R&D Spirits
Environmental Management in
the NTT Group Toward a Sustainable ICT Society
Takeshi Origuchi
Research Engineer
Environmental Management & Provisioning ProjectNTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group

There is a strong demand for today’s corporations to adopt effective environmental measures,
especially toward the reduction of CO2 emissions. In response to this need, NTT has been developing environmental impact evaluation technology for use in the NTT Group. Faced with anurgent need for even a few environmental measures, how is NTT progressing in these efforts andwhat future issues must it address? We put these questions to research engineer Takeshi
Origuchi, a member of the Environmental Management & Provisioning Project and a key figure in the promotion of NTT Group environmental measures.

Promoting environmental measures in the
NTT Group and participating in Ministry of
the Environment projects—Mr. Origuchi, could you give us a brief descriptionof the Environmental Management & Provisioning
Project?
Our project aims to determine the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) services on the environment, taking into account both
positive and negative factors, and to assess that balance using life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques.
For example, if the use of videoconferencing were to
expand significantly, many business trips would
become unnecessary, meaning less use of transportation facilities and a corresponding reduction in theenvironmental load. On the other hand, if videoconferencing systems were to be introduced but onlyused infrequently, then the environmental load associated with system maintenance would outweigh any
load-reduction effects from less movement of people.
Our objective is to quantify these factors and contribute to the building of a sustainable society byproposing a direction for society as a whole that can
reduce the environmental load.
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The mission of the Environmental Management &Provisioning Project is to promote environmental
management in the NTT Group through R&D efforts
centered on environmental-measures studies andenvironmental impact assessment technology. The
NTT Group Vision for Environmental Contribution
aims to achieve a reduction of 10 million tons of CO2
emissions for fiscal 2010, and we are working on various measures to meet that goal (Fig. 1).
—What specific themes are you working on now?
One is the development of a system for assessing
the environmental impact of ICT services (Fig. 2).
This system is intended to be used not just by specialized researchers like ourselves but by generalusers too. It can assess the environmental impact of awide variety of ICT services and calculate the environmental effects of implementing more efficientbusiness operations. The system consists of an environmental impact assessment database and an algorithm for calculation purposes. This algorithm is one
that I myself created. Another important theme that
we are now working on is an environmental accounting system. The idea here is to quantitatively determine the cost and the effect of environmental protecNTT Technical Review

R&D Spirits

ICT and the global environment
Environmental load
reduction achievedby ICT services

Environmental loadcaused by ICT facilities

Negative factors for the environment

Positive factors for the environment• Energy use(more terminals and networks)• Use of resources for constructing
facilities• Generation of waste by dismantling
facilities• More efficient distribution• Less movement of people• More efficient production and living

LCA of ICT services• Environmental enlightenment andeducation

LCA of ICT network

Application of networks to daily life

Fig. 1. Environmental impact of ICT.

Kankyo Shiro, a system for assessing the environmental impact of ICT services
Development objective: Fulfill the NTT Group vision for environmental contribution by providing an environment
in which anyone can perform environmental impact assessments.
System overview: Targeting assessment of networks including fixed, IP, and mobile networks and ICT services
such as videoconferencing and e-learning offered over those networks, this system calculates environmental impact
in terms of CO2 emissions for all stages from production to use and disposal.
System configuration
User interface
AP

Input:• Communication time
• Service used
• Usage time
• Conventional means

Environmental impact assessment

LCA database
Telecommunications
facilities data

Telecommunications
device data

Emissions
intensity data

Constants

Output:• ICT environmental impact(kg of CO2)
• Environmental impact ofconventional means(kg of CO2)

Fig. 2. Development of an environmental impact assessment tool.

