Fujitsu is going green with a vengeance. Executive Vice President Chiaki Ito said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms summit that there is a business opportunity in making products that help cut carbon emissions.

Q: Will the technology sector use more or less energy a decade
from now?

I see the computer side of the industry using less energy due to
advances in semiconductor and virtualization technology. I am not
pessimistic. Consumption of energy can be restrained.

On the other hand, the network side which will consume more
energy as demand for and use of bandwidth increases — heavy
traffic will lead to higher energy consumption.

In the IP (intellectual property) world, everything is handled by
routers and switches. If you replace those current electrical
routers and switches with optical ones, that can save energy.

Q: Are consumers willing to pay a premium for environmentally
friendly goods?

It’s a choice consumers should make. For instance now many people
use cellphones as a substitute for a PC to check mails etc. This
reduces the consumption of energy.

English or Japanese?

Chiaki Ito can speak both in English and in Japanese. But when the first question was asked in English, he said:

I can speak in English as well as Japanese. But when I have to
answer complex and sophisticated questions, I will switch to
Japanese. This one’s a complex one.

All non-Japanese speaking reporters in the room scrambled to get
hold of a translation module.