Ubisoft reduces carbon footprint, but doesn't expect change to be permanent

gamesindustry.biz:

Danielle Partis

News Editor

Tuesday 7th June 2022

Ubisoft has announced that it successfully reduced its carbon footprint between 2020 and 2021, but with the caveat that the achievement may not be long-lasting.

In a blog post, the Assassin's Creed maker shared that the carbon footprint per employee decreased by 14% from 158 kilotons to 148 kilotons, but cited the pandemic and "lower marketing expenses" as reason for the change.

The company described the above reasons as "extraordinary circumstances," and as such, added that it "cannot consider these achievements to be permanent."

Ubisoft also broke down its carbon footprint for 2021 by category, with 58% alone going into purchases, which covers "subcontracting work and media purchases linked to marketing efforts."

It aims to further reduce emissions in the next couple of years, shooting for a further decrease of 10.8% per employee by 2024.

Last year, Ubisoft altered the targets that executive end-of-year bonuses hinged on, shifting from diversity improvements to carbon intensity reductions as an incentive for higher-ups to receive extra payouts.

Despite its environmental concerns, Ubisoft remains committed to blockchain efforts -- the company joined the Tezos ecosystem last year to explore opportunities that the technology offers.

Ubisoft also introduced Ubisoft Quartz at the end of last year, a platform for players to acquire NFTs which can be used to acquire cosmetic items across the firm's games.