Monday, July 26, 2021 | The Japan Times | 9

sustainable japan

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produced by The Japan Times CubeNTT Communications tech cuts load on environment
ESG Talk
TOMOKO KAICHICONTRIBUTING WRITER

The spread of the new coronavirus createdan opportunity to accelerate digital transformation and rethink workplaces and workstyles. The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
Corp. group, better known as NTT, supports
reform of industry, the economy, society
and life through information and communications technology. It respects individuals’ diverse options and supports efforts torealize a sustainable society where businessactivity and efforts to reduce environmentalload can be achieved at the same time. NTT
Executive Officer Hiroki Kuriyama, whoconcurrently serves as senior executive vicepresident of the subsidiary NTT Communications Corp., says the “technology and infrastructure (to support our endeavors) havedeveloped to a viable level.”
The NTT Communications group was
early to introduce telecommuting, with
about 80% of its 18,000 employees, including
contract workers, currently working either
from home or satellite offices. A recent internal survey asking about remote work situations in the past year found that employee
satisfaction had improved in nearly all of
the aspects the survey’s questions covered.
These included productivity, freedom of

Kuriyama currently serves as head of the Business Solution Division and head of Smart World
Business in that division at NTT Communications. HIROMICHI MATONO

work style and time available for employees
to use for themselves. Company expenses
decreased, from commuting allowances,business trip compensation and purchase of
supplies and office equipment to power bills,
proving that remote work also contributes
to saving resources and energy, helping protect the environment. In particular, remotework resulted in a significant reduction in theamount of paper the company used. Annual
consumption dropped 57% year-on-year, orabout 16 million sheets, amounting to some
1,900 trees.
In promoting remote work, Kuriyama’spriorities included not just taking measures
to optimize the environment and enhance
tools for work, including communications
infrastructure. Beyond that, he prioritizedwhat he calls a “human mindset transformation.” That is, he attached importance toprompting employees, including contract
workers, to change the way they regard
remote work while taking each person’s
situation and sentiments into account. Heprioritized the safety of employees, identified
types of work that require commuting tothe office and those that do not, and adjusted
rules on how particular types of work should
be conducted. When the boss is the first to
shift to remote work, it makes it easier for his
staff to do the same.
While people who wish to continue thenew work style even after the COVID-19
pandemic ends are expected to increase,
NTT has corresponded with the increased
costs borne by employees’ households as
they shifted to remote work. At the sametime, the company has embraced the goalof realizing an energy-saving, decarbonizedsociety and focused on the area of energy inaddition to its core business of telecommunication and information systems.
In May 2020, NTT formulated an “Environment and Energy Vision” to promote management that strongly minds environmental,social and governance factors. It is one ofthe pillars of its medium-term management
strategy, dubbed “Your Value Partner 2025.”

NTT Hiroki Kuriyama, senior executive vice president, representative director and executive officer of NTT Communications, served in key posts
at NTT Communications. HIROMICHI MATONO

Under the vision, which aims to completely
eliminate environmental load, NTT pledged
to promote renewable energy by, for example, increasing the proportion of renewableenergy use by the NTT as a whole by 30% ormore by fiscal 2031 and developing innovative environment and energy technologies.
The company plans to launch a renewable energy business and support a “totaloptimization-oriented energy supply thatis consumed where it is produced, low-costand convenient, to the maximum degreepossible,” according to Kuriyama.
Most recently, NTT announced in Junethat it had signed a deal with Seven & I Holdings Co. under which it will supply renewable energy to 40 of the latter’s 7-Elevenoutlets in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

