Ten Square Games commitment to carbon neutrality
TSG believe that statements aren’t enough when committing to the environment — they believe that taking action is more important than any statement you can make. That’s why, over the past few years, the company decided to back up their words with actions and started the process of becoming carbon neutral, in association with Planetly.
Path to Carbon Neutrality
Becoming carbon neutral company was a three-step process. First, TSG had to calculate their carbon footprint. With the help of Planetly, they’ve calculated that their carbon footprint for 2020 was 9,598.74 tCO²e, mostly impacted by the services they procure in the course of their work, as well as the footprint generated by their players — which they calculated separately. Then, they received a reduction strategy from Planetly. Finally, they offset our carbon footprint and started implementing carbon-free solutions and avoiding emissions wherever possible.
Planetly has estimated that they can reduce nearly 12% of our emissions by making some changes. Based on their feedback, TSG has already switched to smartly managed LEDs in their offices, and they have started other suggested projects. This is in order to ensure that in the coming years, the company will be able to avoid pointless emissions (for example, by skipping a business trip that wasn’t needed) and reduce the emissions that they can’t avoid. For 2020, however, in the absence of a time machine, they had to compensate for their emissions by investing in high-quality carbon offset projects.
Why offsetting?
They realize that their company will never be able to avoid and reduce our entire carbon footprint, given the nature of the business and projects. Offsetting allows them to allocate part of their profits to ensure that these profits are invested in protecting the environment. All in all, TSG have committed to five projects:
Four Wind Energy Projects in India, Costa Rica, Turkey, and Mongolia which save over 350 thousand tCO²e in total, bringing sustainable power to people in remote locations, and The Borneo Rainforest REDD+ Project in Indonesia, reducing damages from deforestation and forest degradation in the region, saving 64,500 hectares of swamp from releasing 3.5 million tCO²e into the atmosphere.
How do they reduce the carbon footprint day-to-day?
Reducing the carbon footprint is a challenge, but one they’re up to any day of the week. They have managed to create a smart office with energy-saving lights, recycling, biker-friendly infrastructure, and a tap water cooler in order to limit plastic bottle use. TSG also source their food from local fair-trade distributors and put an emphasis on vegetarian food.
We pay attention to the influence of our actions, including parties on the environment. 25% of the food we offer at parties is plant-based, in order to reduce our impact on the environment and our carbon footprint.
Karolina Gralczyk, TSG’s Office Manager
They also applied what they learned when renovating their brand new first-floor space in Wrocław HQ. Thanks to smart material use, they managed to reduce the renovation’s carbon footprint by over 38 tCO²e, and they plan to continue that trend in future renovations.
They also don’t limit ourselves to our carbon neutrality project. They’ve launched the Eco League, an internal company eco-awareness event, and they’re also regularly launching environmental events in our games as well.
What does the future hold?
We’re committed to carbon neutrality for the foreseeable future. We’re currently in the process of calculating our carbon footprint for 2021 and limiting our emissions in 2022. Being carbon neutral isn’t our only environmental initiative, either. We remain committed to our other environmental initiatives, such as the Eco League, planting trees in Poland, and in-game eco-awareness events; after all, our games wouldn’t be possible without the wonderful world we live in. Stay tuned to learn more about our environmental initiatives.