Fujitsu Uvance: Where technology meets sustainability

"My concern is that the world is moving towards 'de-globalization' in the face of mounting global crises," said Yoshinami Takahashi, Fujitsu Limited Corporate Executive Officer SEVP in charge of the Fujitsu Uvance business.

"We're seeing that each country and region is trying to deal with these crises by strengthening economic cooperation within their regions."

Yoshinami joined Fujitsu after working at Sony and Microsoft Japan. He is currently responsible for advancing digital and sustainability innovations as the head of the Global Business Solutions Business Group.

He says the challenges company leaders face, including global warming and natural disasters, are structural problems that cannot be easily solved. But at the same time, he says that leaders also have a responsibility to promote globalization in a world that is becoming more segmented.

"Governments, companies, and individuals must work together to build a resilient ecosystem if we ever hope to prevent crises from deepening. And that is where Sustainability Transformation comes into play."

Analysts estimate that the global market for Sustainability Transformation solutions could expand to more than 80 trillion yen, or 54 billion US dollars, by 2030. A 2022 survey conducted by Fujitsu and the Financial Times of 1,000 business and organization leaders found a significant gap between leaders' recognition of the importance of sustainability and the actions they're taking to achieve it. 57% of respondents say that they believe sustainability will be a top priority for their organization over the next five years.

But nearly half (48%) said they were worried that the technology they currently possess was not making enough progress to drive sustainability efforts. Only 6% of the respondents say they have experienced better business outcomes by focusing on both technology and sustainability.

The research also shows that many leaders still see Sustainability Transformation as only one part of their CSR activities and that many of them stopped short of formulating a vision or a goal.

Yoshinami believes that connecting 'blank spaces' in between businesses with digital data enhances values and lead to finding new answer to solving societal issues.

"Fujitsu has cutting-edge technologies such as ConnectionChain, which can aggregate multiple blockchains, computing power such as supercomputer Fugaku co-developed with RIKEN, and quantum technology," he points out.

"We aim to work alongside our global customers, using the power of technology and data to create a flexible, optimized ecosystem that brings together different businesses and industries."