Com2uS Europe joins and plants over 500 trees in the Harz region, Germany

Welcome to our new member Com2uS Europe!

 

The Berlin based studio joined GamesForest.Club as a Bronze Member, planting over 500 trees in the Harz region, Germany.

Who is Com2uS Europe?

 

Com2uS Europe is part of Com2uS group, an international publisher of mobile and PC games. The team of 50+ employees from over 17 different nationalities provide localization, marketing, community management, customer support and game operations services for a wide selection of games, published by our Korean parent company.

 

As a major mobile gaming publisher, the company’s portfolio is diverse: Summoners War is a top-grossing mobile RPG, consistently ranking in the top-5 grossing charts in France and Germany. We were also proud to launch Summoners War: Chronicles on PC in 2023.

What is their take on sustainability?

 

Com2uS Europe follows the motto: reduce, re-think, repurpose.

 

As a mobile gaming company, they are aiming to digitalise all processes throughout the company to reduce resource waste. This includes a fully digital application process, online personal files, as well as the transmission and storage of all reports and documentation

 

Additionally, Com2uS Europe offers multiple environmentally friendly transportation options for all employees. For one, they cover 100% of the cost for Deutschland Ticket allowing the team to use every bus, subway, tram, s-Bahn and train (except for IC, ICE) throughout the whole of Germany. Secondly, they also offer the option to reimburse costs for rental e-bikes, e-scooters, and e-cars. And last but not least, all employees have the option to lease a high-quality bike with their partner Jobrad to get through Berlin.

 

As an IT company, Com2uS Europe needs to update their hardware every few years. However, the company makes sure that the old but perfectly working pieces of equipment do not go to waste. That means gifting them to team members, and donating them for good causes to be used by less fortunate individuals to further their education and job prospects.

 

CEO David Mohr on the decision to join GamesForest.Club:

 

“Changing our actions and working more towards sustainability internally was a good start. However, we wanted to give back a little bit more and make a positive difference in the regions around us. That is why we started looking into different options and were excited to find GamesForest.Club, as they bring together not only our interest in sustainability and restoring nature but also our passion for gaming.”

 

Why did they choose to support Bergwaldprojekt?

 

“We decided to support the project “Restoring Lost Forest in the Harz Region” due to its geographical closeness to Berlin and our employees’ personal connection to the area. Over the years, we have seen how the forest alongside the beautiful hiking trails was destroyed by bark beetles.

The region around Harz is home to rich German culture such as the celebration around the Walpurgisnacht, a nightly festival that brings out all the witches and devils to dance on top of the mountain, as well as many not-so-widespread myths such as the Roßtrappe, a story about a princess escaping her perpetrator by letting her horse jump hundreds of meter distance from one cliff to the next.  We hope that our contribution helps restore the area to its former glory.”

 

 

Thank you Com2uS Europe and David Mohr for joining, planting over 500 trees, raising awareneess and making a difference!

We are excited to see your forest grow!

Upright Games joins and plants 550 Trees in the Harz region, Germany

We welcome our newest member Upright Games!

 

The Frankfurt based studio joined GamesForest.Club as a Bronze Member,

planting 550 trees in the Harz region, Germany.

Who is Upright Games?

Upright Games is a small team of experienced video game developers, using their passion to create mobile games that provide long lasting fun experiences for players. The company is based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and is best known for developing Royal Revolt 2, which they are live operating in it’s 10th year now.

What is their take on sustainability?

 

As a young and growing video game development studio, Upright Games recognises their role in contributing to environmental sustainability. The team is committed to minimizing their impact on the environment and promoting a more sustainable future through our actions and practices.

They have taken initial measures, such as switching to green energy and joining GamesForest.Club “because we believe that reforestation is a critical step towards reducing carbon emissions and preserving our natural resources.  At the same time, we are committed to promoting social responsibility and ethical business practices. We strive to ensure that our employees are fairly compensated and have access to a safe and healthy work environment. We will continue to evaluate and improve our practices to make a positive contribution to our planet and communities.”

CEO Felix Pietsch on the decision to join GamesForest.Club:

 

“We are grateful for the existence of the Games Forest Club and its initiative to encourage video game companies to offset their carbon emissions by planting trees. This has given us an opportunity to make a meaningful impact towards sustainability and we are proud to be a part of it. We encourage our peers in the gaming industry to join us in this effort towards a more sustainable future.”

 

Why did they choose to support Bergwaldprojekt?

 

The team has decided to support “Bergwaldprojekt” with their membership, and even with their own hands as tree planting volunteers.

“Bergwaldprojekt supports the transformation towards natural and resilient forests, protects ecologically valuable cultural landscapes, and has outstanding experience in restoring peatlands. What makes this special for us, however, is that all these measures are implemented with the help of volunteers.

As a result, the more than 150 project weeks per year have a doubled effect. In addition to reaching the project goals, the collaborative work on-site leads to a deepened appreciation of the beauty and vulnerability of our natural world. This experience sparks an ongoing transformation process, enabling participants to integrate their newfound awareness of environmental protection and sustainability into their everyday lives.”

 

We welcome Upright Games onboard and are looking forward to seeing their real and digital forest grow (btw Upright Games even brought their own tree model 🤩)!

NovoServe joins GamesForest.Club restoring afromontane forests in Ethiopia

NovoServe joins, restoring over 28k of afromontane forests in Ethiopia

NovoServe B.V. is a global Bare Metal Dedicated Hosting Provider that offers a wide range of hosting solutions to businesses of all sizes. The company was founded in 2015 and has since established itself as a reliable provider of dedicated servers.

