36 NTT Technical Review

1. Introduction

NTT’s system of comprehensive producers, whichwas launched in July 2003, aims to turn R&D resultsinto profitable business [1]. The environment andenergy producers seek to create businesses based onthemes concerning the world, society, and peoplebased on products that help to protect the global envi-ronment by using environmental information andenergy technologies in the 21st century, which hasbeen called “the century of the environment”. Thisinvolves contributing to efforts to:

1) Protect the global environment and create asociety with less load on the environment,

2) Create more efficient industries and securesocieties with an environmentally sound mater-ial cycle, and

3) Enhance people’s performance and create saferand securer living environments.

While striving to contribute to global environmentprotection efforts based on the use of informationtechnology (IT), which is one of NTT’s specialties,the environment and energy producer also collabo-rates with relevant laboratories to promote researchand development of environmental information andenergy technologies on three main themes—beingfriendly to the world; creating a safer, securer, andbetter society; and supporting the people who achievethese things—and promotes business applications of

the R&D results in the most efficient manner.

2. Business fields

An overview of environment and energy businessesand research themes is shown in Fig. 1. There are twomajor global themes: preventing global warming,which includes CO2 reduction and energy conserva-tion, and protecting the global environment. Thereare two major social themes: the social environmentand safety and security. The themes of zero emissions(reduce, reuse, and recycle (the 3Rs), green purchas-ing, etc.) and clean energy (solar power generation,fuel cells, etc.) are placed between the global andsociety themes because they can be regarded as socialresponsibilities for the global environment. There aretwo major themes concerning people: environmentalmanagement and environmental IT. Considering thefuture possibilities of these subjects, it is important tomake the right selection of core research themes andstrive to create businesses in a timely manner.

3. Efforts in fiscal 2004

Our business creation efforts in fiscal 2004 weremainly based on products developed the previousyear. They included:• Developing businesses related to public environ-

mental IT systems [2] in collaboration with NTTGroup companies,

• Commercializing multi-purpose portable powersources and developing applications of their ele-ment technologies,

Yuji Maeda† and Takahisa ShodaiAbstract

NTT’s environment and energy producers seek to create businesses on themes concerning the world,society, and people based on products that help to protect the global environment by using environmen-tal information and energy technologies. This article discusses the results of such business creationefforts during fiscal 2004 and possible directions in the near future.

Business Creation in the Environmentand Energy Fields

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† NTT Department IIIChiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8116 JapanE-mail: y.maeda@hco.ntt.co.jp

Vol. 3 No. 5 May 2005 37

• Commercializing iDC (Internet Data Center)Shielded Vault [3] for electromagnetic security, and

• Developing a sustainable environmental manage-ment support system.Public environmental IT systems consist of back-

office products, including an environmental ledgersystem and air pollution monitoring systems, andfront-office products, which are designed to providesuch information to municipal employees and resi-dents in a friendly manner. Some examples of publicenvironmental IT systems are shown in Figs. 2 to 4.Figure 2 is an air pollution monitoring system usedfor monitoring air and water qualities. Previously,systems of this type used public telephone lines,which made it difficult to get measurements on a real-

time basis because they had to be processed throughloggers and transmitted periodically to collectionservers. To solve this problem, we developed micro-loggers, which use existing local intranets and flat-rate-charged IP networks, and promoted businessapplications of the air pollution monitoring systemusing such loggers. The developed system has madeit possible to send measurements to collection serverson a realtime basis. Moreover, by reducing the num-ber of functions in the loggers, we were able to con-siderably reduce the overall price of these systems.

Figure 3 shows an environmental risk assessmentsystem that assesses the risks of possible health haz-ards to humans from chemical substances dischargedinto the air and rivers from emission sources, such as

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• Energy conservation, CO2 reduction• Effective utilization of paper resources• CO2 emission trading• Life cycle assessment (LCA)

• Reduce, reuse, recycle• Green purchasing• Waste treatment

• Solar & wind power generation• Lead-free batteries• Fuel cells• Energy network

• Pollutant release and transfer register (PRTR)• Information disclosure • Management of chemical substances

Zero emissionsSafety and security

Clean energy Social environment

Preventing globalwarming Environmental IT

Protecting globalenvironment

Environmentalmanagement

Environment andenergy businesses

SocietyCreate efficient industries and secure societieswith an environmentally sound material cycle

WorldProtect the

global environment and create a society

with less load onthe environment

PeopleEnhance people’sperformance andcreate safer and

securer livingenvironments

• Sustainable environmental management• Environmental public relations• ISO 14001/EMS (environmental management system)• Environmental education

• Environmental sensing• Environment-friendly community

with citizens’ participation• Environmental risk assessment• Environment survey

• Risk management & food safety• Disaster-prevention information• Comfort and health• Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)

• Local community• Aging society with fewer children• Lack of IT

Fig. 1. Environmental business categories and research themes.