tion in business activities to promote more efficientand effective measures. This system was initiallyintroduced in the NTT Group in fiscal year 2000. I am
currently serving as the secretariat of the EnvironVol. 5 No. 3 Mar. 2007

mental Accounting Consolidated Compilation Project, for which I have introduced depreciation calculations and developed and introduced logic for calculating risk-aversion effects.
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Also, in terms of outside activities, I am participating in a project of the Ministry of the Environment’s
called “Japan Low Carbon Society Scenarios toward2050.” Recognizing that CO 2 emissions must be
reduced by 60–80% to keep global warming under
2°C and thereby achieve a sustainable society, thisproject aims to research and survey ways of achievingthat target. Here, as a member of the IT (information
technology) team headed by the University of Tokyo,
I survey and study the use of supply chain management techniques that have been adopted by industry
to make business operations more efficient. I am also
involved in the preparation of industry standards andguidelines for the environmental-impact assessmentof ICT services at the Japan Forum on Eco-Efficiency. Although these are not official ISO standards, they
are attracting attention as the world’s first unified setof standards on environmental impact assessment.
By the way, LCA is also being researched at NTT
Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories.
Their approach, though still based on LCA, is a more
fundamental one while we take a more practical
approach. One of our policies is therefore to makepractical use of techniques developed by NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories wheneverpossible.
—What does this R&D mean for NTT and society?
A ubiquitous broadband society overflowing withICT can create much value. But if such a society is
not sustainable, it can hardly be called ideal even if it
has produced a high degree of economic development. In such a situation, our assessment technology
has much meaning. Determining how to interpretassessed items and what actions to take provides useful guidelines. By striving to view an ICT service in acomprehensive way, we can accurately determine its
effects and problems, and by extracting undesirable
elements, we can contribute to the building of a sustainable society. This, I think, is the meaning of our
R&D.
—What do you see as future issues and how do you
plan to deal with them?
To begin with, there is a ripple effect in relation tototal LCA of an ICT service. For example, there is no
denying that substituting videoconferencing for traditional meetings can reduce the environmental load.
However, a person that does not make such a trip
must of course perform other activities during the8time that would have been used for making the roundtrip to the meeting. Those activities might evenincrease the environmental load. This is called theripple effect. How should we go about assessing it,
and how wide should the range of assessment be?
These are important topics for research in the future.
I personally think that topics like the increase in nonface-to-face communications, such as email, and theeffects of IT-related crime should be pursued too.
This will require studies involving the social sciences, but we are still far from that point.

A leading authority in CO2 quantitativetechniques in a field of diverse research—Mr. Origuchi, what are some R&D trends in LCA in
Japan and overseas?
In Japan, LCA research related to IT services isquite active, as reflected by the number of corporate
members of the Japan Forum on Eco-Efficiency. NTT
is known to be an especially devoted member in thisarea.
Overseas, LCA is flourishing in Europe. Carriers in
the UK, France, and Germany are quite enthusiastic
about LCA techniques. Environmental impact assessment is being pursued, in particular, at the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI), a European non-profit organization consisting of ICT corporations centered on BT, and at the European Telecommunications Network Operations Association (ETNO).
Organizations such as these that involve Europe on
the whole can be very powerful in the field of LCA.
But at the same time, the trend of LCA research inEurope is not restricted to environmental elements.
That research also addresses impact on supply chainsas well as issues surrounding corporate social responsibility such as compliance and employment problems and social welfare. Conceptual aspects of LCA
are consequently stronger than technological aspects
in Europe, and I believe that Japan excels in terms ofquantitative techniques. Meanwhile, in the USA,
there is much research targeting the Internet involving, for example, the calculation of total power consumption by ICT. At any rate, there seems to be a
growing trend there to view the environmental load
generated by ICT services as more of a problem thantheir impact on other aspects of society.
As far as Asia is concerned, there is a lot of researchon eco-efficiency in Korea, where there are also
LCA-related activities on a national level. In a similar manner, other countries like India are taking an
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approach based on environmental load in relation togross domestic product. And as for China, I had theopportunity to spend about six months there twoyears ago to provide some training and conduct environmental surveys. At that time, a software company
that received some practical training from me showedinterest in my research. Also, at a presentation that I
once gave at the Alliance for Global Sustainability(AGS) international conference at the University ofTokyo, a number of invited researchers from China’s
national research laboratories were quite interested in
my research. But in truth, when their thoughts are
dominated by considering how to provide the energy
required for rapid economic development, I think it’sa bit premature to hold discussions about the environmental impact of ICT services in China.
—Are you involved in any information exchange on
the international level?
Well, I attend surveys and international conferences
quite often, and this gives me the opportunity to
exchange ideas and opinions with researchers fromaround the world. The year before last, for example, I
held discussions with members of the GeSI at aJapan-Europe roundtable, and just last November I
gave a presentation at the EcoBalance international
conference held in Tsukuba.
—How do you think NTT is viewed based on yourexperiences at international conferences and elsewhere?
As I just mentioned, the work that we are doing
here at NTT is naturally a topic of discussion at various sites where I interact with other researchers, andI believe that there is genuine interest on the basis of
those discussions. However, there are times whensome doubt is expressed about our research, whichtends to be focused on CO2. For example, while I was
holding discussions with a certain company in Germany for a survey I was conducting, I was asked“Why do you look only at energy and CO2?” In otherwords, they were saying that there are various kindsof environmental impact in addition to CO2 such as
the problem of e-waste from ICT products. The feeling was that, while quantitative techniques are good,shouldn’t the problem be viewed in a more comprehensive manner? Of course, a lot of this has to do withdifferent approaches, but I have to admit that viewing
LCA from a broad perspective has merit. I think that,in the future, it will be necessary for us to think along
Vol. 5 No. 3 Mar. 2007

