Sustainability Listening Project

Insights Report:

Attitudes, behaviours and aspirations about sustainable living 2023

Project overview

This year the Playtech Sustainability team collaborated with environmental charity partner, Hubbub, on a Playtech colleague listening project. The aim was to discover colleagues’ attitudes and behaviours relating to the environment and other priorities at home and work, while identifying colleagues’ awareness and understanding of Playtech’s sustainability strategy — and other topical issues.

The listening project consisted of in-depth quantitative and qualitative research, that included a companywide survey with 400+ responses. It was a chance for colleagues to have their say on and influence the sustainability strategy moving forward, help Playtech align with the voice of its workforce and enable sustainable behaviour in an internationally distributed workforce in 2023 and beyond.

The research will inform discussions and planning on future environmental campaigns to ensure they resonate with Playtech colleagues at all levels.

The vision is to help make sustainable living easy, accessible, and fun for colleagues around the world, in a way that also aligns with Playtech’s ambitious sustainability goals.

The following report and its recommendations were compiled by Hubbub for Playtech’s review.

Aims of the Listening Project

Provide a snapshot of how Playtech colleagues understand sustainability in 2023, and their hopes and aspirations for the future

Gain insights into how sustainably Playtech colleagues live at home, both in terms of their behaviours and environment

Understand individuals’ priorities and how they have shifted over the past year, identifying overlaps between sustainability and other priorities such as saving time and money, and mental and physical health

Discover ways in which Playtech could inspire and enable sustainable living in an international workforce

Help Playtech put colleagues at the centre of future sustainability strategy and empower them to contribute towards meeting Playtech’s sustainability goals

You spoke, we listened

to over 400 colleagues!

Playtech colleagues already...

consider themselves to have above average environmental awareness regularly recycle and turn lights off when they leave a room

Current priorities

Mental health and physical wellbeing are considered very important priorities by colleagues

Future aspirations

Colleagues are most interested in adopting actions related to...

“ We are on a mission to become more sustainable, and we need your help! ”

8 in 10 colleagues want Playtech to support them to live more sustainably

75% are proud to work for an employer that is prioritising sustainability

So what?

How can Playtech make sustainable living easy, accessible & fun for colleagues all around the world in a way that also aligns with its sustainability goals?

of colleagues see living sustainably as important think more about living sustainably than they would’ve done a year ago

And they would most like to learn about...

Establish sustainability as a core part of company DNA

Lead by example

Harness the power of offices and teams

Identifying and introducing quick wins

Get into the detail

Improvements to physical and mental health

Key findings

Research undertaken with 401 colleagues demonstrates a mandate for Playtech to further support their colleagues with sustainable living building on the efforts to date.

We have summarised some standout stats from the research below:

80% of colleagues see living sustainably as important

The majority (56%) think more about living sustainably than they would have done a year ago

Additionally, mental and physical health are notable priorities for colleagues, with 61% and 56% considering these areas very important respectively

There is a clear mandate for Playtech to support colleagues to work and live more sustainably at home with 8 in 10 colleagues in favour of this

50% agree that Playtech are already exploring ways they can work and live more sustainably

Colleagues are already taking sustainable actions at home with 95% regularly recycling and turning lights off when they leave a room

Colleagues feel largely both able and willing to make further changes in the future, particularly on topics preferred by 68% of employees; waste and energy use

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38% of Playtech colleagues would be most interested in learning about home features that reduce energy usage and 24% said the same thing about growing of plants and vegetables

Reducing waste (34%) and energy (35%) are high on people’s agendas for future changes, while reducing travel (6%), using less water (8%) and eating more sustainably (18%) were expressed as harder to adopt

Overall, colleagues feel capable of making sustainable changes at home, and don’t feel that they face any major physical barriers to taking action

75% are proud to work for an employer that is prioritising sustainability. 7 6

88% of colleagues consider themselves to have above-average environmental awareness

24% consider themselves familiar and involved with Playtech’s pillar of Powering action for positive environmental impact, and 49% have a good awareness of Playtech’s sustainability strategy

Hubbub’s key recommendations

Based on insights collected in the research, Hubbub have identified six key principles for future success, outlining the most effective ways Playtech could inspire and enable sustainable actions among colleagues.

The Playtech Sustainability team have reviewed and responded to each recommendation.

Establish sustainability as a core part of Playtech’s DNA

Repeatedly reinforcing the importance of sustainability through all aspects of the business can help it become as much a priority as other responsible practices and innovation. By paving the way with organisational change, Playtech will further demonstrate to colleagues that the organisation as an entity is willing to put into practice when it comes to its commitment to sustainability.