Database

Database

Environmentalledgers, etc.

Independent network(local intranet, etc.) Measuring devices

Micro-logger

Public network(optical fiber, ADSL, telephone,

cell phone, etc.)

Measuring devices

ADSL: asymmetric digital subscriber line

Micro-loggerCollection server

Monitoring/control pointObservation point

Ledgermanagement

base

Fig. 2. Air pollution monitoring system.

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38 NTT Technical Review

factories, by simulating their diffusion and estimatingthe intake of such substances by people. This systemuses the environmental information from the above-mentioned air pollution monitoring system and geo-graphic and statistical information from the environ-mental ledger integrated management system to ana-lyze the concentration of chemical substances in theenvironment and their possible risks, so it is availablefor short-term risk assessments, such as in a time ofdisaster, and also for long-term statistical risk assess-ment. This assessment system works over the Web,making it possible to deliver assessment results viathe Internet not only to the relevant people in munic-ipal offices but also to local residents.

Figure 4 shows an environment protection and dis-aster prevention monitoring system. This system con-

sists of an ad-hoc network system using a multi-hopwireless local area network that enables easy con-struction of wireless broadband networks anywhereat anytime and various applications that work on suchnetworks. As an example, an on-site informationgathering system is shown in Fig. 4. This systemgathers information using a geographic informationsystem (GIS) available at the sites of environmentsurveys, disasters, and illegal dumping and this infor-mation can be accessed via a computer, personal dig-ital assistant (PDA), or cellular phone equipped withGPS (global positioning system). This system hasalready been introduced by many customers due to itssimple on-site registration of data and photographicimages overlaid on maps.

The ad-hoc network system consists of wireless

Local intranet

Internet

Air pollution monitoring system Environmental ledger integrated management system

Analysis of concentration in the environment

Risk analysis Environment/disaster prevention functions

Function for supplying risk information aboutchemical substances

Environmental information and modeling informationRelevant localgovernmentdepartments

Residents

Observation point Monitoring/control point

Ledger management base

Environmentalledger

Geographicinformation

Notificationledger

Statisticalinformation

Fig. 3. Environmental risk assessment system.

Local intranet

Local information highway

Internet

Communitycenter

Informationcenter

Disaster-preventioncenter

School

Examples of use in normal times

• Watching for illegal dumping• Monitoring rivers• Supporting environmental studies/surveys• Supporting community events, etc.

Delivery of livevideo and

informationWirelessIP phone

Independentnetwork

Independentnetwork

Ad-hoc temporarynetwork system

Site of disaster

Example of system mounted on a vehicle or a motorbike

On-site informationgathering system

Ad-hoc temporarynetwork system

Town A

City C

City D

Prefectural officeVillage B

Fig. 4. Environment protection and disaster prevention monitoring system.

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Vol. 3 No. 5 May 2005 39

switches, antennas, and batteries to establish a wire-less connection between a local intranet and a disas-ter site or other target site using relays at intervals ofabout two kilometers. If a wireless IP phone is used,it is also possible to extend extension phones to thedisaster site. As wireless switches are portable, theycan be mounted on automobiles or motorbikes. Dur-ing fiscal 2004, we conducted system demonstrationsin cooperation with NTT Group companies duringlocal government disaster prevention drills and at var-ious exhibitions. As a result, we were successful inreceiving contracts from several local governments.

We have developed a support system for sustain-able environmental management for internal use. Wecalculated its ability to reduce the environmental loadof IT services, and included the results in the envi-ronmental reports of NTT Group companies. We arealso making continual efforts to raise awareness ofthe environmental load reduction effect as a strongadvantage of introducing IT services.

A multi-purpose portable power source calledPocket Energy [4] (Fig. 5) was put on the market byNTT Advanced Technology (NTT-AT) and variouselectric appliance vendors in July 2004. This is aclean, compact, and high-power portable chargingapparatus that uses sunlight. It can be used to chargecell phones, digital cameras, and other portabledevices, making it a useful power source outdoorsand in times of emergency. When a big earthquakeoccurred in Niigata Prefecture in October 2004, wesupplied these power sources to victims as backuppower supplies.

