2023 B Corp Report

This is the second consecutive annual report we have published since embarking on our standalone B Corp journey in 2022, having previously enjoyed certification as part of our then parent company.

Being a B Corp is a critical aspect of our company culture: it’s part of who we are and the games that we make. We remain inspired by the framework and best practices that B Corp has developed, and we’re always looking for opportunities to lead by example, both in the games industry and the wider world of business.

This 2023 report highlights our progress and future ambitions, encompassing environmental transparency and action; how we invest in our people; our ongoing diversity & inclusion journey; and the partnerships we have fostered to help make a positive impact.

We're excited to continue building a positive impact alongside our passionate team, partners, and players. Do get in touch with us if you have any questions at all about our approach to B Corp and its processes.

• In 2023 worked with Super Critical to further understand our carbon footprint, with the inclusion of more emission categories within our Scope 3 emissions:-

  • This might mean that our emissions could be higher than 2022, but we are now reporting more transparency on our carbon footprint by including a more robust representation of  scope 3.

  • This will help our overall goal to reach Net Zero target by 2030 more accurately.

• We explored carbon removals options instead of offsetting , and through our partner Super Critical we were responsible for the following: 

1. 116 tonnes of Tree based carbon removal verified and retired using the Verra registry.

2. 13 tonnes of Biochar based carbon removal verified and retired using the Puro.earth registry.

• We have begun creating green policies at ustwo games to help reduce our carbon footprint

  • These include:

    • No Beef Food Policy

      • The carbon emissions of beef are produced approximately 8 times more compared to chicken, so we’ve  stopped offering beef to our colleagues for the foreseeable!

    • Reduce, Reuse and Repair

      • We’re decreasing the amount of items that we’re buying for ustwo games. Challenging ourselves if it actually needs to be purchased, or if another carbon efficient alternative is possible.

      • We’re more vigilant on what is purchased for ustwo games, with a heavy emphasis on if whatever we buy can be reused. 

      • At ustwo games, we go through a lot of equipment to make sure our games are using the most recent technology - so where we can, we will work with our IT Team to explore where we can reuse devices rather than buying new devices.

    • Green Travel 

      • We plan to decrease travelling where we can, we understand that ustwo games cannot 100% stop travelling - but only if it is beneficial. If there is the option to video call into the event, this would be beneficial to us.

• Our biggest carbon emissions was through the use of our suppliers, so in 2024, we’ll be working with them closely to decrease that.

  • With a carbon accounting partner, we’re hoping that they can reach out to our suppliers on ustwo games’ behalf, to give them a gentle nudge if they could potentially start recording their own emissions, and therefore, getting more companies involved in their carbon journey. 

  • If not, our carbon accounting partner will find as an alternative where they can.

We are always striving to create an environment where creativity can flourish and our team can grow in their careers. Our people policies earned the most points in our assessment and we will look to deepen this strength even more in the years ahead. Key developments include:-

• This year we implemented our Long Term sickness policy. 

• We now have a ‘work-from anywhere’ policy, which allows employees to work from anywhere in the world for at least one month a year.

 —

In terms of flexible and inclusive policies, we believe these are key to supporting employees' mental health and well-being. It’s essential that we continuously adapt and implement strategic initiatives that can improve employee morale and productivity. This can also help us to retain and attract top talent and create a thriving creative and positive working culture. This year, our Head of People and Culture, Julie Piedrabuena, gave a talk at the GamesIndustry.Biz HR Summit discussing our employee benefits and mental health support/resources that we offer at ustwo games. She noted some evidence showing how companies are increasing their efforts on mental well-being and exploring new ways to support their staffers.

We're also absolutely thrilled that we were named among the winners at the GamesIndustry.Biz UK Best Places To Work Awards 2023! To be listed as one of the Best Small Companies alongside eight other awesome studios and service providers is testament to the fantastic team we have here and the games they all help to make.

It was also humbling to pick up the Environmental Award at a time when so many of us in the industry are working so hard to be more sustainable, and to spread those messages among gamers too. We were also named among the Finalists in the CSR, Health & Wellbeing, Diversity and Best Boss categories – this is an amazing achievement from the team!

• This year we partnered with Studiotypes, a talent partner in the games industry. Studiotypes help scale growing teams with amazing talent, enabling studios to make real and lasting connections with people and realise their dreams for growth. Studiotypes share our values and focus on diversity and inclusion and are working together with us to achieve this goal. In 2023, we achieved our talent goal for and recruited a total of 13 new hires! 

  • We will continue to work with Studiotypes in 2024

This year we continued to create an inclusive and supportive environment internally for our team members. We work together with our internal EDI employee group, organising different initiatives for International Women’s Day, Neurodiversity, Accessibility, Pride and Black History Month.  Equally, employees in the group propose causes and facilitate discussion around how to allocate the company charity budget towards those causes important to us.

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we offered 2 internships for 9 months in the Design and Programming departments. The goal for our internships is to allow candidates to gain meaningful experience that enhances their skills and knowledge, to help them with employability and future opportunities in the games industry (with us if we have a vacancy or elsewhere if we don’t, but they will still leave after a year with valuable experience that could help them find the next role in the industry). 