The company is committed to sustainability and takes a proactive approach to climate protection. They have implemented various measures and projects to actively reduce their carbon footprint, including the use of renewable energy sources, investing in energy-efficient infrastructure, and now joining GamesForest.Club.

CCO Benjamin Schönfeld on their descision to join the GamesForest.Club:

“NovoServe joined GamesForest.Club because we share the organization’s values of community, innovation, and sustainability. By working together with other like-minded companies and individuals, we can help drive positive change in the gaming industry and beyond.

We believe that the gaming industry has an unique ability and important role  to play in promoting sustainability and environmental responsibility. By supporting the development of sustainable games and gaming practices, by providing sustainable infrastructure, we can contribute to a more sustainable future for the industry and the planet as a whole.”

The team has chosen to support the Desa’a project in Ethiopia. By restoring over 28k of afromontane forests, they make a crucial contribution to preserving biodiversity, bringing water back to this region, and lifting the rural communities out of extreme poverty.

We welcome NovoServe onboard and are looking forward to seeing their forest grow!

Formation Games joins GamesForest.Club and protects forests in Ethiopia

Formation Games joins GamesForest.Club and protects forests in Ethiopia

We are thrilled to introduce our new member, Formation Games. Thank you for joining and restoring over 28k sqm of afromontane forests in Ethiopia!

 

Formation Games is the independent game studio formed by a team of veteran videogame developers and Football execs. The leadership team is led by CEO Jonty Barnes, former GM of Bungie and Chairman, Alex Horne, the former CEO of the Football Association.

 

Based out of London, Formation Games’ first title will be the upcoming CLUB. Delivering more than management, CLUB is the first free-to-play football ownership game that allows players to build, own and trade their own football teams. The studio believes in bringing players an authentic feeling of club ownership through features based on real-world player performances.

 

Formation Games’ Business Partnership Manager & Co-Founder, Mike Burrows on their decision to join GamesForest.Club:

“We founded Formation Games to create rewarding sports games and revolutionise the way fans engage with the teams and players they love. One of our core values is ‘Make The Right Call’; we want to lead from the front and be a studio that recognises its responsibilities and is committed to sustainability. We look forward to working with GamesForest.Club to not only meet this commitment, but also to explore innovative ways to bring sustainability and the environment into our games.”

 

We welcome Formation Games onboard and look forward to seeing their forest grow!

How sustainable action can build a better company

How sustainable action can build a better company

According to the World Economic Forum, while 90% of executives say sustainability is necessary, only about 60% of businesses have actually implemented a comprehensive sustainability strategy. We have a big gap between belief and action, and it needs to be addressed.

 

Building and acting on a sustainability plan can be daunting. Although the benefits of a healthier planet are obvious, it can be more difficult to recognize all of the benefits a business stands to gain with ESG measures.

1. Competitive candidates want to work with sustainable companies.

A 2021 survey from Deloitte found that nearly half of Gen Z and 44% of millennials said their personal ethics drive their career choices. Another study by The New York Times discovered that 51% of American business students would be willing to take a pay cut to work for an environmentally responsible company.

 

This means that if you want to attract fresh, bright talent, your company needs to show that it takes social responsibility seriously. Invest in the future, and the stars of the future will come to you.

2. Consumers want to do business with companies that care.

Recently, the WWF commissioned a study that discovered a 71% surge in global online searches for sustainable products, meaning that more consumers than ever are seeking out ways to reduce their environmental impact.

 

On top of this, customers are now looking to shop with brands that align with their personal values, including eco-consciousness. This means that engaging in sustainability will boost not only your internal branding, but your external branding as well.

3. Your existing team will be happier and more productive.

Numerous firms have conducted research that proves sustainability is good for business, with one study showing that choosing the right sustainability initiatives for your business can boost operating profits by as much as 60%. Additionally, research by Accenture proved that companies with high ESG ratings have up to 3.7 times better operating margins than lower-scoring competitors.

 

Social responsibility leads to happier, more productive team members, too. When your organization is purpose-driven, employees feel more motivated and energized, boosting productivity and worker engagement.

4. Sustainability is the Best Way to Build a Positive Reputation.

Lowering society’s global carbon footprint is a high priority for many people, and this means that an ESG strategy should now be an integral part of your business strategy. Not only is it good for the planet, but it’s good for all aspects of business, too.

Setting an example with a social responsibility plan also positions you as an industry leader and shows that you are willing to act on your convictions.

If you are interested in knowing more or becoming a member of the GamesForest.Club.

Visit us here: https://gamesforest.club/blog/join-the-club/

10 Weeks to save the Games Industry – Our 3 Month sustainable Business Trip through Europe

10 Weeks to save the Games Industry​

Our 3 month sustainable business travel through Europe

 

By Daniel Pearson

The games industry has a sustainability problem. From the rare earth metals used in electronic components to the vast array of plastic merchandise produced by gaming brands, or the thousands of people who fly to international events each month, the world’s biggest entertainment industry is having a widespread negative impact on the world around us.

 

It’s not news to many of us, and there’s so much negative news about the environment at the moment that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, that there’s nothing we can do to change for the better. But we can. Simple, sustainable working and production methods can vastly reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact of everything associated with games and gaming – but we need to act now and we need to act decisively.

