Research and development in energy- and environment-related topics were originally conducted at the Telecommunications Energy Laboratories and Lifestyle and Environmental Technology Laboratories in the NTT Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group. As a result of social changes, however, it was eventually recognized that energy and environmental issues were becoming an integral part of daily life, so these laboratories were integrated to form the NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories in July 2002 to enable comprehensive treatment of energy and environmental problems. The idea here was to move from a research structure that emphasized basic research to one promoting system and product development. At present, the NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories is part of the NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group.
—What is the mission of NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories and what are its key research themes?
As the name implies, R&D at our laboratories is concerned with two fields: the environment and energy. And we are faced with two major issues: how to reduce our consumption of energy and how to preserve the environment. Both of these issues are now receiving a lot of attention in society, and our mission is to come up with appropriate solutions (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Background and goals of energy and environmental research.
To be more specific, we are developing technologies related to four key research themes. First, we must research and develop technologies for achieving a sustainable society. Second, we must utilize the fruits of NTT's traditional research in telecommunications to develop technologies that can expand NTT's business areas and contribute to energy and environmental measures. Third, we must find ways of reducing the amount of energy required to run telecommunication facilities and operating them in a more efficient and effective manner. And fourth, we must construct energy-supply systems that enable users to communicate whenever they want while maintaining reliability.
—The keyword “environment” makes many people think of environmental problems such as global warming. In what ways are ICT and environmental problems connected?
The meaning of “environment” is very broad. To begin with, information and communications technology (ICT) encompasses infrastructure and equipment that consumes a large amount of power. This power is obtained through electric power generation processes that emit CO2 as a side-effect. We therefore need to reduce—as much as possible—the amount of power consumed by ICT in order to effectively reduce CO2 emissions.
We also consider that the use of ICT can make a positive contribution to the environment in both direct and indirect ways. For example, we know that chemicals, including toxic substances, are being emitted in the atmosphere and indoor environments. To prevent such emissions, it is essential to detect and analyze airborne substances to determine what they are and whether they are toxic. A mechanism that can deliver such information to the right people in real time must be constructed.
ICT can be very effective in collecting that information, storing it in a database, and analyzing it, and in sending the analysis results to the appropriate people regardless of the distances involved. Through technology development, we can create sensors for detecting toxic substances and platforms for analyzing and processing collected information so that the analysis results can be used for environmental assessment.
To give a more familiar example, business people in Japan often use the Shinkansen (bullet train) or airplanes to attend meetings. This movement involves the use of electric power, fossil fuels, and other forms of energy. As an alternative, videoconferencing could be used effectively to cut down on human movement and reduce CO2 emissions. Thus, we can regard ICT as a tool having the double effect of saving energy and preserving the environment.
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