The use of energy-saving technology in our own operations is the biggest lever for making the company more climate-friendly. But it’s not the only one. Our revised travel and mobility policy aims to reduce travel, especially air travel, to a necessary minimum. The gradual conversion of our vehicle fleet to electric vehicles will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years.
To compensate for the loss of plant and animal habitats due to land development and use, the company will support species conservation projects such as the bee hives on its own premises. Another pillar of the company’s sustainability strategy is to offset greenhouse gas emissions that the company is currently unable to reduce itself. NTT DATA Business Solutions relies on serious, long-term offset projects such as the reforestation of the Teutoburg Forest or the tree-planting campaign by the trainees of the DSC Arminia Bielefeld as part of the Ostwestfalen alliance, which, for example, will more than offset the greenhouse gas emissions of our SAP partner event TransformationNOW! 2022. A committee of employees decides which projects to support and how much to donate.
Social sustainability actions
The report also covers the working environment of employees in our own company and along the supply chain. As a global company, it is our task to ensure the best possible and fair working conditions and development opportunities at all locations.
As NTT DATA Business Solutions’ field of activity has potential human rights risks, any violation of human rights is met with a zero-tolerance policy. To ensure this, the focus in the 2023/2024 financial year is on the human rights due diligence process.
With regard to working conditions, our report addresses the legal regulation of working hours, occupational health management, the avoidance of bogus self-employment and the handling of contingent workers. Another challenge that affects the entire IT industry is gender equality. By 2028, we aim to increase the proportion of women in our workforce to more than one-third, with a particular focus on senior management. As an additional HR incentive, we have set ourselves the goal of achieving the internationally recognized “Global Top Employer” in 2023.
Sustainable corporate governance
In the area of sustainable corporate governance, we focus on ethics & compliance, data protection & cybersecurity and especially on the responsible use of technology. Protecting infrastructure from cyber attacks and optimizing data management are becoming increasingly urgent as business processes become more digital. The IT systems required for this are also moving towards the cloud. Both aspects – the digitization of processes and the secure and data-protected operation of systems – are key components of our service. The responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI), which is already changing our day-to-day work and our service portfolio, is also becoming increasingly relevant. In terms of social responsibility, dealing with attempts to deceive through deep fakes and ensuring data protection, as well as ethical aspects such as fairness, transparency and traceability, play a particularly important role.