driving sustainability with innovations and digital technology

NTT DATA Business Solutions

Driving Sustainability through Innovations

Technological innovations help to master the ecological, economic and social challenges of our time and contribute to sustainable and rewarding change of businesses.

Our projects for more sustainability

sustainability as a competitive advantage for organizations

Why Conducting Business in a Sustainable Manner Becomes a Competitive Advantage

Sustainability plays a fundamental role in the orientation of all business activities and is crucial for the long-term economic success of many small and medium-sized enterprises. For some time now, customers and clients, business partners and the general public have no longer been interested merely in the pure profitability of a business, but rather in companies whose focus is on resilience, quality and sustainability. Thus, companies that do not specifically focus on sustainability may have difficulties in the long run securing financing and competing against their competitors.

Also investors and rating agencies are looking beyond merely financial data and including environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in their assessments. According to the ‘2021 CEO Outlook’ by KPMG already 58 percent of global CEOs are seeing increased demands from their stakeholders – such as investors, regulators and customers – for increased reporting and transparency on ESG issues. KPMG’s survey of 1,325 international leaders of major organizations from 11 key markets and 11 key industry sectors opens up further forward-looking insights:

75%
say that their digital and ESG investments are inextricably linked.
30%
plan to invest more than 10% of their revenues in becoming more sustainable.
52%
at high-growth organizations believe that their ESG programs improve financial performance.

Norbert Rotter, CEO at NTT DATA Business Solutions AG

Together with well-known partners and research institutions in our region, we are involved in initiatives and research projects for sustainable and practice-oriented solutions for climate protection. The continuous commitment to sustainability and related investments are already an established part of our corporate strategy.

Nobert Rotter, CEO at NTT DATA Business Solutions AG

The Role of IT in Sustainability – Change through Innovation

The IT sector is a driver of innovation and one of the key industries that will be actively engaged in the change towards a more sustainable and equitable future. Innovative technologies enable the analysis and forecasting of business activities and their impact on our environment. Increased transparency allows for more efficient processes and enables systems to be optimized, which in turn reduces waste and saves energy.

On Sustainable Paths for Long-term Business Success

NTT DATA Business Solutions is a global player in the IT industry – therefore we see it as our responsibility to leverage the possibilities and opportunities offered by our business portfolio to make a positive contribution to the environment, society and the economy.

As an SAP® Platinum Partner, we maintain a close partnership with SAP and therefore have access to their broad innovative sustainability portfolio. With this, our tailor-made add-ons and services we build the foundation for more sustainable business and entrepreneurship of our customers, which meets the society’s current and future sustainability requirements. Thereby we balance sustainability and profitability in a targeted manner and want to fully exploit the existing synergies and business potential.

Sustainability is not about temporary actions. It’s about shaping the future.

In Our Projects for a more Sustainable and Fairer Future, We Are Guided by these 3 Pillars:

Climate Change

On the way to a zero-emissions economy, greenhouse gas emissions must be effectively controlled and minimized along the supply chain. With the help of IT-based solutions, companies gain important insights into the environmental impact of their products based on reliable data. By reducing the carbon footprint along the entire value chain, companies effectively help address climate change and incidentally increase their own operational efficiency.

Circular Economy

By establishing a sustainable circular economy, companies can save valuable resources, avoid waste and reduce internal costs. The transformation to a regenerative company takes place via the IT-supported integration of ethical procurement of raw materials and only ends with a returns management and recycling system designed for sustainability.

Social Responsibility

Qualified employees, workforce diversity, well-being, equality and social responsibility are central pillars of a healthy organization. Companies must implement these along their own value chain and integrate them into their business processes. Only in this way is it possible to drive growth, fully develop existing potential and ignite new energies, which are also aligned with ethical and social requirements.

Projects with Positive Impact

Reducing CO2 and particle emissions from transportation with RGS Nordic

RGS Nordic handles enormous amounts of waste, soil and debris from building and construction sites. It cleans the materials, which are then re- or upcycled in other building or construction projects. RGS Nordic was worried about the many empty trucks/lorries arriving at or leaving their sites every day. Independent transportation providers would either unload materials at an RGS Nordic site or arrive to pick up recycled materials but most often driving empty either coming or going. This is wasteful both in terms of CO2 emissions but also a health issue with particle emissions from unnecessary “empty kilometers”.

NTT DATA Business Solutions developed a POC with RGS Nordic, which uses blockchain and AI to ensure that when a truck arrives with waste, soil or debris at an RGS Nordic site, it is matched with an outgoing order. This means a better fuel economy and optimized order schedules for the transportation providers.

Reducing CO2 and particle emissions from transportation with RGS Nordic

Smart Island Rømø Showcases the Future of Holidays

Digitalizing sustainable tourism – in collaboration with Copenhagen Business School and Aalborg University, we have taken on the digitalization of the entire island of Rømø, Denmark. As the island is primarily a popular holiday destination, the objective of the project was to optimize processes for tourists. For example, to reduce waiting times in restaurants or retail outlets, to avoid traffic jams and to make the island’s water and energy supply more effective and sustainable. With cloud-based data collection and evaluation, we have helped tourism across the island to now function much more efficiently.

more about the Smart Island Rømø

the future of holidays on the smart island Rømø

Projects with Positive Impact on Circular Economy

Intelligent Automation in the Food Industry

Where food meets IT – bringing together expertise to realize new digital concepts in the consumer goods industry. As part of the ‘smartFoodTechnologyOWL’ innovation alliance of the OWL University of Applied Sciences, we are working with over 40 other partners from industry, research and politics to develop innovative solutions for key future tasks in the food industry. In a joint cooperation project with the participation of Dr. August Oetker KG applied digitization and IoT technologies are being used to create virtual images of exemplary food products that open up new avenues for competitive and resource-saving production.