According to the company, the project is thefirst in Japan to use an off-site power purchase agreement in which power generated
at a solar power station set up in Chiba Prefecture by NTT Anode Energy Corp. is supplied through existing power grids.
NTT’s key strategy for saving power isthe use in information processing of opticaltechnology it developed over many years.
While advances in information and communications technology have supported
remote work and improved convenience indaily life, they also have brought increased
load on data centers and higher power consumption for processing and transmitting
data, resulting in large amounts of heat andemissions of carbon dioxide. NTT has dealt
with this problem by introducing measures

to improve operational efficiency, but theuse of optical technology “has the potential(to solve the issue) overnight,” Kuriyama
said.
“Unlike electrons, photons have a characteristic of generating little heat,” Kuriyama
said. “If you switch electrons in semiconductor information-processing circuits tophotons, heat emissions will decrease to arevolutionary low degree.” This also would
enable increased semiconductor integration,
making it easier to deal with the explosive
growth in the amount of information. Not
only that, “It will reduce the power consumption of air-conditioners to cool servers, and enable the provision of information
processing and data transmission services ata radically low level of energy consumption,”

Kuriyama said. “Theoretically speaking, optical technology can reduce heat (electricity)
consumption to one-hundredth (of the levelof electronic technology).”
In 2019, NTT announced an “Innovative
Optical and Wireless Network” initiative(IOWN), aiming to use optical technology
to reduce the power consumption of computers and communications networks. In
January 2020, NTT, along with Sony Group
Corp. and Intel Corp., formed the IOWN
Global Forum, which promotes the development of next-generation communications
infrastructure. NTT also works with Intel,Microsoft Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and NEC Corp.
on the development of next-generation 6G
high-speed mobile technology, which isexpected to become commercially available
in the 2030s.
It also is in partnership with Mitsubishi
Corp. on a project to promote industrial
digital transformation. This project aims tooptimize the value chain mainly in the areaof food logistics and minimize food loss andplastic waste. NTT additionally is in a tie-up
with Toyota Motor Corp. on an initiative torealize a smart city that takes advantage ofrobots and artificial intelligence. The ultrahigh-speed, ultra-low-latency 5G mobiletechnology expands the potential of selfdriving vehicles, and 6G will further takeself-driving to reality through its real-timeperformance. In other areas, the fruits ofresearch over many years are beginning totake shape.
“Technology, our wishes and expectations for the ‘smartification’ of society havenow synchronized, and we haveentered the phaseof realization,”
Kuriyama said.
The ESG Talk series are interviews with business leaders
who are active proponents ofESG investing and practices inJapan.

Times Gallery

French Embassy staffers gather to show their support to France’sOlympic and Paralympic teams on Bastille Day, July 14.
EMBASSY OF FRANCE

The president of the Japan Football Association, Kozo Tashima (right),and Serbian Charge d’Afaires Ivana Golubovic attend the Kirin Challenge Cup 2021 on June 11. EMBASSY OF SERBIA

Jordan’s Ambassador Lina Annab(front, second fromright) held the WorldInterfaith Harmony
Week’s second-prize
award ceremony forJapan’s Politics andReligion Forum onJune 18.

Narita Mayor Kazunari Koizumi (left)
briefs Irish Ambassador Paul Kavanaghon the arrangements
the city in Chiba has
made for team
Ireland’s training
camp prior to theTokyo Games. With
them is city mascot
Unari-kun.

EMBASSY OF JORDANEMBASSY OF IRELAND

Jarman International, helped with the promotion of “Premium Yosakoi
in Tokyo,” a special online event that brought joy and hope to the world
through the fun of yosakoi dance, an energetic style of group dancingthat originated in Kochi. JARMAN INTERNATIONAL

Latvian Deputy Head of Mission Egija Eglite (second from right) and thehead of the Latvia Investment and Development Agency Office, Alina
Ascepkova, visit Mombetsu Mayor Yoshikazu Miyakawa (right) andDeputy Mayor Hideki Suzuki to discuss bilateral cooperation possibilities
with the Hokkaido city. EMBASSY OF LATVIA

Akitae Matsumoto from teamLab (left) on July 14 receives from Guinness
World Records adjudicator Justin Patterson the award for the most visited
museum dedicated to a single group or artist. MARIANGELES DEJEAN

An Arabic charity food bazaar organized by the Society of Wives ofArab Ambassadors and Heads of Missions in Japan was held at theresidence of the ambassador of Algeria on June 10 to provide assistanceto the children in Gaza. EMBASSY OF ALGERIA

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