We recognise that there is appetite for more information, education, and action on sustainability at Playtech. With these insights, the Playtech Sustainability team, with Hubbub, are looking at embedding the most interested topics when it comes to sustainable decision making, both at work and at home, as part of the next engagement campaigns. Our aim is to continue to build awareness and seek opportunities on getting colleagues involved in Playtech’s sustainability strategy into business-as-usual.

Lead by example

Establishing sustainability as a priority within the business could have the dual effect of motivating colleagues while also positioning Playtech as a thought leader in this field. Creating an environment where decision-makers lead by example and are encouraged to champion and model green choices could also impact the whole organisation, especially if leaders also recognise and reinforce positive behaviours among staff. In practice, leaders could use existing channels of communications to start showing what they are already doing to live more sustainably and where they are in their sustainability journey (even, or maybe especially, if what they do is not perfect).

As a part of our sustainability engagement plan, we are actively engaging leaders from different domains to understand their contribution to and influence over our sustainability strategy, progress against plans and areas for improvement. We aim to motivate leaders from across the business to integrate sustainability into their day-today activities and decision making. Our role is to enhance and magnify these endeavours, recognising that this is a journey, and we will constantly look for ways to evolve our approach and improve.

Harness the power of colleague collaboration

Giving offices and teams permission to spend time exploring sustainable habits for the office and home could build social cohesion and create new connections. Not only would it introduce a new, readymade ice breaker for colleagues, but it would also create a new sense of shared purpose and creativity, empowering colleagues by making them feel that their individual efforts were part of a wider collective effort. Healthy competition within and between offices and teams could also act as a powerful motivator and create positive ripples of behaviour change.

Moving forward, we will thoroughly explore and design campaigns to incorporate face to face and team building activities that foster increased engagement and collaboration We will collaborate with local HR to develop tailored solutions for participating in global initiatives.

Identifying and leveraging quick wins

Playtech has already taken steps to reduce its emissions as a business. This is a great way of succeeding from the start to build momentum and we would recommend the same approach with colleague engagement. Beyond the quick wins, helping colleagues reduce energy use and waste via colleague engagement campaigns stand out as key areas of interest in terms of sustainable behaviour change, and align with Playtech’s sustainability targets. Focusing on these topics and ‘meeting people where they are’ would likely get more traction in the early stages.

Playtech is engaging with its environmental champions through the Environment Forum to take action to lower emissions and enhance our colleague awareness. In 2022, Playtech’s carbon emissions through the energy used within all our assets, including office buildings, racetracks, live studios and data centres, have decreased by 39.6%, meaning that Playtech is very close to achieving its 40% reduction target by 2025. One of the major areas of focus is to switch our material operations to renewable energy. The success of our current initiatives has prompted us to set even more ambitious targets. There are many individuals, extending beyond the Playtech Sustainability team, who work tirelessly to contribute towards the reduction of our emissions, and it is important to recognise their contributions.

Get into the detail

Growing interest in environmental issues coupled with a clear appetite for living more sustainably suggests colleagues are ready to listen. With colleagues reporting that barriers to action seem to be more perceived than real, education could be the missing link to close the value action gap (the difference between what people say they value, and what they actually do).

Focusing on one issue or theme at a time could give it the attention it deserves to stimulate in-depth conversation and debate around a specific issue.

We will continue to empower our colleagues with a series of sustainability education initiatives as part of our comprehensive sustainability engagement plan. In our upcoming third campaign alongside Hubbub, we aim to integrate substantial educational components. We understand, achieving sustainability in both Playtech and our communities demands proactive measures, and these measures are dependent on fostering a well-informed populace through education on sustainability.

Improvements to physical and mental health

What is good for wellbeing is often good for the planet too. Aside from the environmental benefit of sustainable behaviours, they are often also convenient, time and money saving, wellbeing promoting and conducive to a healthier work-life balance.

With these insights, we can enhance our colleagues’ awareness and provide tips for sustainable living ideas with a focus on enhancing mental and physical health. We strongly believe that the most valuable ideas emerge from local perspectives and personal experiences. That’s why we encourage you to use the Sustainability Chat and share your innovative ideas with your colleagues.

Conclusion and next steps

It is evident that Playtech colleagues want to put sustainability at the top of the agenda. Colleagues overwhelmingly want Playtech to help them work and live more sustainably, have both the necessary capabilities and motivation to make changes in their lives, and are increasingly interested in the topic of sustainability more broadly.

This research indicates that educating colleagues, leading by example, exploring how sustainability intersects with wellbeing and creating a shared narrative around reaching sustainability goals could lead to widespread and sustained positive behaviour change with a very significant collective impact.

Going forward, this research will inform discussions and planning on future environmental campaigns to ensure they resonate with Playtech colleagues at all levels. The vision is to help make sustainable living easy, accessible, and fun for colleagues around the world, in a way that also aligns with the company’s ambitious sustainability goals.