Our Head of COE Consumer Products, Walioullah Ali, together with Christian Fretter, Head of R&D at Dr. August Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG, give insights into the project and the benefits of working together:

Watch the video “where food meets it”

intelligent automation and iot technologies used in the food industry

Projects with Positive Impact on Social Responsibility

Digital Avatars Support Pupils and Teachers

Virtual AI buddy helps kids learn to read – through AI technologies digital avatars can become real educational helpers: Learning to read through the personalized play-out of content and vocabulary and pronunciation and comprehension trained with a playful approach. Concurrent teachers can view the learning progress via a learning assistant dashboard. If the virtual assistant is used systematically, homeschooling costs can be halved and overall school costs reduced by 5%. Also, the lives of children, teachers and parents worldwide can be positively impacted.

The “AI Learning Helper” is the result of an international collaboration between NTT DATA Business Solutions Denmark, NTT DATA UK and NTT DATA Romania and was recently awarded with the “SAP Innovation Award 2022“.

more about our virtual ai buddy

virtual AI assistant for educational support

Reducing water consumption with Aguardio

Aguardio has built an innovate solution to change to how people use water. It nudges end users to save water thus turning ordinary people in private homes, building complexes, and public housing into water-saving champions.

Aguardio needed a scalable data platform for the second generation of their water measuring IoT device. The device monitors water usage in households and, through a water usage dashboard, encourages users to save water. NTT DATA Business Solutions used its it.titan platform to set up custom interfaces to manage devices, data, users and customers on the platform, which handles millions of records in real time. it.titan manages and autoconfigures IoT devices as well as manages end user data access.

In addition to reducing over-consumption of water, one of the most important scarce resources on earth, the platform also monitors temperature and humidity to limit fungus and algae growth, thus improving the health of buildings and those living in them. Besides helping private households, Aguardio enables water companies to engage their end users and transform the way they communicate. Hotels, camp sites and other tourist sites can also monitor water usage by their guest and create reward programs to reduce water consumption in water-scarce contexts.

Reducing water consumption with Aguardio

AI Makes Telephone Care for Danish Children more Efficient

A virtual assistant supports Børns Vilkår – the Danish children’s aid organization Børns Vilkår communicates with children seeking help not only via telephone calls, but also via SMS and chat. A virtual assistant, developed by NTT DATA Business Solutions Denmark, supports the Børns Vilkår team and continuously learns to better understand the language of children and young people. The AI-based solution helps more than 500 volunteer counselors who receive more than 220,000 calls from children in Denmark every year. As a result, the number of enquiries handled has been significantly increased.

AI technology used to support Danish children's aid organization

Digital Innovation Is Key to Achieving Sustainability Goals

69% of firms view digital innovation as key to achieve their sustainability goals. The top 3 technologies to achieve those goals are: Cloud, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence.

NTT Ltd., Innovating for a Sustainable Future, 2022

Top Innovations and Technologies to Drive Sustainability

Innovations are increasingly being created with the intention of becoming more sustainable. Whether optimizing resource efficiency or balancing economic and ecological aspects - sustainable management holds massive potential for companies.

trusted partner in the sustainability transformation

We Are the Partner by Your Side in the Sustainability Transformation

Thanks to NTT DATA Business Solutions’ close partnership with SAP®, our specialists can use and functionally supplement SAP solutions around ‘SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises’. The innovative SAP sustainability portfolio meets the current sustainability requirements of both society and our clients’ capabilities and thus forms the foundation for more sustainable business and entrepreneurship. However, the right software is only part of the change towards a more sustainable business. With our SAP expertise within the NTT DATA Group, complementary add-ons, individual services and our transformation expertise, we accompany you on your personal path to more sustainable business processes.

Have You already Identified a Sustainability Strategy and Initial Fields of Action?

We support you with our SAP portfolio and innovative technologies to implement the defined measures.

corporate social responsibility and sustainability at NTT DATA Business Solutions

How Do We Live Sustainability Ourselves?

At NTT DATA Business Solutions, sustainability is one of our most important long-term corporate goals. For example, as an active steering member of the Green Software Foundation, we are committed to continuous emissions reduction within the information and communications technology (ICT) industry.

To create new paradigms and values that can contribute to a more prosperous and harmonious society, we support the United Nations’ (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for achieving lasting sustainable development. We do this by targeting global societal issues through our own business activities. In addition, we focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects to further drive sustainable growth for our customers and clients and for ourselves.

Corporate Social Responsibility at NTT DATA Business Solutions

At NTT DATA Business Solutions, ecological, economic and social awareness and action does not start with the customer, but directly with us in the company. Find out how we live sustainability and corporate social responsibility in our company!

Our Corporate Social Responsibility

Sustainability in the NTT DATA Group

Company Brochure
NTT DATA Sustainability Report 2022/2023

This report aims to give our customers, employees, partners and suppliers as well as interested members of the public a first insight into our approach to sustainability in the company and in our supply chain.

Read the Sustainability Report

business women reading about the sustainability transformation

Our Experts about the Sustainability Transformation in the CXO Magazine

In the fight against climate change, a rapid shift to sustainable business models is imperative. However, such a transformation does not only bring more sustainability for the environment, but also for your company: Benefits include increased efficiency and resilience, reduced organizational risk and an expansion of business opportunities and potential. Sustainability therefore does not exclude business growth, but actually stimulates it. Read our experts’ articles in ‘The Sustainability Transformation’ by NTT DATA’s CXO magazine:

Speak to us today

Would you like to know more about our sustainability projects?

Just contact us – we will be glad to help you.