Sustainable business practices are key in preserving our future

As I recently discussed on CNBC Squawk Box Asia, NTT has committed to achieving Net Zero by 2030 and shifting 30% of our energy consumption to renewable resources. We are taking clear steps to streamline our operations to reduce our carbon footprint and help build a future that is more sustainable and inclusive for all.

NTT’s commitment to sustainability

As a global technology and business provider, we believe that all of us at NTT have a responsibility to address the impact of climate change. Finding new ways to utilise technology as an accelerator of change is core to our company values. Tracing back to our roots, NTT’s technology innovations have always considered broader impact and implications, understanding how technology gets used, accessed and what we do with it.

There are three core pillars which form the backbone of our sustainable initiatives:

Connected Planet: We are focused on developing and expanding on existing partnerships to scale technology solutions focused on protection and regeneration of biodiversity and ecosystems globally, by 2025. We are also encouraging our employees to engage in conservation and regenerative initiatives within their local communities, supporting the UN SDGs and the UN Decade on the Ecosystem Restoration.

Connected Economy: We ensure that we use trusted technology to help organisations thrive and make their contributions more sustainable and resilient for a digital future. NTT is growing its portfolio of smart solutions to support our clients and partners in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 200m tonnes by 2026.

Connected Communities: We aim to provide five million young people and children from underprivileged areas across the world with digital access and education to reduce inequality and build critical skills and opportunities for a connected future by 2030. Along with this, we are enabling and empowering our employees to contribute one million hours of volunteering collectively, in support of the initiatives forming the three interconnected pillars, and in support of the UN SDGs by 2025.

At NTT, we believe we have a moral obligation to reduce global warming that goes beyond stock price, and we owe it to our clients, partners, employees, and families to adopt more sustainable practices.

One of our key initiatives is spearheading the development of more sustainable data centres. As data consumption increases globally, data centres pose a huge strain on our environmental resources, consuming an estimated 200 terawatts of electricity per year.

NTT has in place cutting-edge technology solutions to track and reduce energy consumption at our data centres. Solutions such as integrated building management systems and software track how our data centres are performing to ensure they aren't wasting energy. Many modern data centres, like ours, also utilise innovative layout designs that maximise efficiency.

To take this one step further, we are working with energy providers of renewable energy sources and investing in our own renewable energy development such as wind and solar. In India and Malaysia, we are already using wind and solar energy to power our data centres and are looking to expand this to other regions in the future.

We truly believe that when organisations commit to sustainability, big shifts can happen. By sharing our promise to create a future we all envision, we would like to reinforce our commitment once again to driving sustainable change across the three areas of planet, economy, and communities. We encourage businesses to share in NTT’s goals and vision, by not only actively having conversations about sustainable businesses practices but following through and implementing them.