Using Gaming to Drive Renewable Energy Adoption

Although polling data continues to show that people say they care about climate change, actions are not following those sentiments.

In order to win the fight against climate change, we need to stop talking about Armageddon and start doing things that appeal to people’s passions and which also, as a by-product, will help fight climate change.

This solution is one such example.

The idea is to get game creators (Call of Duty, for example) to create bonus levels, equipment, and experiences within their games that can only be accessed by players who prove they use renewable energy in their home.

Proof would be very simple, such as a mobile phone code texted to an individual every three months by their renewable energy provider – much like banks do when you open online banking – which players would type into their devices to grant them access to the extras.

The only way to get access to these particular add-ons would be to purchase renewable energy (i.e. there would be no in-game purchase option for these add-ons to bypass using renewable energy).

Such a process would create a big incentive for gamers to switch to renewable energy, as it would be the only way for them to gain access to in-game add-ons they are passionate about, and also offers them a chance to showcase those add-ons to other players.

For the games companies, although it is not a revenue stream it is a very low cost way to deliver on their CSR objectives; if hundreds of thousands or even millions of households switch to renewable energy because of their games, that is a big publicity coup for them.

The key to this idea is that it achieves a climate change behaviour change without any reference to the climate, instead touching on people’s passion (in this case gaming) and utilising that passion to drive a desirable change. Such a process could be applied to many other areas of life.

A further interesting element is that gamers could then become big drivers of the shift to renewable energy; those living in shared accommodation would push everyone to adopt renewable energy, and kids could push their parents as well.

More and more people would then see that renewable energy often costs the same as other providers, so would start to see the shift as a win-win move.

The benefits within the game provide the nudge to get people to perform the behaviour, switching to renewable energy, in a far more effective way than banging on about the same old climate arguments that haven’t worked for the last 30 years.