 

So what do we need to do, and how do we apply that to our own businesses and personal habits? And how can games make a positive impact on other social issues such as diversity and mental health? We joined Matchmade CEO Jiri Kupiainen on his mission to find out – spending 10 weeks travelling around Europe (by train, of course) to visit various events, studios and spokespeople to to talk about current opportunities and obstacles as well as their view on the role of the games industry on climate change

Here at GamesForest, we’re obviously primarily concerned with supporting the games industry to reduce their ecological footprint, but the series also gives a detailed perspective on current developments within the European games industry. Read on to find out more about the topics covered in each episode.

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Week One – Berlin

 

We begin in Berlin, visiting Riad Djemili from indie developer Maschinen Mensch at the Saftladen collective, where we discuss the unique power that games have to make players really consider their actions and consequences, because of the agency of the player – something no other medium is able to utilise in the same way. Riad talks about two of the key projects from his career, Spec Ops: The Line and Curious Expedition 1 & 2, how they encouraged players to question the sort of actions they would normally take for granted, and why we should be using this power to effect more positive change.

 

Next up was Berlin Fashion week – perhaps not an event you’d normally associate with gaming. Given that the industry isn’t exactly renowned for its snappy dressing, what possible lessons do we have to learn from a week of high fashion and designer clothes? We speak to Liz Thieme of fashion upcycling startup Rebirth Studio to find out more about our responsibilities in producing merchandise in a sustainable way, and why you might want to think twice before filling a warehouse with t-shirts covered in your brand logo.

Watch the Episode

Week Two – London

 

Our second video takes us to London for Pocket Gamer Connects to discuss the impact of the cost of living crisis on gaming and how we can use the growth of our market to address the ways that a suffering economy can make sustainably harder to commit to. Speaking to Steel Media CEO Chris James and global culturisation expert Kate Edwards about the impact of events and economics, how we’re now seeing a generation of politicians who grew up with games and why the cultural influence of gaming can help to educate players and put pressure on publishers to improve their practices.

 

At the event, we also caught up with Sebastien Borget, COO of The Sandbox; Incrmntal

CEO Maor Sadra and Cybo CMO Philip Hickey about their personal approach to sustainability in their games and the ways they believe gaming can be a positive influence on the world.

 

FInally, we meet Miniclip President and founder Rob Small about the shift to mobile with its massive global audience and how that reach can be used to spread the message of sustainability to billions of people around the world in an engaging and, most importantly, enjoyable way.

 

Watch the Episode

Week Three – London Pt. 2

 

In this week’s episode, Jiri and Maria remain in London, talking to two of the city’s biggest gaming companies: UsTwo and CCP. Our focus here was the discussion of games as human environments – how gaming worlds are social spaces, places for people to spend time being human and interacting with others.

We begin with María Sayans, CEO of UsTwo, the creators of Monument Valley, Alba and Desta. She tells us about her belief in the power of games as storytelling devices, as well as the role that technology plays in creating communities – especially for GaaS. María also talks about the difficulties of being someone in the industry who doesn’t fit the perceived typical demographic profile of a gamer, and why the industry is not always a friendly place for older professionals, or players. One of the ways we can combat this, she believes, is through a broader representation in games themselves – across race, gender and age.

We also discuss the concept of ‘B Corp’ companies, a certification program for organisations who want to take a stance on social issues, sustainability and other causes.

Our second guest is Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of EVE Online creators CCP. Hilmar gives us an insight into the perspective the company’s Icelandic roots have instilled in CCP, and the fundamental nature of EVE Online’s approach to material scarcity and the decision making around their collection, as well as the emphasis on player actions and their consequences. Creating spaces which allow players to make bad decisions, then to fully understand the connotations of those decisions, empowers people to make better decisions in the real world, says Hilmar.

Not only that, Pétursson says we need to understand the distinction between meeting the survival needs of humanity and our emotional needs, and why games can meet those emotional needs with a much lower environmental impact than they might in the ‘real world’.

Watch the Episode

Week Four – Paris and Marseille

Moving on to France, Jiri visits Quiet CEO Anouar Benattia to discuss the hyper casual market which originated in the area. We discuss the problems faced by games which rely on increasingly expensive and competitive UA mechanics, and what this might mean for the future of the genre.

Anouar also talks about how mobile gaming studios can give back to social causes in tangible ways, either by making direct contributions to charities from revenues, or by helping charities with their own user acquisition programs by offering ad space.

 

After experiencing some of the less attractive aspects of rail travel in Europe, Maria visits Remy Bompar of The Sandbox – a gaming IP which has pivoted to a Blockchain and NFT based economy. They discuss the pushback from gamers and the press against Web 3.0 and crypto currencies, and how these concepts complicate the onboarding process for players.

 

Obviously, the blockchain has a bad environmental reputation – increased energy costs have been at the centre of the dialogue around everything related to this new economy. But Remy says that the company is pioneering ways to make blockchain games more efficient in their energy use by picking the right network and infrastructure, actually leading the company to use less power across its production and runtime than previously.

 

Finally, Jiri speaks to Maarten Noyons from IMGA (International Master’s Game Association) to get his perspective on the changing landscape of French gaming and mobile gaming as a whole, particularly the potential impact of the Metaverse.

Watch the Episode

Week Five – Barcelona

Maria and Jiri make it to sunny Spain by bus just in time for the Gamesforum user acquisition & ad monetization conference, where Jiri speaks to Matej Lancaric, Felix Braberg & Jakub Remiar of Two and a Half Gamers. The conversation focuses on the challenges facing mobile games around user acquisition and monetisation, and why abandoning the model and the medium would be premature, despite the difficulties presented by a struggling global economy and lower returns from marketing spend.

