LEVELING-UP
We believe that doing the right thing for the planet and society is important to the long-term success of our business. This means establishing an appropriate governance structure, assessing our environmental and social impacts, and reducing our negative environmental impacts while enhancing our positive social impacts whenever possible.
ESG REPORT
In addition to information below, please see our annual sustainability report that outlines our Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) leadership and progress against our goals in 2022: ESG Report
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Our Board is responsible for the control and direction of the Company and is committed to the development of effective and transparent corporate governance practices. As part of this commitment, the Board adopted our Corporate Governance Principals and Guidelines to provide a framework for the Company’s governance. Further, in 2021, our Board furthered our commitment to ESG matters by adopting our ESG Policy. Additional information about our corporate governance practices is available on our Corporate Governance webpage and in the ESG Report.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Mission Objectives
Environmental sustainability is an integral part of Turtle Beach Corporation’s strategy. By formalizing our sustainability goals, we will reduce our environmental impact, minimize risks, and meet customer expectations. In setting these goals, we reviewed our customers’ expectations, conducted a materiality assessment, interviewed leaders and managers from various departments such as product, operations, supply chain, human resources, communications, and sales, assessed sustainability guidelines published by Nasdaq and Institutional Shareholder Services, and benchmarked our strategy and goals against industry standards. We believe it is important to use a continuous improvement model for our sustainability performance, and so we have established a set of clear and measurable goals demonstrating our commitment to managing our environmental impact.
Minimizing our Carbon Footprint
As a global business, we are doing our part to reduce our carbon output by seeking to reduce emissions from our corporate offices and neutralize what remains. We have tracked our carbon footprint since 2021 to understand where our Company stands and set goals accordingly.
*As part of our commitment to transparency regarding our carbon footprint, 2021 and 2022 emissions figures above have been revised from those previously reported in our 2022 ESG Report to reflect updated information obtained through our emissions review process. Specifically, reduced Scope 1 emissions figures reflect our portion of emissions at our leased corporate office space in Basingstoke, England, United Kingdom rather than total emissions from that building.
Tetra Teach, Inc., an independent third-party ESG Consultancy, assisted Turtle Beach with its calculation of its carbon footprint noted above.
In 2023, we completed our first filing with CDP to report our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Filed information is available here.
Reducing our Emissions
Absolute Reductions
We’ve set a science-based target to reduce our near-team Scope 1 and 2 emissions in line with the decarbonization pathway to keep global warming below 1.5°C. To align with this standard, we are targeting to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 4.2% per year through 2028, using 2020 as a baseline. Accordingly, we are targeting a 33.6% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions from our first reported year. This is an absolute emissions reduction; carbon offsets cannot be used.
Neutralizing what Remains
For the emissions that remain, we’re committed to obtaining credible offsets and have separately set a goal of neutralizing our Scope 1 and 2 emissions form our corporate offices by 2025.
Reducing our Energy Consumption
Our Scope 1 and 2 emissions are primarily derived from consuming energy at our corporate offices. The following energy consumption data was used to calculate our 2023 emissions reported above.
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| White Plains, NY | ||||||
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| Basingstoke, England, United Kingdom | ||||||
* Hamburg, Germany 2023 natural gas data is not yet available; 23,826 kWh is a proxy value based on 2022 usage.
All of our electricity is purchased from the grid. While some of our purchased electricity is from renewable sources, we will need to reduce our purchased electricity to reduce our energy consumption from non-renewable resources. As part of our efforts to do so, we are reducing our corporate office space, lessening the need to light and heat unused space. This includes reducing our office footprint and transitioning certain roles to remote work.
UPGRADING THE EQUIPMENT: Products and Packaging
Reducing our Products’ Impacts
As one of the world’s top gaming accessory providers, we understand that most of our environmental impacts are associated with the products that we sell. We want to continue our robust history of innovation by improving the sustainability features of our products while maintaining the industry-leading quality that has always set us apart. By taking steps to reduce the environmental impacts of our products and their packaging, we help ensure that our customers can make a choice supporting their sustainability goals, our employees can know that they are working for a company conscious of its impact on our world and our stockholders can rest assured that we will continue to create shareholder value.
Carbon Neutral Products
In 2023, we launched our first CarbonNeutral® gaming headsets – the new Pink & Teal colorways of Turtle Beach’s best-selling Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX series. The emissions generated by these headsets are offset in line with The CarbonNeutral Protocol through our partnership with Climate Impact Partners. The emissions to be offset were independently verified by WSP USA Inc., an environmental consultancy. Below is detailed information with respect to the voluntary carbon offsets purchased by Turtle Beach to offset the emissions generated by these headsets.
