2022 Annual Impact Report: Press Release

Playing for the Planet Alliance’s 2022 Annual Impact Report was published today, revealing strong progress on decarbonisation from studios, a survey of nearly 400,000 gamers showing that players want studios to do more with activations in games potentially reaching up to 630 million gamers. 

Facilitated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Playing for the Planet Alliance was launched in 2019 and includes major studios including Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox, Supercell, Ubisoft and Unity with 6 more studios joining the initiative in 2022 including the Pan African Gaming Group, Humble Bundle, Gameloft, Gamigo, Ohbibi and  Sumo Group.

Key headlines from the report include:

• Progress on decarbonisation underway: 64% of members have raised their decarbonisation ambition to achieve net-zero carbon or carbon neutrality, with more than half of Alliance members now adopting science-based methods for carbon accounting and reporting. 
• Survey of nearly 400,000 gamers shows players are keen on green:  70% of respondents saying they’d be open to changing their environmental behaviors; a figure which rose to 81% after playing green activations as part of the Green Game Jam.
• Real world impact is growing: Studios are making progress on a new plastic packaging protocol, guidance on running more sustainable events and the Green Game Jam saw some 2.5 million trees planted with the first ever climate march taking place in the Riders Republic game.

The ambition for 2023 is to provide new guidance for the industry so that it can align with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and then create new tools built for the sector to reduce its carbon emissions with the 2023 edition of the Green Game Jam taking on the theme of restoring three critical species’ ecosystems. 

Sam Barratt, Chief of Youth and Advocacy for the UN Environment Programme, said:

“While there is still a long way to go, 2022 was a breakthrough year for Playing for the Planet, with more studios signing up to science-based targets and the player survey showing a real demand for such content in games.”

The Alliance was founded to encourage the video game industry to reduce their emissions, and to help inspire gamers to develop sustainability awareness and commit to climate action.  The Report is a UNEP publication that aggregates progress made by Alliance members, summarizes new annual commitments and serves as an accountability mechanism with those unable to fulfill their pledges seeing their membership put on hold.