for meaning and value in life overall, and also in the companies they work for," said Merritt.

Working on advice from customers and analysts, SAP has invested $1 billion in a new governance, risk and compliance business unit which helps its clients leverage both new and existing technologies to optimize energy usage and drive corporate responsibility.

The impact? Seventeen of BusinessWeek's "Top 30 Sustainable Companies" are running SAP. "These companies are helping to differentiate themselves by utilizing our software and the technology of our partners," said Merritt.

Following the SAP presentation at GoingGreen, a panel of SAP partners from OSIsoft, Pavilion Technologies and Intel's server end user group shared case studies of how their technology has helped customers decrease energy usage and improve their bottom line.

Internally, SAP has also embraced a variety of sustainable strategies, according to Merritt. The company embraces green buildings, alternative energy and a variety of global organizations which have helped SAP contribute to energy efficiency worldwide.

Merritt called on other software companies to follow SAP's lead in driving green strategies for its clients. "High-tech companies need to play an increasingly prevalent role... [in helping enterprises gather and deliver the information they need to] make more intelligent decisions so that we can achieve [the sustainability goals] we are trying to achieve."

Maryann Jones Thompson is editor of SandHill.com.