The recent upheaval in the world's financial market has had global repercussions. Japan's economy was hit particularly hard by the crisis, with exports and production dropping markedly and bringing concomitant declines in corporate profits and jobs. While the recession appears to have bottomed out, I think that real recovery will still take some time.
On the environment front, leaders at last year's G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit declared that they would seek to share the long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050 with all Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As a corporate citizen, we too will need to make even greater efforts to address this and other urgent issues within the framework of our CSR activities.
The information and telecommunications fields continue to undergo major changes as the spread of broadband and IP1 networks drives the further evolution, diversification, and convergence of services in both the fixed-line and mobile communications markets.
Under our "Road to Service Creation Business Group" Medium-Term Management Strategy announced in May 2008, we are building a new IP-based network that delivers high quality and even greater economy and reliability, and further creating and deploying an increasing range of customer-oriented ubiquitous2 broadband services provided through this new network. We will also continue to pursue diversification into solutions business, energy, environment, and other new fields.
Regarding environmental initiatives, we are taking two approaches to reducing CO2 emissions under our catchphrase "Connected. That's eco." The first is to reduce CO2 emissions generated by our own business. We have long taken measures to reduce electricity consumption in our offices and communications facilities, and in May 2008 we launched our Green NTT initiative to promote the use of solar and other renewable energy sources on a groupwide basis. The second approach is to help society as a whole to reduce CO2 emissions through information and communication technology (ICT). ICT can help mitigate global warming significantly through bringing about big changes in both lifestyle and business models, and through streamlining work processes and reducing the need for movement of people and goods.
ICT also holds great promise as a means for resolving other social issues such as an aging and shrinking population and for connecting people with each other, their communities, and the global environment to create a safe, secure, and prosperous society. We will continue to work with a wide range of business partners to provide the best possible services and reliability.
With this CSR report, we have endeavored to provide a rich assortment of information to help all of our stakeholders gain a better understanding of the NTT Group. We put high value on engagement with our stakeholders, and we hope that you will not hesitate to offer your candid views and suggestions regarding our activities.
1 IP (Internet Protocol)
A standard communications protocol adopted for communications over the Internet
2 Ubiquitous services
Services that can be accessed at any time from any location
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