We live sustainability every day at NTT DATA

Since the launch of NTT DATA’s sustainability strategy on Earth Day in April this year, we have been amazed by the variety and scale of our sustainability initiatives around the world. We are proud that thousands of our people have directly engaged in sustainability through local, regional and global activities.

Planting trees and recycling PCs

From planting over 1,300 trees to support koala habitats in Australia – and even more colleagues getting their hands dirty planting saplings in the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve in Argentina, and another 1,400 trees in Germany’s Schmittenhöhe forest – our people are clearly determined to make a positive environmental impact and support the regeneration of nature.

“I’ve been part of our volunteering with the Koala Clancy Foundation for three years now, and it was heartwarming to see how the trees we’ve planted in previous years are growing and flourishing. I truly feel we’re making a difference and contributing to the growth of the local koala population,” says Michelle Harris, Sustainability Specialist at NTT DATA in Australia and New Zealand.

We have cleaned up our second-hand technology in the UK and Ireland by running a technology amnesty program in which all donations are responsibly recycled by specialist IT lifecycle manager n2s, and we have tidied up our virtual world with a digital cleanup across our Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America region that involved deleting 375TB of data – saving the equivalent of the annual carbon footprint of 150 average-sized cars!

In Malaysia, our people visited the PJ Eco Recycling Plaza to learn upcycling and recycling methods and get involved in the difficult process of separating plastics.

Watch a video with highlights from our sustainability activities 

Supporting mothers and children around the world

Children and education are close to our hearts, so our people in Belgium organized a hackathon to support Child Focus and address critical online issues, including child exploitation and using technology to identify and manage new threats.

In Mumbai, India, we welcomed students from a local girls’ school that we sponsor to our offices to celebrate their exam results and World Youth Skills Day, and our Global Data Centers team in that country launched their Tech on Wheels initiative in Pune to promote digital literacy among students at evening learning centers, night schools and communities.

“We are facing a global explosion of child sexual-abuse images, and we need to combat the unwanted effects of technology with technology,” says Heidi De Pauw, CEO of Child Focus. “Together with our partner NTT DATA, we want to look for solutions that are effective, safe and secure while fully respecting the rights of the child. On behalf of all children, we would like to sincerely thank the participating experts for their commitment to this noble cause.”

Shekhar Sharma, CEO and Managing Director of NTT DATA Global Data Centers & Cloud Infrastructure India, says: “The Tech on Wheels initiative is a game-changer for NTT DATA and the schools and communities spread across Pune. It’s inspiring to see how this innovative project will bridge the digital divide and equip the students with the skills they need to succeed in a tech-driven world. Education has always been a key focus of our corporate social responsibility efforts at NTT DATA Global Data Centers, and I’m proud of this initiative that will make a meaningful impact on the lives of students.”

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Supporting their local Mother’s Day and, more recently, Mandela Day, over 250 of our people in South Africa made blankets to donate as part of a “keep warm” initiative to help less fortunate people during the South African winter. They also packed over 100 care packages for new moms at government hospitals.

“It was such a heartwarming initiative and a proud moment to see our employees embodying the spirit of ubuntu that the late Tata Madiba [Nelson Mandela] lived by,” says Gwen Shongwe, Associate Specialist: Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability at NTT DATA in South Africa. “The time and effort each employee put into knitting these blankets helped multiple children go to bed warm.”

Also, every September, NTT DATA gets involved in World Cleanup Day when thousands of our people around the world clean up local communities from New York to Johannesburg.

We’re only just getting started

These are just some of the wonderful global mosaic of sustainability-related activities that our people organize and get involved in at NTT DATA. There are many more events and actions taking place around the world, all with the aim of making a difference. To all those who organize and take part in these events to live our sustainability strategy and values, thank you and keep up the great work.

Earth Day truly is every day at NTT DATA!

This article includes contributions by Nathan Hart, Senior Team Lead: Human Rights Compliance at NTT DATA.