Two major topics are likely to have major impacts on this market – generative AI and subscription based, microtransaction-free mobile titles. Will the ‘Netflix model’ and the influence of systems like Stable Diffusion or Midjourney really change the way we create and market mobile titles?

 

Next up are two perspectives on the hyper-casual market, from Éric Tourníe of Tactile Games and Mobidictum’s Batuhan Avucan, alongside Éric’s experience of travelling by train to Barcelona all the way from Copenhagen.

 

In our last section, Jiri and Maria decide they need to break their  habit of taking the easiest, often not particularly healthy, option when eating on the road – something anyone who’s a regular business traveller can probably appreciate. So, he and Maria pay a visit to a Barcelona rooftop to speak to Adela Martínez of Huertos in the Sky, an organisation which promotes growing vegetables in urban environments to reduce transport costs and help people eat more healthily. They also discover that ‘bathroom salad’ is much more appetising than it sounds…

Watch the Episode

The Future

We’re halfway through our journey now, and we can’t wait to show you the rest of our European Tour. We’ll be posting another summary of those visits at the end of the ten weeks, but for now you can subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss any of the updates.

See you on the road! (Or the rails…)

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Our Response to the Controversy around Carbon Credits

Our Response to the Controversy around Carbon Credits

A recent article published in the Guardian has shaken the credibility of the Voluntary Carbon Market by claiming that offsets coming from over 90 percent of REDD+ projects validated and verified by the leading agency Verra involve “phantom credits”. The article cites recent research to slam the methodologies used by Verra to estimate baseline deforestation scenarios in restoration projects. These baselines are an important function in a complex formula that is used to estimate the number of carbon credits generated by a restoration project. They are, anyway, difficult to estimate since they account for counterfactual “what if” events, but Verra claims that they are using the most advanced science and boots-on-the-ground approaches to ensure that their methodologies are robust, accurate and location-based.

Verra was quick to respond to the Guardian’s claims and issued a Technical Review of the research papers that were referenced in it.. Among the main arguments is that the research cited by the Guardian is suffering from flawed methodologies itself. The criticism lies in that the researchers are taking a generalised and over-simplified approach when comparing their baseline scenarios with the forest protection potential of the restoration sites. These limitations are acknowledged by the research team itself in their article, but the Guardian makes no mention of them. Most importantly, the cited article is a pre-print, meaning that has not yet gone through the peer review process, which is a prerequisite for publication in a scientific journal. Leading organisations in the Voluntary Carbon Market, like Sylvera and Everland stepped in to reject the Guardian analysis as “flawed”, only a part of 50 organisations representing a mix of developers, ratings platforms, NGOs, marketplaces, intermediaries, and industry bodies penning an open letter in support of high-integrity carbon markets.

How the GamesForest.Club responds to this Controversy

Carbon credits have been in use for decades in the Voluntary Carbon Market, which has grown significantly in recent years as efforts to decarbonize the global economy increase. They are now recognised for their important dual role in the battle against climate change. They enable companies to minimise their carbon footprint and support decarbonization beyond that, therefore accelerating the broader transition to a lower-carbon future. At the same time, sales of carbon credits help finance climate solutions on the ground.

 

Methodologies and standards need to be scrutinised constantly and consistently, to ensure that carbon projects are real, legit and deliver concrete and measurable results towards the 1.5oC. The currently observed trust bottleneck can only provide useful lessons and push for more transparency and accountability. Frontier technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchains can play a role in ensuring this. They should be further explored.

 

Here at the GamesForest.Club, we provide clear guidance to our members on what would constitute an environmentally sound climate strategy and offsetting programme. This process starts by estimating the annual CO2 emissions generated by gaming companies. Our members can then have the opportunity to push toward net-zero emissions by setting clear targets and by supporting an array of carefully selected forest restoration projects in four continents. These projects are actively planting thousands of trees, while supporting the livelihoods of local communities and custodians of the newly planted forests.

With relation to the recent controversy, the restoration portfolio of the GamesForest.Club:

• does not include any projects validated and verified by Verra
• does not include any REDD+ projects

We approach the climate adaptation and mitigation potential of forests in a holistic way. Our assessment methodology aims to ensure maximum carbon absorption in the most cost-effective way, while also integrating multiple aspects of restored ecosystem integrity. This means that we do not only focus on carbon sequestration, but also integrate multiple sustainability criteria in terms of ecological, social, and economic gains, such as protecting biodiversity; improving human health and wellbeing; increasing food and water security; delivering goods, services, and economic prosperity for all. To achieve this, we assess the projects we support on the basis of the International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration, highlighting the role of local biodiversity and reference ecosystems and connecting carbon offsetting with social, community, productivity and sustainability goals. In the meantime, we advocate for the adoption of highly-ambitious restoration projects by the gaming and creative industry, keeping in mind that climate adaptation and forest health is not just about carbon.

 

Nature-based projects are not the cheapest offset option, but they are our preferred choice for their many benefits besides the carbon offsets they offer. As trees grow, they draw carbon out of the air, which reduces the concentration of carbon dioxide. The CO2 is then stored in living biomass which provides important ecosystem services and habitat for the web of life that a forest supports. At the same time, local communities living inside or around these forests benefit directly from the food, clean water, materials, and climate resilience that comes with the new forest.

 

To achieve the maximum co-benefits, we actively support and advocate for carbon offsetting through agroforestry projects verified by the Plan Vivo standard. This allows us to harness the potential of protecting ecosystems and wildlife biodiversity, while safeguarding social heritage. This offers significant added value to our members’ corporate climate, but also social responsibility. Offsets are created based on either the carbon captured by newly planted trees or the carbon not released through protecting ‘old-growth’ trees inside their pristine habitats. These projects are based all across the world, from growing forests in Germany, to planting food forests in Indonesia and protecting rainforests in Peru.

