How the gaming industry is tackling climate change
Explore how the industry is influencing gamers to protect the environment from the ongoing threat of climate change.
Originating in the 1950s, the gaming industry now boasts a revenue market of over USD 200 billion. It’s a constantly evolving industry shaped by emerging technological advancements, with more manufacturers now designing online video games presenting the ongoing threat of climate change. With apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and natural disaster environments at the forefront of new titles, brands are leveraging their trade to encourage users to be more conscious of their impact on the environment.
Connecting gaming and the environment
With 2.69 billion gamers in the world, utilizing storytelling narratives to depict the potentially devastating impacts of climate change provides the opportunity to engage a large population, encourage more sustainable practices, and fundraise for when environmental disasters strike.
Environmental narratives to raise awareness
In 2017 at the United Nations climate summit in Germany (COP23) and then again at COP24 in Poland in 2018, gaming manufacturer Homatash presented a game entitled Earth Remembers. Set in the 2040s, global sea levels are now rising at a rapid pace due to melting ice sheets, and players are tasked with fighting the effects of global warming based on an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) model. Designed to challenge users — who represent different global countries tackling the climate crisis — the IPCC model simulates the real-life effects of decisions made on carbon emissions, GDP, and the global temperature.
Additionally, independent Canadian studio Breaking Walls devised a new chain of game titles to encourage gamers to transform their practices and make actionable changes to save the planet. In Away: The Survival Series, players perceive the world through the eyes of a sugar glider (a gliding possum) and are tasked with keeping the animal alive in an ever-shifting landscape destroyed by the climate crisis, with storms, forest fires, and natural disasters ravaging the planet.
Funding for environmental disasters
Game manufacturers have also capitalized on their large fanbase to fundraise for climate initiatives. In December 2019, Space Ape video games raised USD 120 thousand to aid people suffering from the Australian bushfires by donating the proceeds to wildlife and humanitarian charities.
In 2022, the popular game Fortnite raised USD 144 million for Ukraine relief efforts, supporting funding for Direct Relief, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the World Food Programme.
Similarly in 2022, Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, raised USD 5.4 million to support humanitarian efforts.
More sustainable materials to tackle e-waste
In addition to environmental narratives to raise awareness and games being used for climate investment, manufacturers are also paying more attention to how they design their physical products, such as choosing more sustainable materials with safer disposal. Then, when a console or video game is thrown away, the decomposing materials are less likely to reap long-term and damaging environmental impacts.
Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) waste, or e-waste, can have huge effects on human health and the environment, as chemicals from disposed products can infiltrate air, soil, and water. Harmful substances commonly found in EEE products, like lead and mercury, can harm animals, humans, and plant life by acidifying rivers and oceans, poisoning wildlife and contaminating drinking water.
Further, burning huge quantities of e-waste results in mercury, hydrochloric acid, and nitric acid being released into the atmosphere, contributing to air pollution and global warming.
How is the gaming industry tackling climate change?
The gaming industry is creating more roleplay-style and survival games to educate players on the impact of climate change. Meanwhile, gaming manufacturers are being encouraged to amplify efforts to include environmental and sustainable themes in their narratives with a host of governmental schemes.
Playing for the Planet Alliance
Facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the gaming industry, the Playing for the Planet Alliance was launched at the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019.
Aiming to address the largest and most challenging environmental threats through gaming, creativity, innovation, and technology, the Alliance follows five goals to tackle climate change through the industry:
- Promoting the efforts of the interactive entertainment industry in exploring issues of sustainability and the environment
- Encouraging members to lead on specific topics
- Coordinating new research, practices, and standards to promote growth
- Collaborating with national and international organizations, trade bodies, and major trade shows to extend reachability
- Providing guidance to decarbonize the industry
Green Game Jam
Organized under the Playing for the Planet Alliance, the Green Game Jam is an annual project which supports studios to integrate environmental themes. In its first four years, the Alliance has planted more than 2.5 million trees and raised over USD 700 thousand for wildlife conservation.
In 2020, the first year the Green Game Jam was launched, 42 games joined the initiative, reaching more than 275 million gamers and planting over two million trees from in-game activations. The scheme worked with Ecosia, a search engine that plants trees, and Ecologi, an organization specializing in delivering on the reforestation goal.
In 2021, more than 25 global studios, including Ubisoft, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Mojang Studios, committed to incorporating sustainable activations into their games, with the aim of conserving forests and oceans.
In 2022, partnering with Ecosia and Ecologi for the second time, over 275 million gamers were reached and over two million trees were planted.
In 2023, over 40 studios participated, raising more than USD 700 thousand for wildlife conservation in the Amazon, Himalayas, and Western Indian Ocean.
In the fifth edition of the Green Game Jam in 2024, companies are encouraged to focus on three themes:
Climate
Particularly concerning food, as the food production system is responsible for 30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a leading driver of biodiversity loss.
Pollution
Focused on waste, primarily municipal waste which accounts for 2.24 billion annual tons with an estimate of 3.88 billion tons per year by 2050. Almost one billion tons of food is wasted each year.
Nature
With a concentration on restoring nature, protecting forests and wildlife, and encouraging biodiversity in gardens, parks, and centers. Discover how businesses can protect biodiversity and conserve habitats for species.
How can businesses play their part?
For gaming manufacturers, devising games with environmental threads, themes, and storylines — or implementing them into existing games — is an actionable step to both promote your brand as sustainable and environmentally conscious, and make gamers aware of the decisions their consumer practices can have on the environment. Include add-ons and purchases which are then reflected in the real world, such as buying trees in-game to plant in real life. Developers can also donate money raised from in-game purchases to environmental organizations.
Game manufacturers can also aim to decarbonize their operations, reducing the levels of carbon emissions entering the environment through the production and distribution of their games. Utilizing low-carbon power, reducing fossil fuels emitted from factories and similar facilities, and opting for zero-emissions electricity and renewable energy are all ways gaming manufacturers in particular can be more sustainable.
At a more basic level, game developers should take care to use technology sustainably, particularly when it comes to electricity use and disposal of electronic products. Overusing energy and disposing of electrical devices improperly, and unsafely, could exacerbate the climate crisis with increased toxic emissions, increased carbon footprint, reduction in supply, additional pressures on resources, and energy insecurity.
Transforming internal processes, operations, and materials, as well as informing the supply chain from the very top, ensures manufacturers play their part in helping to preserve the health of our environment.
Managing climate change regulations
Review how climate change targets and limits on emissions will continue to impact industry and compliance requirements in our webcast recordings below.