Environmental and climate protection in the games industry

The consequences of the climate crisis are already very noticeable today. Business, politics and society need to act now to address the effects of the worsening crisis.

The games industry takes its social responsibility in this area very seriously. In Germany alone, the majority of games companies are already taking action to operate even more sustainably, such as by implementing climate and environmental protection schemes, putting measures in place to save energy and reduce heating usage, opting to use green energy, and more. And around the world, growing numbers of games companies have committed to far-reaching environmental strategies.

game, too, is doing its part to protect the environment. The association and its subsidiaries – the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK), the Foundation for Digital Games Culture, the esports player foundation, the collecting society VHG and game events – are reducing carbon emissions or eliminating them entirely wherever possible. Their corporate carbon footprint (CCF) is also calculated by an external partner, and any emissions that cannot (yet) be prevented are fully offset by various climate protection projects. In addition, since June 2021, game has been a member of the Playing for the Planet Alliance, an environmental partnership between the UN and the games industry, and provides active support for the project. game also supplies games companies with information on how they can reduce their impact on the climate; for instance, game publishes a free . In early 2022, game joined forces with Koelnmesse to launch the gamescom goes green sustainability initiative. This new sustainability concept made gamescom the first climate-friendly games event of its size, and numerous initiatives, programmes and partnerships have arisen as a result. One of them is gamescom forest, a sustainability project with the goal of reforesting a climate-stable mixed woodland near Bayreuth, financed in part through donations from the community and from exhibiting companies at gamescom. Every year, further steps are taken to avoid and reduce carbon emissions, and all remaining emissions from the principal event are fully offset in cooperation with the climate experts at ClimatePartner.