The gaming industry is the biggest entertainment sector, with a massive carbon footprint that needs to be radically reduced.

Not just for the sake of saving the planet (the ultimate objective on its own), but for saving the industry itself. Our mission is to empower gaming companies to take steps to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible before considering carbon offsets. Carbon credits should certainly not be used to just buy them a clean conscience or create a mirage of sustainability in the eyes of their gamers. They offer a valuable tool, and when used to supplement a company’s mitigation efforts, it can create a genuinely sustainable and resilient foundation for the future of the industry. With 3.2 billion gamers by their side, gaming companies might become the game-changer in the fight against climate change.

 

Gaming on the Way to net-zero

Gaming on the Way to net-zero

by Pavlos Georgiadis

We all love games! They have been pure entertainment since ancient times, drawing us into tricks, riddles and all kinds of challenges for the mind, body and spirit. Enter the Olympic Games. Today, they allow us to explore virtual worlds and do things that are impossible to do in real life. They give us the choice of being a warrior or a magician going on compelling quests to have fun times together with our friends, both online and physically. Even a casual game on our phone can help us deal with the stress of everyday life. They offer satisfaction through power-ups, level-ups, bonus features and coins as we make progress in the gameplay.

Games drive engagement and it is no surprise that many companies and educational institutions have started to implement the best secrets of gamification in their operations, products, and experiences. They are also becoming one of the best careers of the 21st century, with the overall global games market reaching 180-200 billion $USD worth in 2022. There are gamers and YouTubers who have managed to find a niche to earn millions just by playing games. Esports, game streaming and gaming tournaments can be one of the most lucrative sources of revenue nowadays. But there is a downside.

Gaming has a big Appetite for Energy

A typical gaming computer uses 1,400 kWh/year. This is six times more energy than a typical PC and 10 times more than a gaming console. The most intense system setups can use twice as much energy. Worldwide, in 2016 gaming computers consumed $10 billion worth of electricity (or 75 TWh) a year. While this is just 2.5 percent of total energy consumption by PCs around the world, it accounts for 20 percent of global computer energy use. This is the equivalent output of 25 standard electric power plants.

 

Some emerging technologies and activities are driving energy demand even higher. Cloud-based gaming, processor overclocking, higher-resolution connected displays broadcasting today’s mind-blowing graphics, sophisticated storylines and virtual reality gaming can each have this effect. Mining is another of the many factors that contribute to a product’s carbon footprint. Extraction of minerals, production, transportation, and factory output for gaming gear is pumping millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The result is a widespread but poorly understood source of energy consumption.

Demand for cloud computing will only continue to grow and by 2025, worldwide annual data traffic will increase by 60% to 175 Zettabytes (175 trillion Gigabytes), with cloud computing applications driving the majority of this growth. The main climate impact of cloud computing lies in the vast amounts of electricity required to power the servers and keep them cool. Although gaming is currently only 7 percent of global network demand, with more than 95% of that being made up of downloading content, the possibility of streamed games could rapidly change this network footprint. One recent study estimated that if gamers moved to streaming over the next decade, carbon emissions could rise by 30 percent.

What is net-zero Gaming?

The energy use from this growing industry has gone unmeasured due to the lack of reliable energy data. This means both the gaming industry and the global audience of 3.07 billion gamers themselves are missing out on potential ways to save energy, lowering electric bills and greenhouse gas emissions in the process. The bottom line: Gaming provides almost half of humanity with a positive outlet, but it’s about time the industry levelled up its efforts towards net-zero gaming. At the GamesForest.Club, we propose looking at the challenge from the perspective of a global movement that -up to now- has been associated more with climate pollution than climate solution.

 

We have already seen significant interest and engagement within the gaming industry since the launch of the GamesForest.Club in November 2021, where all climate mitigation activities taking place in the real world are visualised in a digital twin forest. Companies are stepping up, opening their eyes to the problem in the real world and onboard a journey towards net-zero emissions. This involves several steps, some of which are summarised here:

1. Carbon accounting. You can solve a problem only if you can measure it. Companies quantify greenhouse gas emissions attached to their operations, supply chains and product development, so that they have an understanding of their climate impact. This offers the possibility to set concrete goals to limit their emissions.

2. Sustainable forms of travel. Hundreds of thousands of industry actors and gamers flock to almost 300 gaming events each year. By avoiding flying and choosing less polluting means of transportation like trains, reduces the burden on our warming planet.

3. Supporting carbon reduction projects. To reach their climate goals, companies support a variety of carbon projects by investing in forest protection initiatives that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These represent concrete climate action on the ground and are crucial in the fight against deforestation and biodiversity loss.

Although these areas do have an impact in addressing the carbon footprint of the gaming industry, they are themselves not enough. The prime goal for an industry in the era of climate action should be to reduce carbon emissions at source. In simple words, the fact that climate mitigation technology (such as creating a new forest) makes meaningful contributions to reducing corporate carbon footprints, should not give the green light to continue business-as-usual. Carbon offsetting should only be complementary to genuine commitments towards reducing carbon emissions in the first place, but also to promote a behavioural change.