Million Mangroves
In addition, Turtle Beach has supported Climate Impact Partner’s Million Mangroves program where Turtle Beach contributes to the development of new Mangrove forests, which help combat future carbon emissions.
Mangroves are a high-impact and carbon-dense natural climate solution that also provide important protection in coastal areas. They enable fish and water species to thrive, as well as create valuable timber products that resist rot and insects. Mangroves have been named the “wonder tree” due to their ability to store four times more carbon than a rainforest, yet unfortunately over 35% of the world’s Mangroves have already been deforested.
Climate Impact Partners, a well-respected specialist in carbon market solutions for climate action, created the Million Mangroves program so companies can commit financially to driving one of the highest impact climate and blue carbon solutions available.
Reducing Hazardous Substances
Our products are regulated by the laws on the Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS), Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE), the European Union Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the European Union Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EC), and California Proposition 65. As required, our products are marked with required regulatory labels and safe use information.
Sustainable Packaging
We have re-engineered our product packaging over time to reduce the overall size and allow for more efficient shipping, which reduces the carbon output associated with shipping our products.
We are proud to say that we have been actively working to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics from our packaging since 2015 and have effectively eliminated most of the plastic waste in packaging that cannot be recycled. Notable examples include replacing plastic blisters with a paper-pulp tray (the tray inside the box that holds the product) and eliminating plastic hang tags and plastic bags and twist ties that hold cables. Some plastic packaging materials remain where we have not found a solution that ensures delivery of a quality product to our customers, but we are continuing to research innovative ways to eliminate plastic completely.
As part of our ongoing efforts, in 2022, certain models of our headset range achieved a 90% reduction in plastic from their original packaging. For example, we reduced the plastic use in packaging by 88% (by weight) for our Stealth 600X Gen 2 model (as compared to our Stealth 600X Gen 1 model). With some of our other models, we reduced plastic use by 87%-96% (by weight). By 2024, we aim to eliminate plastic use in packaging in select products.
Respawn!
We design and build our products for a lifetime of play. However, we know there will come a time when you want to upgrade to the next level. We encourage end-of-life stewardship for our products and support our retail and distributing partners’ recycling programs. The separate collection and recycling of our products at the time of disposal will help conserve natural resources and ensure that they are recycled in a manner that protects human health and the environment. For more information about how you can help support proper recycling of our products and where you can drop off our old products for recycling, please contact your local authority or the store where you purchased your product.
In addition to supporting responsible recycling of our products, we support resource responsibility and waste reduction through our refurbished product program. Through this program, we refurbish returned products so they can help our customers play at their best level, rather than sit in landfills. Click here to learn about our refurbished products.
COOPERATIVE PLAY: OUR EMPLOYEES
Our employees are our greatest assets in our efforts to drive innovation. In 2024, we remain committed to our fundamental goal of ensuring that Turtle Beach is a great place to work.
We are focused on continuing to build a corporate culture of integrity and respect, with the goal of working together to drive our business to be creative, innovative and competitive. To achieve these objectives, we have adopted and regularly communicate to our employees the following core values:
- Leadership: We take initiative and lead in our respective roles. We lead by example.
- Teamwork: We work as a team and value diversity. We win together and lose together.
- Excellence: We take pride in our work and seek excellence in everything we do.
- Integrity: We are honest, direct and transparent in all interactions.
- Innovation: We innovate to deliver better products and constantly improve every aspect of our company.
- Execution: We do what we say we will do and take personal accountability for our commitments.
We seek to create a highly collaborative culture in which employees feel a sense of pride that their input is sought after and valued. We believe that our culture is a long-term competitive advantage for us, fuels our ability to execute and is a critical underpinning of our employee talent strategy.
We provide competitive compensation and benefits programs for our employees. In addition to salaries, these programs (which vary by employee level and by the country where the employees are located) include, among other items, bonuses, equity-based compensation awards, retirement plans, healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, paid time off, advocacy resources, and flexible work schedules. Additionally, qualifying employees receive fully paid parental leave (USA, 8 weeks). Furthermore, qualifying employees are eligible for special leaves, including leaves for family emergencies, military service, jury service, and leaves to care for a seriously ill, injured, disabled or elderly dependent, in accordance with applicable state and federal programs.
LOCAL AREA NETWORK: GIVING BACK
We are proud to serve the communities in which we work and live. Turtle Beach provides budgets for each global office to make local donations, which allows employees to decide how those donation dollars are best utilized in their respective communities. We believe these donations help our employees feel more connected to their communities through their work at Turtle Beach, ultimately helping with employee satisfaction and retention, which in turn creates long-term value for our business. We also support the broader community by giving back to causes that we, our customers, and our partners care strongly about. In 2023 and beyond, we plan to continue our efforts to support local organizations in our communities that share our common goals of bringing people together and giving back.