The NEC Group aims to create the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. This commitment is central to our Purpose and is actively pursued through both strategic and cultural initiatives within our Mid-term Management Plan 2025.

To effectively achieve our Purpose, it is essential to manage both financial and non-financial aspects in an integrated manner. This means addressing non-financial areas such as environmental sustainability and human capital to minimize risks to the NEC Group, while at the same time creating societal and environmental value through the growth initiatives outlined in our mid-term management plan. These dual objectives are key to increasing sustainable corporate value, which is a core responsibility of NEC. In my role as CFO and Sustainability Officer, my previous experience in new business development—where I tackled various social challenges such as water scarcity, soil contamination, and issues related to food and energy, has been invaluable in fulfilling this responsibility.

NEC’s focus on non-financial areas encompasses a wide range of critical issues. Our environmental strategy is twofold: we mitigate risks by addressing key challenges, particularly decarbonization, while leveraging insights—coupled with NEC's strengths in ICT to create opportunities that move our customers and society toward carbon neutrality. This proactive stance not only minimizes risk, but also drives sustainability-driven innovation.

The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report highlights environmental challenges, such as extreme weather events, as major global threats. As climate change accelerates and natural disasters become more severe, environmental sustainability has become a business-critical issue. Addressing these challenges and achieving carbon neutrality are urgent imperatives.

The NEC Group has been committed to mitigating environmental risks since the 1970s, continually adapting to evolving societal expectations and industry standards. This long journey has provided us with deep expertise and a strong track record in sustainability, forming a foundation that continues to guide our actions today.

In 2024, the NEC Group’s comprehensive sustainability initiatives earned us second place in TIME Magazine’s World’s Most Sustainable Companies of 2024. We were also ranked 5th globally in the IT services sector by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and included in the DJSI World Index, a globally recognized benchmark for ESG investment. In addition, NEC is included in several major ESG indexes that are frequently referenced by passive investors.

In 2025, NEC achieved ”A List” status for the sixth consecutive year from CDP, an international non-profit organization dedicated to evaluating corporate environmental transparency. This recognition highlights our progressive initiatives to address climate change and ensure water security. We have linked this recognition to our Sustainability Performance Targets (SPTs) for financing, which demonstrate how our environmental initiatives effectively reduce capital costs and improve financial performance.

This special issue introduces the NEC Group's sustainability-driven services and solutions that integrate our extensive environmental expertise with cutting-edge technologies. It also introduces our innovative developments that are expected to create new value in the environmental field.

By combining our experience and expertise in sustainability with the NEC Group’s cutting-edge ICT services and solutions, we aim to help our customers achieve their green transformation goals while contributing to solving the world’s increasingly complex environmental challenges.