KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Now more than ever, organizations are taking sustainability practices seriously, with 68% of those surveyed reporting that building a sustainable future is a top priority for their boards. 
  • Covid-19 acted as a catalyst, with 47% of executives stating that the pandemic elevated the importance of sustainability goals.
  • Top benefits of sustainability initiatives include decreased costs through improved efficiencies (33% of organizations), greater innovation and/or new business models (32%), and increased revenue growth (24%).
  • Nearly four out of ten companies state that customers, employees, shareholders and communities expect them to drive positive change.
  • Learning from those companies whose sustainability practices are most mature, NTT has outlined a set of best practices to help organizations achieve their sustainability goals: build the foundation for sustainability excellence, by setting a clear vision and monitoring performance; harness digital innovation to drive results; and strengthen partnerships with supply chains, multilateral organizations, NGOs and industry and consumer groups.

Understanding the corporation’s place in creating a more prosperous and healthy world for all is not only an imperative for every business – given fresh focus with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the accelerating climate crisis – but a key tenet of NTT’s philosophy.

“This is where our Society 5.0 concept comes in – a human centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space,” explains NTT DATA UK’s Chief Technology Officer Tom Winstanley. “Businesses and governments will only win over skeptics if we stop talking about technology without context and start to frame the discussion around societal change, enabled by technology.”

To determine how organizations are incorporating sustainability into their business strategies, as well as the outcomes of those implementations, NTT and ThoughtLab conducted a comprehensive survey of executives from 500 companies, across seven industries and eight world markets, from September to October 2021. NTT published their results in February 2022.

In a report titled Innovating for a Sustainable Future, NTT, in partnership with ThoughtLab, found that 44% of companies experience improved profitability as a result of sustainability. This indicates that sustainability programs are now both an ethical and a business imperative to drive positive change and deliver better financial results. Additionally, 69% of global executives agree that digital innovation is key to achieving sustainability goals across environmental, social and economic areas.

 “Sustainability and profitability are becoming mutually reliant.”

NTT’s Head of Global Marketing, Vito Mabrucco, commented “As the global population refocuses its attention on the health and wellbeing of people and the planet, we have seen a renewed commitment from organizations to implement and advance sustainable business practices. At the same time, the health of people versus the health of profits is not an either-or-decision – sustainability and profitability are becoming mutually reliant.”

 

Study highlights: pandemic proves to be a watershed moment to move from lip service to real action

Highlights from the global study include:

  • Now more than ever, organizations are taking sustainability practices seriously: of the organizations surveyed, 68% report that building a sustainable future is a top priority for their boards.
  • The pandemic proved to be a watershed moment for many organizations, with 47% stating that the pandemic elevated the importance of sustainability goals.
  • Among the top benefits as a result of sustainability initiatives, 33% of organizations experience decreased costs through improved efficiencies, 32% experience greater innovation and/or new business models, and 24% experience increased revenue growth.
  • Only 12% of organizations worldwide indicate that sustainability is mostly “lip service” and nearly four out of ten companies state that customers, employees, shareholders and communities expect them to drive positive change.

The report defines ‘sustainable development’ in accordance with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a blueprint for creating a more sustainable future by 2030. NTT has aligned its business objectives with these SDGs, which cover three key categories: social good, environment, and economic growth and development. 

 

Driving sustainable innovation

As part of the survey, NTT and ThoughtLab grouped companies into three maturity categories – beginners, intermediates and advanced/leaders – based on their progress within a framework of 10 initiatives for driving sustainable innovation:

  1. Develop a vision, strategy, implementation plan and budget;
  2. Develop an effective organizational structure, skills and resources;
  3. Communicate goals to all stakeholders: investors, customers and employees;
  4. Set, track and report metrics for sustainability performance;
  5. Drive supply chain efficiency and operational innovation;
  6. Lead product and service innovation;
  7. Embrace business model innovation;
  8. Harness advanced digital technology;
  9. Integrate sustainability goals and metrics into investment decisions;
  10. Utilize a commonly used measurement framework (such as GRI, SASB or TCFD).
Sustainability measurement frameworks
GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) is the independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing them with the global common language to communicate those impacts. The GRI Standards are the world’s most widely used standards for sustainability reporting.

SASB was founded as a nonprofit organization in 2011 to help businesses and investors communicate the financial impacts of sustainability prospects. SASB Standards enable businesses around the world to identify, manage and communicate financially-material sustainability information to their investors.

The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) provides clear, comprehensive, high-quality information on the impacts of climate change, including the risks and opportunities presented by rising temperatures, climate-related policy, and emerging technologies in our changing world.

Achieving your sustainability goals

Drawing on the experiences of those organizations in the ‘leader’ category, i.e. those most mature in driving sustainable innovation, NTT has outlined a set of best practices to help organizations achieve their sustainability goals:

  1. Build the foundation for sustainability excellence. Set a clear sustainability vision, strategy and organizational structure; monitor performance against sustainability metrics; and incorporate sustainability deep into the business.
  2. Harness digital innovation to drive sustainability results. For leaders, sustainability and digital innovation are two sides of the same coin. Leaders draw more on digital technologies, particularly the cloud, AI and IoT, and understand that the best results come from interconnecting them.
  3. Build partnerships that work together to deliver on common sustainability goals. Leaders not only work more closely with supply chains; they also develop ties with a wider range of partners, from multilateral organizations and NGOs to industry and consumer groups.

The publishing of the study coincides with the launch of NTT’s Innovation for a Sustainable Future program. Designed to showcase the positive impact of technology, digital transformation and R&D to deliver sustainability and social benefits, the program outlines the intersection of technology innovation and the need for long term sustainability. 

 “The goal is for organizations of all sizes to contribute to long-term sustainability that positively impacts people, the planet and prosperity.”

As part of the program, NTT will provide organizations with information and resources to implement sustainability practices through strategic technology investments and innovation. The goal is for organizations of all sizes to contribute to long-term sustainability that positively impacts people, the planet and prosperity. 

NTT’s Innovation for a Sustainable Future program follows NTT’s August 2021 launch of a worldwide initiative, calling on stakeholders to rethink the importance of health and wellbeing. In collaboration with business divisions NTT DATA, NTT Ltd., NTT Research and NTT Disruption, the initiative offers ideas and resources designed to help governments, communities and organizations re-examine their approach to personal health, mental health and social health, worker wellness and equitable access to support a more sustainable future. 

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The findings from this survey underline that not only is doing good – protecting planet and people, as well as profit – good for business, but brings many other benefits besides. NTT believes in resolving social issues through our business operations by applying technology for good, helping clients accelerate growth and innovate for current and new business models. With these findings, we hope that all businesses can see that sustainability is an irrefutable strategic imperative, and that digital innovation is one of the most powerful enablers of a new, healthier world.

​​Original article published by NTT Research, February 2022.