CSR is embedded in Virtuos’ three core values of excellence, trust, and positivity. We are committed to acting responsibly and positively contributing towards improving standards for our clients and employees, minimizing our impact on the environment, and improving the quality of the local communities we are part of. Learn more about our CSR commitments and achievements below, and click here to learn more about our policies.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Our Commitments
Supporting the education of the younger generation
As an equal opportunity employer, Virtuos sees education as pivotal towards increasing social equity as it empowers young talent and removes a barrier to entry to tech industries such as video game development. We support access to education through providing skill training, scholarships, and employment-oriented courses, especially for underprivileged students.
We are also committed to cultivating talent who are passionate about the games industry and content creation for digital entertainment. Our three-month paid training program provides talent with hands-on coaching by our in-house experts on AAA game design and development, with learning plans designed and personalized to the individual’s aptitude. Upon successful completion of their program, participants can join Virtuos as full-time employees and participate in the making of world-class games.
OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
120+
Virtuos volunteers in Green IT Classroom program
1,900+
Student beneficiaries of refurbished IT equipment
2,315+
Books donated to schools
Green IT Classroom Program
One of our key projects is the Green IT Classroom program, created in collaboration with NetSpring in 2019. It is aimed at creating long-term positive impact by fostering digital inclusion for underprivileged youth, while minimizing our environmental impact by refurbishing and donating used computers.
Virtuos currently has four Green IT Classrooms established in Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi’an, and Vietnam. Since 2019, the program has seen the refurbishment of 155 computers and supporting equipment, all of which were donated to schools to benefit over 1,900 students. More than 120 of our employees have also volunteered over 600 hours to provide learning opportunities such as in digital art, IT literacy, and reading.
Besides that, we recognize the long-term value of education in increasing one’s environmental awareness. In order to encourage students to appreciate the environment and stimulate their creativity, we launched an art competition in 2021. Themed “Earth Resources in the Eyes of Children,” the competition welcomed over 400 students in Shanghai and Chengdu, including beneficiaries of the Green IT Classroom program.
We are heartened to see the success of the program in bridging the digital gap for underprivileged students. We will continue to strengthen our commitment and efforts to ensure the sustainability of the Green IT Classroom program and look forward to empowering our future generations to come.
Key Activities
Game Jams
We sponsored the ArtCenter (ArtCenter College of Design) Game Jam and Global Game Jam (2021-2022). To us, game jams are a great way for both aspiring and current developers to connect, get creative, and have fun!
Open Days for College Students
Since 2020, Virtuos studios have collaborated with local partner colleges to host open days with the aim of introducing talent to the possibilities of working with us and in the games industry at large. We hope to ultimately make video game development more accessible and foster new generations of bright, diverse talent!
Scholarship Programs
Virtuos France supported the Bourse du Jeu Vidéo scholarship program launched in 2021 in collaboration with Loisirs Numériques and Spiders Games. The comprehensive program supports students with career, portfolio and project mentorship, and the required computer and software, to pursue their passion in video game development.
Our Commitments
Contributing to global carbon neutrality
The environmental impact of video game development spans from the mining of materials for hardware, to the energy required for software processing. To ensure sustainable growth, we commit to taking actions to achieve carbon neutrality in our operations.
We focus on measuring the environmental impact of our global operations, setting targets and monitoring progress. In 2021, we achieved carbon neutrality by reducing energy consumption and adopting renewable energy, as well as offsetting Scope 3 emissions. In 2020, all Virtuos CSR committee members were also required to attend a six-week long carbon footprint training course.
Minimizing our impact on the environment
We believe that environmental sustainability starts with personal responsibility. By increasing employees’ awareness of the actions they can take to reduce their individual impact on the environment, we hope to make the world a better place, together. Some of the activities we engage in actively include tree planting, beach clean-ups, energy-saving challenges, and green picnic days.
Through Virtuos Green IT Classroom, created in collaboration with NetSpring in 2019, we also minimize our environmental impact by refurbishing and donating computers to underprivileged youth. The project is currently present in China and Vietnam.
