No sooner does Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot issue an open letter essentially declaring “mission accomplished” on its metamorphosis from toxic work environment to model corporate games publisher do we get a brand new direction for where the company wants to focus its efforts.
As Axios reports, Ubisoft has filed new documents confirming new multi-year goals that direct its CEO to reduce the company’s emissions in order to achieve bonus payments of up to $200,000 (in stock options). These new goals come on the heels of its most recent bonus targets which were made to combat last year’s sexual harassment scandal.
Ubisoft was mired in controversy beginning last summer when the #MeToo movement hit the French game publisher like a truck. Many high-ranking male executives were either disciplined, demoted, or resigned after allegations erupted accusing them of various forms of misconduct.
Along with hiring a woman as the new head of HR, rewriting its corporate code of conduct, and hiring outside legal firms to investigate complaints, Ubisoft’s CEO was given a financial bonus incentive to increase Ubisoft’s female workforce from 22% in March of 2022 to 24% by March of 2023. Meeting this goal would net him a cool $200,000 and convince Ubisoft’s board of directors that Guillemot was committed to transforming the company’s work environment to be more inclusive.
So far, Ubisoft is at 23.5% of that goal. In comparison, EA has a 24% female workforce.
Ubisoft’s compensation board seems convinced that Guillemot will meet that 24% target by 2023 as the new bonus goals have nothing to do with gender diversity. Instead, they provide three separate goals for reducing Ubisoft’s carbon footprint.
The first would be to use 100% renewable energy at every Ubisoft facility. The second would be to reduce business trips by 20%, and the third would be to increase digital downloads of its games from 48% to 68%.
That last one seems likely to happen on its own as that’s been the trend for the past decade. Reducing business trips by 20% is also likely to be easy given the rise of teleconferencing during the pandemic. Getting 100% renewables is tricky but doable with current technology.
That said, these goals seem to be at odds with Ubisoft’s new push into NFTs, which are just as energy-intensive (and therefore bad for the environment) as cryptocurrencies. There’s also the issue of a recent Le Telegramme report accusing Ubisoft of going back to its old habits of covering up and protecting misconduct rather than disciplining bad actors.
An Ubisoft representative told Axios that “gender diversity remains a priority” and that “we may consider reintroducing” a gender diversity target in 2023. Guillemot stands to make another $200,000 if all three environmental targets are met.
