15 Nov 2021 07:00
Reach
15 November 2021
SUMO GROUP PLC
("Sumo Group", the "Company" or the "Group")
CARBON NET ZERO PLEDGE
Sumo Group, the award-winning provider of creative and development services to the video games and entertainment industries, today announces its intention to become carbon net zero across all its studios by 2025, as part of its ongoing commitment towards sustainable and environmentally friendly business practices.
As a significant first step, the Company has purchased carbon offsets equivalent to the approximate total emissions of all its UK businesses for 2020.
Sumo Group will be working in partnership with Ark2030 (ark2030.org) to support major eco-restoration projects around the world, to help offset the Company's environmental impact. The first project to be supported by the Group is a programme to restore British Peatlands, focusing on an area of nearly 7,000 square kilometres of peatland soils in Northern England. Peatlands are the UK's equivalent of rainforests, storing vast quantities of carbon. It is estimated that damage to the Northern Peatlands releases millions of tonnes of carbon annually. As well as their importance in carbon storage, healthy peatlands slow the flow of water from hills, reducing the risk of flooding, and support a wide range of wildlife.
Steven Webb, General Counsel at Sumo Group, said: "Sumo Group is committed to progressing its ESG strategy significantly and this commitment to net zero marks a major step in the environmental element of our work.
We understand the importance of environmental sustainability to all of our stakeholders and want to take a bold step that will make a visible and meaningful difference. In addition to taking actions to reduce our emissions, we will continue to work with Ark2030 to identify other projects for support in the regions where we have studios."
Stephen Fern of Ark2030 added: "Ark2030 supports projects around the world that have large-scale impact on ecosystem regeneration and carbon-footprint reduction. The global nature of the programmes undertaken by Ark2030 will allow Sumo Group's individual studios around the world to get involved in activities local to where they live or where their studio is based."
Sumo Group has already set a number of environmental targets, including switching all energy contracts it controls to renewables, publishing its first Streamlined Energy and Carbon Report, and assessing the ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Standard for suitability in managing the Group's environmental impacts. In addition, the Company has recently launched a scheme to make ultra-low emission vehicles more easily available to all its people in the UK.
Enquiries: | |
Sumo Group plc | Via Belvedere Communications |
Carl Cavers, Chief Executive Officer | Tel: +44 (0) 7715 769 078 |
David Wilton, Chief Financial Officer | |
Zeus Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker) | |
Nick Cowles / Andrew Jones (Corporate Finance) | Tel: +44 (0) 161 831 1512 |
Ben Robertson (Corporate Broking) | Tel: +44 (0) 203 829 5000 |
Investec (Joint Broker) | |
David Flin / Bruce Garrow | Tel: +44 (0) 207 597 5970 |
Belvedere Communications Limited |
|
Cat Valentine | Tel: +44 (0) 7715 769 078 |
Keeley Clarke | Tel: +44 (0) 7967 816 525 |
Llew Angus | Tel: +44 (0) 7407 023 147 |
sumopr@belvederepr.com | |
About Sumo Group - www.sumogroupplc.com
Sumo Group's businesses provide acclaimed development, design and publishing services to the video games and entertainment industries from studios in the UK, India, Canada, the US and Poland.
Sumo Digital, as the Group's primary business, is one of the UK's largest independent developers of AAA-rated video games, having studios in Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leamington Spa, Warrington and Pune, India. A second India studio in Bangalore was announced in September 2021 with a planned opening in the first half of 2022. The business has acquired four studios since IPO, which operate under their own names, BAFTA award-winning The Chinese Room in Brighton, Red Kite Games in Leeds, Lab42 in Leamington Spa and PixelAnt Games in Wroclaw, Poland. Sumo Digital provides turnkey and co-development solutions to a global blue-chip client base.
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