these lines.

Taking on environmental management
beginning with the recycling of telephone
directories—How did you develop your technical expertise andwhy did you enter NTT?
Being a great admirer of Einstein, I studied theoretical physics at university and my thesis was on relativistic quantum mechanics (field theory). But I also
had a desire to try my hand at experimentation, so formy master course, I entered the materials-chemistryresearch laboratory, where I researched the construction of magnets from organic materials. When asked
why I entered a research laboratory specializing in
information communications after researching materials chemistry in graduate school, I am sometimes ata loss to explain, but one reason is that I wanted toresearch a field with many future possibilities like IT.
I was also attracted to NTT Laboratories because of
its wide range of research fields, its technicalprowess, and its role as a national flagship.
—How did you get started in your current R&D activities?
Soon after entering NTT Laboratories, I beganwork on the development of microporous material(MPM), which is made from the sludge produced by
the paper-recycling process (Fig. 3) [1]. NTT uses ahuge amount of paper for telephone directories, andwhile most of the used directories that are collected
are used for producing recycled paper, some of it isunsuitable for recycling and is consequently incinerated and turned to ash. We developed a process of
converting this ash, which includes ink and clay fromcoating agents, into MPM. This MPM can be used to
improve water quality and absorb organic materials
like nitrogen and phosphorus. After it has been used
to purify water, the used MPM can then be used as anutrient soil dressing in fields. This return to nature
creates a closed loop, thus achieving “total recycling.”
While working on this theme, I had the opportunity
to visit Germany and Sweden, where environmental
measures are permeating society. I was deeply
impressed with what I saw, and I became a firm
believer in the idea that “It’s not just a question ofdeveloping environmental technologies; it’s also
important to consider how they can be implemented
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R&D Spirits

Used
paper

MarketProduct

Recovery

Recycled-paper millPaper mill
Trees
Papermaking
sludgeClay

Incineration
plant

FieldsPrivate land
for greenery

MPM
eco-balls

MPM formation

Effective useof resources

Incinerationash

Drying
Shaping

Recyclingof used
MPM

Filtering

Purificationof river water

Hydrothermal
reaction

At present:
landfill disposal

Fig. 3. Total recycling of paper.

in society.” It was then that I expressed a desire to participate in the Environmental Management & Provisioning Project that was just starting up, and myrequest was approved. I really felt that, after many
twists and turns, I had arrived at my destination.
Although it was a path that I had never thought ofwhile studying theoretical physics, it was nevertheless exactly what I wanted to do.
—What is the motivation for performing R&D for you
personally?.
I want to move “big things” with my own ideas.
Before, when researching materials chemistry, I
would sometimes be the first in the world to discovercertain phenomena. You would think that that would
be a wonderful thing, but in the end, it did not makeme all that excited. Also, while developing MPM,
although I did experience a sense of accomplishment,
I felt that it was just one of many environmental protection measures based on one type of technology,
and I could not really feel all that satisfied with myaccomplishments. My current line of work, in contrast, is different from what came before in that I feel
10much more motivated. It is not an easy thing to manage the entire NTT Group, but the challenge makes
my work all the more worthwhile. Though I mightsound a bit presumptuous in saying this, I pursue mywork based on the motto: “If I can move NTT, I canmove Japan, and if I can move Japan, I can move theworld.”

