Activision Blizzard discloses atmosphere, social, and governance efforts

Activision Blizzard has released its 1st-ever report on its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments. The report focuses on how the firm is championing its folks, advancing more diverse and inclusive communities, and assisting to shield our planet.

What does that imply? The huge video game publisher stated it is investing millions of dollars in organizations that prepare leaders of the future, which includes these from underrepresented minority groups, which includes Management Leadership for Tomorrow, UNCF, and Girls Who Code. Since 2016, there has been a two-occasions raise of females in game development leadership roles. And promotion prices for minorities and non-minorities are equal, and the promotion price for females is slightly greater than the price for males.

The firm stated it is also building more diverse characters in its games, which includes Symmetra from Overwatch, the 1st playable character who is on the autism spectrum Pelagos, the 1st openly transgender character in World of Warcraft Tracer from Overwatch, the 1st LGBTQ character featured on a Blizzard game cover Varden Dawngrasp, Hearthstone’s 1st openly non-binary character and more lately in 2020, Leo Baker in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, as the 1st non-binary playable character in a sports game. It has also partnered with AbleGamers Foundation to make games more accessible.

On the sustainability front, the firm stated its ongoing conversion to a more digital small business is enabling it to reach crucial sustainability targets. Activision Blizzard saved more than 5.5 million pounds of plastic waste more than the last 5 years, by way of adjustments to packaging and supplies. It aims to hit net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That’s a lot significantly less aggressive than other providers like Razer.

CEO comments

“In a time like no other – with communities around the world tested by extraordinary social, environmental, economic, and public health challenges – the employees of Activision Blizzard have served the global community by keeping people connected safely and using our global platform to comfort, inspire, and draw communities together,” stated Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, in the report. “Our mission – connecting and engaging the world through epic entertainment – has never been more important.”

He added, “We enable a sense of accomplishment through healthy competition. Like sport, but with far greater accessibility, our players can find purpose and meaning through gaming.”

He stated that gaming connects folks more deeply than any other type of media, bringing players and fans collectively with no regard to race, religion, ethnicity, sexual identity, gender, or gender expression.

Regarding Black Lives Matter, Kotick stated, “We stood with Black Americans and with all those fighting against systemic inequality and violence. We took meaningful steps to combat bullying and hateful speech in our gaming communities. We continued our work towards our commitment to all of our players seeing themselves represented and supported in our games. And we worked to broaden the diversity of our own workforce, our leadership, and the pipeline of talented individuals from which we recruit new employees.”

Activision Blizzard’s size

As of December 31, 2020, Activision Blizzard had 9,630 personnel, up from 9,234 a year earlier. Blizzard accounts for 45% of them, whilst Activision is 27% and King is 20%. Others are 7%. For 2020, Activision had 128 million month-to-month active players, Blizzard had 29 million, and King had 240 million. Activision had $3.94 billion in bookings in 2020, Blizzard had $1.91 billion, and King had $2.16 billion.

Women are 24% of the all round personnel, whilst underrepresented minorities are 34% of the all round base. The firm is attempting to enhance these ratios, but it is not dissimilar from the all round game sector. The firm has nine employee networks devoted to becoming a more inclusive firm.

Corporate disclosures and policies

As for its dues for the Entertainment Software Association, about $40,793 had been made use of for political contributions or expenditures.

Activision Blizzard has human rights, corporate governance, fair competitors, anti-discrimination, and anti-corruption policies. And it says its Way2Play ethics and compliance system that empowers personnel to be “heroes” when it comes to assisting personnel navigate the appropriate way to do points.

The firm stated 80% of its directors are independent, and it has separate roles for chair, CEO, and independent lead director. About 20% of directors are females, and 20% are underrepresented minorities. Kotick’s compensation has been often criticized and he agreed to have it reduce in the upcoming year. The firm has a compensation committee that oversees that specific concern.

Environmental challenges

As for environmental challenges, the firm has warehouses in Germany and the Netherlands as effectively as 80 offices about the work that occupy 2.3 million square feet.

In 2020, the firm began carrying out environmental analyses with its landlords and home managers to evaluate power, emissions, and water footprints. In North America, the firm is consolidating its information centers to generate small business efficiencies and enhance its environmental footprint.

In Europe, all of the datacenters are operated by a provider whose datacenters run on one hundred% renewable power. The firm lowered its footprint by saving more than 5.5 million pounds of plastic packaging. The firm desires to decrease its plastic consumption by 50% from 2019 to 2024.

As far as information breaches, the firm has pledged to inform authorities if that occurs. The firm has also pledged to generate a secure and private atmosphere for gamers, and it will stamp out any behavior that is harassing, racist, hateful, obscene, or otherwise unacceptable. Its games include things like in-game reporting systems for these complications.

And the firm stated it is committed to generating its games accessible to all players, partnering with providers like the AbleGamers Foundation to enhance
accessibility. It is committed to building games with diverse characters so players can see themselves reflected in the games.

Donations

As for donations, personnel gave $1.6 million to 3,211 charities about the world, and every single employee is eligible to pledge $200 of the company’s income to a charity of their selection. It also raised $12.7 million to fight breast cancer, and firm volunteers supported 21 charities with volunteer time.

Kotick’s Call of Duty Endowment has located jobs for 85,000 veterans and made $53 million in grants because its inception. It helped 15,000 veterans obtain higher-top quality jobs in 2020.

For equality in the workplace, Activision Blizzard supports equal spend for equal work, and it provides parents 12 weeks of spend for parental leave, and in the U.S., birth mothers can take up to 22 weeks off with complete spend.
As for promotions, the promotion prices involving minority and non-minority populations are equal, and the firm has greater promotion prices for females than males. About 13.5% of all personnel had been promoted in 2020.

The firm promotes diversity in its employee base and it desires to positively influence diverse communities and shield the planet. During the pandemic, the firm and the Wisconsin Partnership Program supported 388 student nurses and a 60-nurse facility provide 5,261 hours for vaccine distribution.

In response to COVID-19, the firm donated $5 million to hospitals, healthcare organizations, and nonprofits.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz