Protect Environment

Environmental Management

Relevant GRI Standards: 102-18/103-2/307-1

Relevant SDGs

2: ZERO HUNGER
6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION
7: AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY
12: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
13: CLIMATE ACTION
14: LIFE BELOW WATER
15: LIFE ON LAND

Organization for Environmental Management
Environmental Management System
Environmental Accounting
Main Initiatives

Organization for Environmental Management

We established the NTT Group Global Environmental Protection Promotion Committee as an internal unit under the CSR Committee (see page 010) to discuss and determine the environmental activities policies for the entire Group.

The NTT Group Global Environmental Protection Promotion Committee, which meets twice a year, is chaired by the NTT executive vice president, who is the head of NTT's Environmental Protection Office (Head of Research and Development Planning), with membership comprising the heads of the environmental departments at major Group companies (NTT East, NTT West, NTT Communications, NTT DOCOMO, NTT DATA, NTT Urban Solutions, NTT COMWARE, NTT Ltd. Japan, NTT Anode Energy and NTT Advanced Technology). The committee formulates environmental activity policies based on the decisions of the CSR Committee and deploys environmental activities throughout NTT Group companies.

The committee reports its decisions to the CSR Committee. Particularly important decisions on environmental issues, such as the formulation of environmental targets for the NTT Group as a whole, are based on discussions with the Board of Directors. For example, the NTT Environment and Energy Vision announced in May 2020 was determined following discussions by all board members, including outside directors.

The NTT Group Global Environmental Protection Promotion Committee oversees the organizations placed under it while planning basic policies on environmental protection, managing targets, and addressing issues. It also worked on preparing and establishing The NTT Group Environmental Statement and The Eco Strategy 2030.

Furthermore, risks and opportunities identified as having a significant impact on business, such as environmental laws, regulations, and systems, will be reported to the Business Risk Management Committee, which determines enterprise risk, and presented to the Board of Directors.

In addition to working with the environmental departments, the committee also cooperates with other departments to pursue related initiatives. Particularly with regard to electricity usage, which accounts for more than 90% of the NTT Group's CO₂ emissions, the committee collaborates with the Advanced Energy Usage Promotion Committee, which is responsible for promoting the Total Power Revolution (TPR) campaign, the NTT Group's energy conservation activities. As for the risks and opportunities presented by environmental issues to our facilities and equipment, monitoring and assessment are conducted through a collaborative effort between staff in charge of environmental issues and those responsible for facilities, and these individuals are appointed for every Group company.

Environmental Management System

The NTT Group has been seeking to introduce environmental management systems (EMS) including voluntary programs in addition to ISO 14001 certification and Eco-Action 21. Additionally, when including Eco Action 21 and voluntary programs, more than 90% of our business sites have introduced EMS.

To improve operational efficiency of obtaining and maintaining certifications, which includes guarantees from external auditing institutions, we also support the construction and maintenance of EMS through internal audits by employees with environmental auditor qualifications. Many NTT Group employees are qualified as auditors, including lead auditors, and sharing the list of auditors within the Group has enabled us to conduct mutual internal audits and thereby optimize the cost of maintaining the EMS.

Environmental Accounting

The NTT Group introduced environmental accounting in fiscal 2001 to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of its environmental conservation efforts by quantitatively determining the costs of environmental conservation programs undertaken as part of its business activities as well as their effects (economic and material benefits).

Moving forward, we aim to implement even more efficient and effective environmental management by continuously carrying out quantitative monitoring and analysis to understand the effects of our environmental activities, clarifying outstanding issues, and sharing information.

*You can scroll horizontally

Category	Environmental investment (billion yen)		Environmental costs (billion yen)		Economic benefits (billion yen)			Material benefits (thousands of tons)
Category	Fiscal 2018	Fiscal 2019	Fiscal 2018	Fiscal 2019		Fiscal 2018	Fiscal 2019		Fiscal 2018	Fiscal 2019
(1) Business area costs	8.60	9.35	15.93	19.83
Pollution prevention costs	0.14	0.24	2.42	5.05
Global environmental conservation costs	8.07	8.92	3.14	3.01	Cost reductions through energy conservation	5.95	6.37	Reductions in CO₂ emissions through energy conservation measures	184	119
Resource recycling costs	0.38	0.19	10.37	11.77	Revenues from sale of recyclable waste (decommissioned telecommunications equipment, etc.)	7.34	6.51	Recycled decommissioned communications equipment	176	146
					Waste disposal cost reductions through recycling	0.12	0.16	Recycled construction waste	222	325
					Cost reductions through reuse of decommissioned telecommunications equipment	26.96	23.02	Recycled civil engineering works waste	115	228
					Cost reductions through reuse of telecommunications devices	10.60	13.86	Recycled office waste	32	27
					Cost reductions through reuse of office waste materials	0.00	0.00	Other recycled items	18	9
(2) Upstream/ downstream costs	0.02	0.08	10.35	9.77	Revenues from sale of recyclable waste (subscriber communications devices, etc.)	0.52	0.47	Number of communications devices collected from customers (thousands)	9,372	7,581
(2) Upstream/ downstream costs	0.02	0.08	10.35	9.77	Cost reductions in postal expenses through computerization	14.17	13.77
(3) Administrative costs	0.12	0.17	5.27	5.13
(4) R&D costs	3.61	3.16	8.10	8.45
(5) Social activity costs	0.02	0.00	0.26	0.06
(6) Environmental remediation costs	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Total	12.37	12.76	39.90	43.24	Total	65.67	64.16