Addressing environmental issues in the era of“30 million optical fiber subscribers”—Mr. Origuchi, please give us your outlook for the
future.
To begin with, we will have to develop measures tomeet the 2010 CO2 reduction target of 10 million
tons. I would like to solidify policies within the next
two to three years, especially in regard to meeting thistotal target through the actual services provided byeach of the group’s carriers. The year 2010 that we
consider to be just one period delimiter in our work isalso the year for which the NTT Group has established a target of 30 million optical fiber subscribers.
Additionally, it is the year that genuine next-generaNTT Technical Review

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tion network (NGN) operations are scheduled to
begin. The environmental load that will accompany
these services is naturally a factor in the issues that
we deal with, so we will soon have to start researchon the particular kind of environmental impact generated by these 2010 services.
The culmination of these efforts should result in theformation of a “sustainable ICT society.” On a personal note, I’d like to mention that my first son wasborn in April of last year. More than ever, my desire
is to work with unshakeable confidence for the benefit of all of our children, who will take on the responsibilities of the next generation.
—What do you think is your direction from here on asa researcher and developer?
I would like to pursue the work of an environmental specialist with all my energy. And not just technology: I also want to include environmental management and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in
my work. To perform work that moves not only the
NTT Group but, in the future, Japan as well, I must
deepen my knowledge of various topics.
—What is it like personally for you to work at NTT
Laboratories?
NTT Laboratories deals with a wide array ofthemes from basic to applied research in the role of anational flagship unrestricted by the constraints of asingle company. There are not many research laboratories in Japan, and I take great pride in the major
contributions that NTT Laboratories makes to the
ICT society. Here, it is not just R&D for profit purposes—NTT Laboratories makes a great effort inmaking Japanese technology into world standards. Of
course, it is natural to expect a business-oriented attitude and profit-making results in R&D, but NTT Laboratories also allows research in the pursuit of truth.
While pursuing technical innovation, there is a highawareness here of social problems such as those of
the environment. I believe NTT Laboratories is anamazing research site that achieves a balance
between a wide variety of research themes. However,it has never really been adept at promoting these greatfeatures. I think that it could do with some improvement in this regard.

Vol. 5 No. 3 Mar. 2007

—Mr. Origuchi, please leave us with a message foryoung researchers.
Gladly. I would like all young researchers to think
about the impact that their research will have on society. This is something that I am always telling myself
too. Einstein is said to have deeply regretted the parthe played in the development of nuclear weapons. He
also said that “Once technology gets out into society,there is no taking it back. It will be used to theutmost.” Researching something that one enjoys is, ofcourse, not a bad thing. But as creators of technologies, I think we should be more concerned and more
responsible about the impact that our research has onsociety. It is idealistic to be sure, but I am always
telling my subordinates to care about the impact of
their work on society while taking great pride inbeing a member of NTT, the leading company of the
ICT society. Also, I would ask young researchers
who are not directly involved in environment-related
research and work to give at least some consideration
to the environment in their R&D pursuits.

Reference[1]

Y. Ninomiya and T. Aoki, “NTT Group’s Activities to Reduce Environmental loads,” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 28–31,
2005.

Interviewee profile■ Career highlights
Takeshi Origuchi received the B.S. degree inphysics from Nihon University, Tokyo, and the M.S.
degree in materials science from the University ofTokyo, Tokyo, in 1995 and 1997, respectively. He
joined NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories in 1997. He is currently engaged in R&D concerning the life cycle assessment of ICT services, theeffects of using ICT on reducing environmental burdens, the social effects of using ICT, and environmental accounting for promoting environmental management in the NTT Group. He is a member of the Institute of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan.

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