As the environmental crisis becomes a critical priority, both governments and businesses across the globe, are under pressure to take actions that slow climate change. The case for organizations to prioritize people and the planet along with profit is gaining momentum, and a collaborative and sustained effort is clearly required to stem carbon emissions. Sustainability is also a key strategic and competitive advantage, and more business leaders are taking active steps in this direction.
NTT’s research, Innovation with Purpose: For the Trusted Digital Future: For the Trusted Digital Future, finds that most organizations (61%) are moving toward social purpose by generating value through sustainable profits while minimizing harm. Notably, an overwhelming 94% of respondents agree that “the pandemic has heightened expectations that large corporations will serve the interests of all stakeholders and not just shareholders.”
Moving towards a greener future
Can technology help in enabling us to stay close to nature and improve environmental sustainability? From our own experience, we will look at some of the new and exciting technologies that can help us adapt to the future global environment while expanding communications across the globe and searching new ways to produce energy.
At NTT DATA too our latest 2023 Sustainability report highlights us being able to achieve a 21% reduction in total emissions in FY22, resulting in the saving of over 1.6 million tonnes of carbon.
Sustainability is now a Board room discussion as well, it has become a business imperative and many Global MNCs do check on this initiative before getting into discussions with us.
CEO
NTT India
Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN)
This is an initiative for future communications infrastructure to create a smarter world by using cutting-edge technologies. IOWN is built around photonic technology for ultra-high capacity, ultra-low latency and ultra-low power consumption. An APN (All-Photonics Network) will help respond to the explosive growth of data volume and power consumption demanded by current and future technologies. With the surge in data volumes, we expect IT-related power demand to increase by 5000x (between 2016 to 2030). This can be effectively addressed by using photonics technologies and changing information processing in devices and servers from electrical to photonics. The logic — light travels much faster than electricity. APN will take photonics inside all information processing devices and enable them to connect end-to-end optically. The expected change in power efficiency, transmission speed and latency will make a whole new connected world possible. Our own research is aiming at targeting power consumption efficiency by a factor of 100x.
4D Digital Platforms
At our R&D labs, we are working on creating a 4D Digital Platform that can analyze massive amounts of data in the digital space and address key challenges faced by society. This platform can process cross-industry integration of sensor information into a high-precision, real-time, geospatial environment, including accurate location and time data. This enables present analysis, future prediction, and simulation of possibilities that can be harnessed to support specific business and societal goals. This has huge potential. For example, analysis of data can help in proactively detecting causes of accidents and traffic congestion in real- time and supplying information based on current conditions and future predictions. This can also be used to manage urban assets more sustainably, by sourcing information from sensors and devices and optimizing energy usage. More importantly, these platforms can be used to make ultra-high accuracy weather predictions..
Using Digital Twins
NTT is investing in the research and development of critical technologies for digital- twin computing (DTC). Digital twins are digital copies of anything existing in the real world: a person, a city, a factory, a car, an electric grid, a manufacturing system or a factory etc. Digital-twin technology will help NTT and other organizations achieve their net-zero targets by unlocking efficiencies, reducing energy usage, and enabling smarter use of data. Leaders then can make better decisions and fewer costly mistakes from financial and environmental perspectives. Digital Twins can help organizations control supply and demand with greater precision based on well-informed future predictions. The technology can also be used to help cities become more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. Virtual models can guide planning decisions and offer solutions to the many complex challenges faced by modern cities.
As a technology company, we believe that some of the innovations that we are making investments in, will make the world a more connected and sustainable place.