Today, more than ever before, consumers expect carbon neutrality from businesses across all industries. Companies setting climate goals now can still have the chance to make net-zero business a strategic competitive advantage. Wait any longer, and the tightening regulation and timelines will decide the measures for them. Not to mention that investors increasingly request written climate and biodiversity strategies aligned to limiting a global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, before they commit their money in any venture. Reaching that goal requires a lot of changes in strategy and operations and is in itself a challenge in today’s volatile environment. Luckily, gaming companies know best how to design massive challenges that encourage action that is not only impactful, but also fun. We welcome all competitors to join the race!

Wisentgehege Springe: saving iconic Species from Extinction

Wisentgehege Springe: saving iconic Species from Extinction

Dead trees are replaced by young native oaks at Wisentgehege Springe.

The protective grid around the seedlings will remain for 30 years to protect them from herbivorous animals.

Photo: Pavlos Georgiadis

Located 30 km outside Hannover, Wisentgehege Springe is a place of recreation and a beautiful excursion destination. It’s an ideal place to discover and experience nature while learning to appreciate the beauty of the wildlife around you. The park is spread across 90 hectares of meadows and woodlands, providing a protected habitat for nearly 100 species, including several critically endangered ones.

 

Managed by our restoration partner Niedersächsische Landesforsten, Wisentgehege Springe is one of nine forest experience facilities in Lower Saxony. The park is a beloved destination for locals, attracting up to 180,000 visitors each year who come to marvel at an extraordinary display of animals and plants they may not normally come in contact with. It has, therefore, become a key spot for public education and raising awareness about nature conservation in the region. At the same time, its conservation projects have global significance, providing excellent opportunities for research that ensures the continued existence of biodiversity in the wild.

 

GamesForest.Club is supporting the wild park through a tree planting project that aims to preserve and expand the 300-year-old forest that provides food and shelter to the protected animals.

 

In recent years, the forest has felt the impacts of climate change, with drought and insect attacks killing a significant number of large trees. With the support of the gaming industry, the character of the landscape will be preserved by planting native oaks. A special heavy-duty grid will be installed around each seedling for 30 years to protect the tender bark and shoots of the young trees from browsing animals.

A Refuge for endangered Animal Species

The European Wood Bison

European wood bison at the Wisentgehege Springe wild park.

Its favourite diet consists of grasses, bark, leaves, and buds.

Photo: Wisentgehege Springe

The wild park borrows its name from one of its most iconic conservation programmes for the European wood bison, called wisent, which is the last representatives of wild cattle in Europe.

 

Back in 1928, their population was reduced to just 54 individuals on the continent. The species is still listed as “near threatened,” but its population is increasing thanks to successful reintroduction of bisons in wilderness areas through numerous projects supported by the wild park. Today, Wisentgehege Springe is one of the four regional centres for bison breeding in Germany.

 

 

Three Species of Wolves

A polar wolf at the Wisentgehege Springe wild park. Originating from the Canadian Arctic Islands and Greenland,

these animals live in packs, showing distinct social behaviours.

Photo: Wisentgehege Springe

Three species of wolves from different areas of the world are also protected in the enclosures of Wisentgehege Springe: the common Eurasian wolf (Canis lupus lupus), the timberwolf (Canis lupus lycaon) and the polar wolf (Canis lupus arctos).

Over time, protecting these species became necessary because their former hunting grounds have been gradually turned into grazing land. This changed things tremendously for wolves, pushing them to hunt farm animals. Nowadays, wolves are heavily hunted thanks to the “sneaky predator” myths that circulate about them.

The Mongolian Wild Horse

Przewalski‘s horses running at Wisentgehege Springe. They differ significantly from today‘s domesticated horses,

having 66 chromosomes – two more than domesticated horses. Their external appearance is striking as well.

They do not have a forelock but an erect mane, and they change coat and mane together every year. 

Photo: Wisentgehege Springe

Another species saved from extinction due to conservation efforts at Wisentgehege Springe is the Mongolian wild horse, also called Przewalski’s horse. The last remaining populations of this wild horse were discovered in the Mongolian deserts in the second half of the 19th century.

 

In the following one hundred years, hunting and competition for grazing land have brought this noble species to the brink of extinction and the wild populations in nature were wiped out. It is only thanks to conservation programmes in wild reserves and zoos that this species still exists today, and several reintroduction projects are now underway.

 

These horses have been kept at Wisentgehege Springe since the late 1970s, and over 60 foals have been born inside the wild park since then. Springe horses have contributed to the establishment of free-roaming populations in Mongolia and China.

The importance of ex-situ (off-site) Conservation

According​​ to the International Union for Nature Conservation, over 42,000 species are threatened with extinction around the world. Threats to this biodiversity include habitat loss and fragmentation, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, diseases and climate change. The wild park Wisentgehege Springe is an excellent example of ex-situ conservation, aiming to support species’ survival in the wild and maintain their genetic diversity. The main goal is to increase the number of healthy individuals, create self-sustaining populations and ultimately remove a species from its threatened status.

 

Off-site conservation protects plants and animals outside of their natural habitats through a range of techniques, including gene banks, captive breeding and artificial propagation.

 

Ex-situ conservation measures are complementary to in-situ methods, such as reforestation and forest protection, which is always the primary objective. They provide an ‘insurance policy’ against extinction and play an important role in recovery programmes for endangered species and ecosystem restoration.

remote control joins GamesForest.Club with their CEO Hendrik Lesser as club ambassador

remote control joins GamesForest.Club with their CEO Hendrik Lesser as club ambassador

We are thrilled to announce that remote control productions (RCP), along with 4 of their 17 studios, has joined us as a member to promote forests in Indonesia and Germany, and that  their CEO Hendrik Lesser was ready to become a GamesForest.Club Ambassador!