To promote business applications of the core tech-nology of multi-purpose power sources (very lowvoltage boosting technology), we are addressing the

possibility of introducing the technology to serve forsolar powered self-sustaining power supply systemsfor environmental monitoring and power sources fornighttime advertisements.

The iDC Shielded Vault (Fig. 6) for electromagnet-ic security was announced to the press jointly by NTTFacilities and NTT-AT in September 2004, when thesupply of highly reliable electromagnetic securitysolutions for constructing data centers began in col-laboration with NTT Group companies. Developed toaddress electromagnetic security problems, such asTEMPEST* and electromagnetic attacks, the iDCShielded Vault is an entirely new shielded room thatprovides protection against electromagnetic-wave-related problems. Conventional shielded rooms areexpensive and take several months to construct.Moreover, they are less expandable, being unsuitablefor use in rooms with raised floors or as an additionto existing data centers. Our iDC Shielded Vault,which can be built easily at low cost, is based on elec-tromagnetic compatibility (EMC) evaluation technol-ogy acquired in the laboratory. It has four main char-acteristics: (1) Electromagnetic-wave shielding per-formance of 50 dB or more achieves at least 99.6%attenuation of electromagnetic waves, (2) it is applic-able to existing equipment, providing additionalearthquake resistance that can withstand a 6+ earth-quake on the Japanese seven-point seismic scale andcan be expanded by adding extra rack units, (3) theminimum construction can be as short as one day; and

Fig. 5. Pocket Energy. Fig. 6. iDC Shielded Vault (prototype).

* TEMPEST: a project code used by the US National SecurityAgency (NSA) for an information intercepting technology thatreproduces the image on a monitor by demodulating the weakelectromagnetic waves radiated from electronic devices.

(4) the construction cost is low because of the use oflow-cost materials.

We are exploring possible applications of this prod-uct at new and existing data centers and server roomsto ensure electromagnetic security, and at data cen-ters, offices and factories whose electromagneticenvironment is deteriorating and could cause electro-magnetic interference.

4. Future plans

To accommodate the rapidly increasing need fordisaster prevention systems after the recent occur-rence of several natural disasters in Japan, we intendto take products developed so far for environmentalbusinesses and tailor them to suit disaster prevention,while also developing new products for that purpose.In particular, the environmental monitoring and infor-mation gathering/communication technologiesacquired through environmental business activitiescan be applied directly to disaster prevention. We alsoplan to produce backup power supply systems for dis-aster prevention using clean energy systems based onnickel-metal-hydride batteries. We will continue topromote business applications of the above-men-tioned products in close cooperation with NTT Groupcompanies while striving to create new businessesusing the latest environmental and energy technolo-gies.

References

[1] Y. Inoue, “An R&D Revolution—Creating New Business Worth 500Billion Yen per Year,” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 14-21, 2004.

[2] T. Kishimoto, “Activities in the Environmental-Information Busi-ness,” NTT Technical Review, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 36-40, 2004.

[3] http://www.ntt.co.jp/news/news04e/0409/040927.html[4] http://www.ntt.co.jp/news/news04e/0402/040213.html

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40 NTT Technical Review

Takahisa ShodaiProducer, Energy and Environment Team,

NTT Department III (R&D Strategy Department).He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in mate-

rial development and engineering from KyushuUniversity, Fukuoka in 1986 and 1988, respec-tively, and the Ph.D. degree in engineering fromMie University, Tsu, Mie in 1998. He joinedNTT in 1988 and engaged in research on Li-ionand Ni-MH batteries. He is a member of the Elec-trochemical Society of America, Electrochemi-cal Society of Japan, and Solid State Ionics Soci-ety of Japan.

Yuji MaedaProducer, Energy and Environment Team,

NTT Department III (R&D Strategy Department).He received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in elec-

tronic engineering from Kumamoto University,Kumamoto in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Hejoined NTT Telecommunication Networks Lab-oratories in 1991. Since joining NTT, he hasbeen researching electromagnetic compatibilityin telecommunication networks and system ofcommunity communication. He received theScholarship Encouragement Award in 1998 fromthe Institute of Electronics, Information andCommunication Engineers (IEICE) of Japan. Heis a member of IEICE, IEEE, and the HumanInterface Society.