In 2023, we implemented Culture Clubs,  where we have people- and culture-focussed afternoons as part of our evolution of hybrid working. This is an opportunity for our employees to spend more time together collaborating with purpose and with a focus on our company values. Key elements included:- 

• Strong focus on Culture and our values through focus on Product, People and Training & Socials

  • For our focus on Mental Health in May (Safe in our World video game journals for employees )

  • For our focus on Mental Health awareness Month, we had Puppy Yoga in in the studio 

  • In celebration of Pride month, we had had a Pride Pride Bake Off

  • Training/Workshops provided by our partners at Into Games, Safe In Our World, UKIE and Women in Games 

—- 

This year, we continued to work with all of our partners as we aimed to increase accessibility to the industry in our local community.

Into Games – Into Games focuses on providing support to make the games industry more accessible, inclusive and open than ever before. And through this partnership we offered Champions Training to all our employees focused on empathetic conversations, roots public speaking workshop, diversity and inclusion workshop and limit break mentorship and allyship. This training is part of our commitment to creating an inclusive and supportive environment internally.

Women in Games – In 2023, we continued our partnership with Women in Games. Our goal is always to use business as a force for good, whether that’s fulfilling our remit as a certified B Corp, having a clear EDI mission or creating socially-aware games that draw on the real life experiences of our team. We are committed to supporting Women in Games in its work to build a fairer, gender equal playing field for current and future generations of women working at developers, publishers and service providers across the world.

This year we took part in our first Women in Games Careers & Networking Expo. As a company that values diversity and inclusion, we were thrilled to participate in this event. We wanted our expo booth to showcase our company and connect with women in the gaming industry, and we couldn't be happier with the results. The virtual booth was easy to set up and customise to reflect our company's branding and messaging. We were able to showcase our live roles, internship programme, culture, and values through videos, graphics, and live chat sessions with attendees.

Safe In Our World: The main goal of Safe In Our World is to create and foster worldwide mental health awareness within the video game industry; to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health; to make it a natural topic of discussion; and to promote the dialogue surrounding mental health so people are not afraid to reach out for help if they need it. This year we purchased the ‘Sidekick’ video games journal for our employees, which is focused on improving the mental health of those in the games community. 

What we’ll do in 2024 

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion and having launched our first internship programme in 2023, we will be opening up our internship programme again for 2024. We will be offering 2 fully paid internships for 9 months, this time this will be in the QA and Programming departments. 

The QA team takes pride in helping the push for quality in our games and work closely with all disciplines throughout the development process. During the internship, the intern will interact with the various disciplines within the studio and have working knowledge of how games are built to release.

The team will be looking for a Programming Intern who is passionate and creative, looking to gain professional experience in a supportive environment. During the internship, the intern will be spending time with different teams to get a perspective of how different projects work.

Into Games – We’re thrilled to be partnering with Into Games for a second consecutive year as part of our shared goal to create career pathways in our amazing industry for people from all backgrounds. We achieved so much in year one, including our socially mobile internship initiative and levelling up our own team via Into Games’ Champions Training programme. Together we can help make the games industry a more accessible and inclusive place for people to fulfil their dreams throughout 2024 and beyond.

In 2024, we'll build on our relationship with Into Games to bring new initiatives and programmes to the studio. Here's just a taster of what we'll work on in 2024;

• We'll conduct a full L&D technical skills analysis across the studio, to understand the technical skills needs across every department and make recommendations.

• Create and foster local relationships with schools, colleges, and youth organisations and charities in South London as part of our Waypoints programme.

• Distribute a £1000 bursary to young people in South London from low socio-economic backgrounds to kickstart their games career journey.

• Host a local games careers event in the local area of the studio, so young people can get a taste of careers at ustwo games and in the wider sector.

Women in Games – In 2024, we will continue to be committed to supporting Women in Games in its work to build a fairer, gender equal playing field for current and future generations of women working at developers, publishers and service providers across the world.

UKIE – We are also renewing our commitment to UKIE’s Raise The Game pledge. We are not only a Raise The Game Partner, but many of our employees and company leadership are involved in different capacities, such as board members, or members of UKIE’s EDI Steering Group. 

Environmental - We’ll step away this year from carbon offsetting, and we’ll be working with our carbon accounting partner to focus our efforts on our Net Zero Strategy.

This will cover:

• Carbon Measurement - This is our normal carbon impact assessment where we calculate our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions from 2023. This will also include our use of sold products, assessing the impact of our games played by our players. We’ll also be reaching out to our suppliers to get a better understanding of our carbon emissions.

• Workshops - To make sure everyone here at ustwo games understands values for being environmentally friendly and to uphold our BCorp standards, we’ll be offering the following to our colleagues: Carbon Footprint, Supplier Assessment and Net Zero Workshops.

Net Zero Strategy - To achieve our Net Zero by 2030, our target will be SBTi (Science Based Targets Initiative) Aligned. Alongside this, we’ll be looking at our decarbonisation strategy, narrowing down options we can further continue to lower our carbon footprint.