Remote control productions GmbH is an independent games production house founded by Hendrick Lesser, who has 24 years of industry experience.

With the company’s group headquarters in Munich, Germany Lesser has built a family of independent development studios throughout Europe and beyond, which today consists of 17 teams in six countries with more than
450 passionate game makers. 

RCP teams have shipped over 400 projects, including premium and F2P games for Windows, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, Mobile, VR and web-based platforms since 2005. Their unique setup allows family studio teams to concentrate completely on development while dealing with the rest as a business partner.

Besides his commercial roles, Lesser is an avid ambassador and lecturer to bring games as culture technique forward, for example by being President of the “European Games Developer Federation” (EGDF) or as MD and board member for the Bavarian games industry association “Games Bavaria Munich”, funding member of the VSK Videospielculturverein (Video Game culture club) and with his various different other roles supporting the community and interfaces with the rest of the society.

Building value with a long-term view and making decisions with the future in mind are just two of the many reasons why RCP joined GamesForestClub. The company has games about the rainforest in its portfolio, and the founder has roots in Indonesia, so choosing to support the Gula Gula Food Forest Program was an obvious fit. In addition, German Beech Jungle is close to RCP’s headquarters in Munich, so the team is going to visit this forest project in person. 

We are grateful to have remote control and their studios Chimera Entertainment, Stillalive Studios,  Wolpertinger Games and Zeitland as partners and hope to make the future greener together. 

 

We welcome remote control productions on board and look forward to seeing their forest grow!  

 

To learn more about remote control productions, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the GamesForest.Club Community!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the GamesForest.Club Community!

Dear GamesForest.Club community, we would like to thank each of you – our members, partners, individual donors and all of our friends – for your support in 2022! 

 

We started the nonprofit GamesForest.Club around a year ago with the goal of supporting the efforts of gaming and creative companies to become climate neutral as quickly as possible. This year, we welcomed dozens of new donors, among them Sandbox, Popcore, Xsolla, CD PROJEKT RED and others. Currently, we have over 50 supporters: gaming companies, e-sport teams, developers, conference organizers and publishers. We also onboarded new forest partners and currently have 16 forest projects to support all over the world.

All together, we protected nearly 1.4 million square meters of forest and planted 75,000 trees. 

Let’s continue growing the club of warm hearts in 2023 and summon the power of games and entertainment to conquer climate change. The future is bright for the Gaming Industry! 

Wishing you playful adventures, exciting user experiences and powerful communities in 2023!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

GamesForest.Club at COP27

GamesForest.Club at COP27

Georg Broxtermann, co-founder of GamesForest.Club attended COP27 and is now ready to share his report from the frontlines of the conference and what gives him hope despite the unsatisfactory outcome of the conference.

I was invited by the EIT Culture & Creativity and the Italian Pavilion to give a talk about the GamesForest.Club at COP27, so I went to Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt. Here are my impressions from the conference and what gives me hope in the fight against climate change although the results from the conference itself are very disappointing – again.

COP27 was the most international conference I’ve attended within the last 30 years. The multinational mix of people from all nations and tribes (many indigenous people were there) can be motivating and positively contagious and gives the impression that this is the place where final decisions are made. But frustration kicks in when you listen to climate change effected farmers, young activists and representatives of exploited and indebted states who loudly fight for their rights. Many frustrated looking country delegates, bankers and multinational companies present their ideas and concepts. Nobody I’ve talked to expected a satisfactory result from the main conference and this overall mood was tangible.

As Coca Cola was the main sponsor of the conference there were only sugary drinks and water available, and I haven’t found any vegan and only a few vegetarian foods on the whole COP area. And this although this guy was demonstrating at the entrance how energetic you can be as a vegan (I expect him to be one). It is shocking that COP in its 27th edition is not able to manage a climate-friendly conference food-wise and totally missed on sending out a better message.

In the so-called blue zone where most of the country and company pavilions were located, I have attended a couple of panels and discussions. A very impressive experience was to attend the panel about Colonialism, Climate Change and indigenous people. For indigenous people colonialism continues and they now feel to experience the new “green colonialism”. In our hunt for gas, rare minerals, and resources we are exploiting not only earth but ourselves. It was eye-opening to hear the indigenous view of our, western, economic cycles. If you want to learn more about this subject, you’d read this book.

 

Want some numbers why they are damn right to complain? Indigenous peoples have the best record of success in protecting tropical forests. In the Amazon, deforestation rates in indigenous territories are less than 15% compared to a rate of 76% in territories not inhabited by indigenous people (Finer et al. 2021).
However, only 1% of current climate finance has directly reached these communities.

I have also never seen and listened to so many farmers at a conference. Farmers from around the globe feel to be in the hands of profit squeezing companies, just listen to this heartbreaking story from this farmer from Pakistan.

Many countries presented their resilience and emergency plans for the upcoming climate catastrophe, Tavula / Solomon islands and other island nations don’t see a future and expect to lose their existence. Countries from the south demand debt relief….it can be depressing walking through the blue zone. And the concepts from the western and northern countries? To be honest I haven’t seen a compelling Vison from any of them. Take the net zero plan from Germany for example. I don’t expect anyone being really excited about that. Democracies seem to have a hard time to tell a compelling narrative with attractive short-term goals which also increases the chance to become re-elected.

 

The most compelling vision for their future was coming from Saudi Arabia. A top polluter today they want to become net zero by the year 2030 and have a clear path and strategy to do so. Decarbonization of their industry, carbon capturing with huge industrial plants and the greening of their country with the planting of ten billion trees until 2030. Within this Saudi Green Initiative, they promote gigantic and futuristic visions like NEOM and the Line (search for it, massive). Is this Greenwashing on another level or something the democratic west can learn from? Would like to hear your thoughts on this?  

