With the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, Ubisoft, one of the world's leading video game publishers and distributors, chose CGI as their strategic partner to assess the maturity of their current Green IT program and identify areas of opportunity to bring their Green IT strategy to the next level.
The environmental impact of IT is increasing and energy consumption from digital technologies is rising six times faster than the rest of the economy. By 2025, digital technology is expected to account for over 8% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide (Digital Governance Council Canada). Green IT is therefore an increasingly hot topic for organizations.
What is Green IT? Green IT plays an essential role in minimizing the impact of digital technology on the world's climate and biodiversity by reducing carbon emissions and consumption of energy, water, and raw materials at each stage of the product or service lifecycle.
Challenge - Positioning a Green IT strategy
Considering that IT activities are at the core of Ubisoft’s operations and account for 17% of their 2022 emissions (Ubisoft 2022-23 Annual Report), Ubisoft is looking to pioneer the adoption of sustainable technologies. Green IT success requires ongoing commitment. With 21,000 employees across 45 studios globally, Ubisoft is engaging stakeholders, working collaboratively, and monitoring existing programs. The company seeks to continue to increase and harmonize their studios’ Green IT initiatives to create emission reduction opportunities and boost their overall impact.
To reassure them on their ongoing initiatives and provide advice on how to go further and reduce emissions, Ubisoft trusted CGI to assess the maturity of their Green IT strategy.
More than 15 recommendations were made to Ubisoft.
Priority was placed on ways to reduce costs and mitigate environmental and social impacts, including recommendations regarding lifecycle assessment, available certifications, policies and standards, data governance, and eco-design of digital services.
What CGI provided is not only a tangible framework, but also key insights on how to implement several recommendations. CGI’s expertise and experience in sustainability, change management, data and IT enabled us to confirm how to accelerate progress towards our goal to reduce the environmental impact of our IT functions.
Digital Sustainability Program Manager - Ubisoft
How CGI helped - Assessing Ubisoft’s Green IT maturity
CGI worked with Ubisoft’s Digital Sustainability Program Manager and Accessibility Program Manager to analyze the maturity level and evaluate key components of the organization’s Green IT initiatives based on a framework developed by our Digital Innovation Center (SHAPSHA) in France. The approach consisted in assessing environmental initiatives relating to digital services and equipment as well as digital accessibility, with the objective to increase overall visibility of sustainable IT practices within the organization.
Three workshops were held by CGI’s business consulting experts to collect data and grasp an overall understanding of the environment. Subsequently, an analysis of this data was performed to provide clearer comprehension of the components and facets of the Green IT initiatives currently in place:
- Strategy and governance
- Communication and training
- Digital equipment lifecycle
- Digital services lifecycle
Business outcomes - Focusing resources on strategic Green IT initiatives
After only two and a half years of implementing Green IT initiatives across the organization, CGI’s Green IT assessment revealed that Ubisoft has a relatively mature Green IT strategy, with a score of 68%, based on implemented best practices.
The maturity assessment also enabled Ubisoft to take a step back and evaluate their Green IT strategy’s strengths and areas of improvement. Ubisoft now has a clearer picture of how to reinforce their Green IT initiatives and priorities according to the capabilities of their different studios and business lines.
The strategies identified to do this include assessment of potential leverage effect, implementation effort, and avoided impact (greenhouse gas emission, pollution, health, natural resources), which can facilitate prioritization and decision-making. Cost reduction opportunities were also identified to improve equipment use and extend equipment lifespan.