Our 2025 targets
Achieve carbon neutrality annually
Adopt 100% renewable energy sources
OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
>97% renewable energy
in 2020 and 2021 through purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)
7+ tonnes
electronic equipment processed and eco-dismantled since 2012
Carbon neutrality
across seven studios representing 94% of employees in 2021
Energy Management
We look for opportunities to reduce electricity consumption such as switching to LEDs and ensuring that computers and lights are turned off during non-working hours. To better understand our electricity consumption by type of usage, we started implementing power plugs and tags in some studios in 2021. In order to promote energy saving and enhance environmental awareness, our Xi’an and Chengdu studios have also organized contests to encourage everyone to develop the good habit of turning off their computers after work.
In 2022, our IT team in Virtuos Shanghai implemented a solution to automatically switch off computers after work hours, then tracked and measured the reduction in electricity consumption. The solution covered the energy usage of 30% of all computers in Virtuos Shanghai, and is now being tested in all other studios.
To monitor energy performance per studio, we also measured the electricity consumption and intensity per employee, including interns, trainees, and external vendors in 2020 and 2021. This was tracked across our studios in seven cities: Chengdu, Dublin, Ho Chi Minh City, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, and Xi’an. While there was an increase of electricity consumption due to a larger headcount, we managed to reduce electricity intensity to 1.75 MWh per employee.
Carbon Management
We consider carbon neutrality as an imperative CSR objective. In 2021, we achieved carbon neutrality representing 94% of employees in our studios across seven cities: Chengdu, Dublin, Ho Chi Minh City, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, and Xi’an. We set initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and purchased Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets to neutralize our residual GHG emissions.
As we understand that a certain amount of electricity is necessary to keep operations ongoing, we are working towards the goal of achieving 100% renewable energy to compensate our emissions. In 2020 and 2021, we achieved 97% renewable energy by matching the electricity consumption with RECs in our studios across Chengdu, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Singapore, and Xi’an.
We also purchased high-quality carbon credits to compensate Scope 2 emissions from our Paris and Dublin studios, as well as our Scope 3 emissions. These are from fully verified projects in China: Shuicheng Rural Methane Digesters Project and WWF Meigu High Efficient Cook Stove Project. These credits have since been retired, saving 1,146 tons of CO2 emissions from being released into the atmosphere.
To determine our relevant sources of GHG emissions, we studied the operational activities across Virtuos. From our findings, electricity consumption, employee commuting, business travel, and purchase of goods and services account for most of our total GHG emissions. We do not own any emissions sources under Scope 1 direct emissions.
Scope 2 emissions consist of indirect emissions that occur from our electricity consumption. We used two methodologies:
- Location-based approach: Emissions from grid-attributed energy were calculated based on average energy generation emission factors of the particular geographic location
- Market-based approach: We take into account the purchase of green power (RECs)
Scope 3 emissions include other indirect GHG emissions:
- Employee commute: An employee survey regarding employees’ travelling mode was conducted to determine the right vehicle conversion factors for the calculation of GHG inventory
- Business travel: Emissions from aircrafts, trains, taxis, as well as accommodations during business trips were included. For 2020, data from 2019 was used to reflect business travel activity before the pandemic
- Purchase of goods and services: In 2020, we covered usage of IT equipment such as computers and physical servers, and added the procurement of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2021
CARBON INVENTORY VERIFICATION STATEMENT
TEMBUSU Asia has conducted an independent verification of Virtuos’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory. The reasonable assurance report can be found below.
Key Activities
Tree Planting
In 2021, Black Shamrock – a Virtuos Studio and Virtuos North America contributed funds to support Crann – Trees for Ireland and Arbor Day Foundation, respectively, in the planting of trees. Virtuos Singapore also had a hands-on experience planting 50 trees towards the greening of Singapore in 2022.
