On June 10th, NTT held the 11th NTT Group Sustainability Conference at the Palace Hotel Tokyo and held the awards ceremony.
This conference aimed to create new value and ensure the sustainability of the earth. By introducing and sharing the measures that NTT Group companies in Japan and overseas are taking to contribute to a sustainable society, it fosters awareness that the NTT Group’s sustainable management is a personal concern.
This conference had a record 149 entries, and six Grand Prize winners and eight Excellence Prize winners were selected. In addition, the company that gave the most sensitive presentation from among the six Grand Prize winners was awarded the “Today’s MVP.”
The following six Grand Prize winners were selected:

① NTT West Oita Branch’s “Realizing a symbiotic society through employment of people with disabilities and DX at local companies”
② NTT Global Data Centers’ “Decarbonization of data centers to achieve net zero commitments”
③ NTT Technocross’s “Protecting children’s lives with AI technology”
④ NTT DATA Argentina’s “Crop traceability Systema Integra”
⑤ NTT East-Tohoku’s “Creating a regional recycling-oriented society through ‘smart land-based aquaculture'”
⑥ NTT DATA Belgium’s “Water conservation through smart monitoring”
The evaluation was conducted by executives of each NTT Group company. The evaluation criteria were six points: “Contribution to society,” “Contribution to corporate growth,” “Uniqueness,” “Contribution of technology and know-how,” “Relationships with stakeholders,” and “External appeal.”
As a result of the judging, three companies, NTT Global Data Centers, NTT Technocross, and NTT DATA Belgium, were awarded the “Today’s MVP” this time.

NTT West  Oita Branch is promoting efforts toward a symbiotic society using digital technology based on the ICT cooperation agreement concluded between NTT West  and Oita City.

Oita City is also focusing on the employment of people with disabilities, but small and medium-sized enterprises in the city have a serious labor shortage, and it is difficult for one company to advance the employment of people with disabilities alone. If that is the case, the idea was that local companies should get together and do it, and so the local joint employment started.

NTT West Japan took the lead in establishing a business cooperative. The cooperative employs people with disabilities, and the companies that join the cooperative outsource the work to the cooperative. The work is mainly IT-related work using computers. To work efficiently, the NTT West Japan Group’s ICT tools are used. In addition, the company will circulate jobs and employment within the region while utilizing the know-how of its special subsidiary, NTT West Lucent.
Because regional cities share the same challenges, the Oita branch believes that by expanding this system nationwide, it will be possible to accommodate not only people with disabilities, but also seniors, women, foreigners, and others.
This business will begin full-scale operation in July.

NTT East-Tohoku is working with Okayama University of Science and Ichii Supermarket to create a regional recycling-based society through smart land-based aquaculture.
In the region, the hollowing out of industry has become a major issue, and the hollowing out of the primary industry in particular has become serious.
Therefore, NTT East and NTT Agri Technology are trying to realize a recycling-based society by approaching the region’s primary industries and utilizing the region’s assets and renewable energy.
In smart land-based aquaculture, water is always circulated and filtered, so it is never discharged. By using the environmentally friendly water developed by Okayama University of Science, a sustainable, completely closed circulation land-based aquaculture has been realized. In July last year, they succeeded in the world’s first land-based aquaculture of sockeye salmon. It takes three to four years for sockeye salmon to grow in the wild, but they were able to farm them in just one and a half years. The sockeye salmon are sold at Ichiide, a supermarket chain in Fukushima Prefecture.

President Shimada said, “I think the next 10 years will be different from the past 10 years. Creating new solutions together with partners will be a key point from now on. Until now, we have focused on solving customers’ problems with our own efforts, but I think that as our network expands, we will be able to solve social issues together with various partners and spread that around the world”.