Scope of data
The companies subject to consolidated environment accounting are NTT, NTT East, NTT West, NTT Communications, NTT DATA, NTT DOCOMO and their group companies.
Applicable period
・Data for fiscal 2019 is from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020.
・Data for fiscal 2018 is from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019.
Accounting method
- Accounting is based on the NTT Group Environmental Accounting Guidelines. These guidelines comply fully with the Environmental Accounting Guidelines 2005 issued by the Ministry of the Environment.
- Environmental conservation costs are tabulated separately as environmental investments and environmental costs. Personnel costs and depreciation costs are also included in environmental costs.
- Reductions in CO₂ emissions through energy conservation measures are calculated by subtracting actual emissions from projected emissions in the event that no such measures were taken.

Main Initiatives

Environmental Guidelines

NTT Group operations have the following four key attributes: (1) procurement of a great many products; (2) possession of many buildings; (3) high electricity consumption by telecommunications equipment; (4) in-house R&D facilities. To promote the effective reduction of our environmental impacts, we have drafted the following green guidelines that address each of these four key attributes: Guidelines for Green Procurement; Green Design Guidelines for Buildings; Energy Efficiency Guidelines; and Green R&D Guidelines. In particular, the development and procurement of ICT devices with outstanding energy efficiency is essential for the effective reduction of the CO₂ emissions of the NTT Group.

To address this issue, we have been applying the NTT Group Energy Efficiency Guidelines since May 1, 2010. These guidelines give concrete form to the ICT device-related energy-saving stipulations of our Guidelines for Green Procurement and Green R&D Guidelines, and define our basic philosophy and device-specific targets with respect to the development and procurement of routers, servers and other ICT devices used in the NTT Group. Under the Energy Efficiency Guidelines, the NTT Group develops and procures ICT devices with consideration for energy-efficient performance in addition to function, performance and cost. We are endeavoring to apply these initiatives to the reduction of electricity consumption and concomitant CO₂ emissions related to customer communications.

Disseminating Environmental Activities Policies and Measures among Employees

NTT Group conducts environmental education to disseminate NTT Group policies and measures among employees and develop a shared understanding of Group-wide activities for promoting environmental protection. In fiscal 2019, we also provided training related to the Group's environmental activities for all employees, such as group training and e-learning.

The NTT Environmental Protection Office organizes environmental education for staff in charge of environmental issues at each Group company and has been holding study sessions every year since fiscal 2001. Along with lectures for disseminating our environmental policies and sharing outstanding issues, we invite outside lecturers to speak on recent topics. These study sessions are intended for the NTT Group throughout Japan and are therefore offered via a teleconferencing system so that staff in remote areas can attend and ask questions through two-way connections.

In fiscal 2019, we invited experts on environmental management and CSR to explain the SDGs and ESG and to speak about environmental management. Furthermore, related staff in Group companies introduced their environmental initiatives with the aim of promoting environmental activities at each Group company.

Compliance with Environmental Laws and Regulations

The NTT Group complies with laws and regulations related to the environment and works to reduce its impacts on the environment.

We have established a mechanism that can deal with cases of legal violations on a Group-wide basis by reporting to the Global Environmental Protection Promotion Committee. There were no legal violations nor payments of penalties in fiscal 2019, following the same result for fiscal 2018.

As part of its environmental management measures, the Group also tracks the number of complaints related to the environment for each fiscal year. In fiscal 2019, no complaints related to environmental impact were submitted, handled or resolved through our systems for dealing with complaints.

Going forward, we will maintain compliance with existing laws and regulations as well as set up a working group on environmental laws and regulations to help step up our preparations for complying with laws and regulations under review or scheduled to take effect.