Switch off After Work
Virtuos Xi’an saved 1,404.8 kWh of electricity through a ‘Switch off After Work’ contest in 2021, promoting energy saving and enhancing environmental awareness through the simple act of turning off computers after work every day.
Beekeeping
In collaboration with the Robert Emmet CDP’s Inner City Beekeeping Project in 2022, Black Shamrock installed two beehives on the roof of the Guinness Enterprise Centre in support of endangered native Irish honey bee populations and the creation of educational opportunities for inner-city communities.
Our Commitments
Promoting women in the video games industry
We recognize the vital role of women in video game development, and that gender equality needs to be accelerated to achieve sustainable development. It is our belief that having women in our company and the video games industry would lead to more diverse skillsets, perspectives, and the creation of even better games. To help make gender equity a lasting reality in the industry, we contribute to concerted efforts as a Women in Games Corporate Ambassador and founding donor to Women in Animation’s Global Fund.
Fostering diversity and equality among our employees
We believe that diversity adds flair to our workplace and culture. Diverse skill sets, perspectives, and backgrounds enable us to create bigger, better games together. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to helping our talent thrive and grow to their fullest potential. Starting with gender diversity, we have a goal of attracting 10% more female talent annually. By 2025, we are targeting to have women make up 40% of both our senior management and total workforce globally.
Our 2025 Target
40%
women in senior management
40%
women in our workplace
OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
Women in Animation
Global Fund Donor since 2019
Women in Games
Corporate Ambassador since 2021
30%
women employees as of 2021
DEVELOPING TALENT AS DIVERSE AS THE WORLD AROUND US
At Virtuos, diversity and equality remain a top priority for us as we continue to grow. We focus on giving our bright talent equal opportunities to grow to their fullest potential.
Talent acquisition strategies: We are an equal opportunity employer and have been making consistent efforts in attracting female talent to join the video game industry. Currently, our female employees make up over 30% of our total headcount.
Supporting the development of young talent: We promote the education and empowerment of aspiring female game development talent through different events, workshops, and scholarships.
Women leadership: In addition to attracting more female game development talent, we strive to achieve equity in the representation of women in leadership. Women leaders positively impact Virtuos, enabling us to have more diverse perspectives, and ultimately, make better games.
Building an inclusive workplace: We strive to create a safe and conducive working environment that offers equal opportunities in career growth for all. We regularly hold knowledge sharing and networking sessions to encourage team members to communicate and collaborate across departments and studios. Some initiatives include our #ChooseToChallenge interview series in celebration of International Womens’ Day and “Empowering moms in gaming” networking sessions on Mother’s Day.
Multicultural policy development: The human resources policy is designed to ensure equal access to employment, learning, and development opportunities, as well as fair pay for equal skills and performance. We have zero tolerance for sexual harassment, and this is implemented in every studio.
Employee diversity breakdown
As an equal opportunity employer, Virtuos has grown healthily over the years. We have over 3,500 employees based in 20 locations worldwide as of December 2022. Our percentage of women in senior management in 2021 is 24%, and similarly, our percentage of women employees have grown to 30.1% from 28.6% in 2020. We continue to strive towards our target of having both a 40% women workforce and senior management by 2025.
Key Activities
Women Game Changers
First launched in 2021, the Women Game Changers Scholarship is an initiative by our Vietnamese studios to empower more female students to join and develop careers in the game industry. We aim to build a more equal and inclusive environment for female artists and animators, who often encounter more obstacles than their male peers in this male-dominated industry.
Engaging Communities
As a Corporate Ambassador, Virtuos was pleased to see the return of the Women in Games (WIG) Festival in 2022! Black Shamrock – a Virtuos Studio kicked things off by hosting “Tea Talks”, a hybrid networking event in Dublin for aspiring female game creators and industry professionals. Virtuos’ Europe HR teams then connected with talent worldwide to share insights into games industry careers at the WIG Careers Expo.
College Outreach
Virtuos Xi’an launched a career roadshow for women at colleges in 2021, featuring interviews with our team of outstanding female talent on their thoughts and advice as games industry practitioners.