 

It was exciting to present some of the best practices from our first year at GamesForest.Club at the Italian Pavilion and to hear and learn from my co-panelists Elena Gigliarelli, Daniela Sani and Filippo Calcerano. 

What gives me hope? Entrepreneurship and initiatives from the creative industries!

 

At the main COP event people discuss problems but at the many side events it’s all about solutions. 

I especially want to mention the Future Economy Forum which did a fantastic job in bringing entrepreneurs, politicians and activists on stage which devoted their life to tackle climate change and build an impressive community around it.

The most passionate people are working restlessly on solutions to battle climate change and the side events were packed with impact investors and entrepreneurs like my regeneration buddy Philippe Birger from Climate Farmers with a clear plan to stop exploitation of our soils, regeneration of our farmlands and ecosystems, and an attractive business model for farmers (carbon credits).

 

Another strong movement which gives me hope that we’ll find new ways to scale climate solutions faster is the increasing involvement from companies and people from the creative industries. From Art, Gaming, Fashion, and many other parts of this vibrant industry there are ideas, products and companies that will help to increase acceptance of climate friendly processes and products.

 

For transparency reasons: I was flying to Sharm el Sheik in economy class and “offsetted” my flights with 4 tons of carbon from our Partner, the Gula Gula Project, a wonderful agroforestry project in West Sumatra, Indonesia.

 

Why four tons? Please read our latest blogpost here.

The days of guilt-free flying are over – How to fix the climate impact of airline travel

The days of guilt-free flying are over - How to fix the climate impact of airline travel

Climate change has changed forever the way we view flying. The first thought goes like this: airplanes burn fossil fuels, which creates carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas causing climate change. However, things are a little more complicated. Besides CO2, aircrafts generate ozone and methane. They form condensation trails (contrails), and may increase high-altitude cirrus clouds. All these combined, contribute to global warming and the cumulative effect of flying an airplane at altitude is twice as bad as burning the same amount of fossil fuel at ground level.

It is worth noting this fact, as the world’s policy, science and industry leaders gather in this year’s COP27 at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. According to atmosfair, one person’s return flight on Economy Class from different airport hubs of the world to the idyllic resort town on the Red Sea has the following carbon footprint:

Frankfurt to Sharm El Sheikh: 1,721 kg CO2

 

San Fransisco to Sharm El Sheikh: 8,955 kg CO2

 

Toronto to Sharm El Sheikh: 6,289 kg CO2

 

Rio de Janeiro to Sharm El Sheikh: 6,656 kg CO2

 

Melbourne to Sharm El Sheikh: 10,198 kg CO2

 

Shanghai to Sharm El Sheikh: 5,182 kg CO2

 

Singapore to Sharm El Sheikh: 4,973 kg CO2

 

New Delhi to Sharm El Sheikh: 2,197 kg CO2

 

Johannesburg to Sharm El Sheikh: 3,546 kg CO2

These figures are averages, taking into account which aircraft models are typically used on flight routes, as well as the estimated occupancy of seats on board those planes. They include only the CO2 generated by burning jet fuel, not any emissions connected to the construction of the airplane itself. And there is something else: a first class ticket on a long-haul flight emits, on average, four times as much as an economy seat. This is because more expensive seats take up more space and weight on the plane. First and business class also tend to end up with more empty seats.

One might ask: is this a lot? Just to put things into perspective, driving a middle class car for a year (12,000 km) generates 2,000 kg CO2. And the per capita annual CO2 emissions of a person in Bangladesh is 600kg. In fact, there are 37 countries -from Ethiopia in Africa to Nepal in Asia- where the average person emits even less CO2 in a whole year.

Last month, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) -the UN body responsible for limiting the carbon footprint from international air travel- adopted a long-term aviation climate goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. In recent years, the air transportation industry has faced growing pressure to deal with its outsized role in the climate crisis. Currently responsible for up to 3 percent of global CO2 emissions, the sector’s switch to renewable fuels is proving difficult, even if the aeronautics industry and energy companies are seeking progress. According to airlines, it will require investments of $1.5 billion between 2021 and 2050 to decarbonize aviation.

 

The challenge is massive, considering that air transportation is projected to add to the atmosphere three times more carbon by that year. This only means one thing: we cannot rely on the aviation industry to do our offsetting for us. Every time we take a flight, just as every time we drive the car or leave our computer screen on, we have to be responsible for our own carbon emissions.

This is particularly relevant to the games industry, which attends an average of over 265 tracked events every year. Hundreds of thousands of industry actors and gamers flock into these events, putting a significant burden to our warming planet. Our Travel & Restore programme helps to mitigate this, enabling companies and individuals to stand up to the challenge, by offsetting carbon emissions connected to their traveling. 

Get in touch today, to get an estimate of your CO2 footprint and more information about how you can make a very real contribution towards forest restoration.

Interview with Pavlos Georgiadis

Meet Pavlos Georgiadis, a climate action specialist

Hello!

 

This time we interviewed a very inspiring person from our team, Pavlos Georgiadis, a biodiversity, ecosystem restoration and community-led climate action specialist at GamesForest.Club.

 

In the last 15 years, Pavlos has worked with indigenous and rural communities in over 20 countries in Europe, Asia and America at the nexus between traditional ecological knowledge, rural innovation and policy change. During this time, he has produced and curated award-winning science communication content that helped spark dialogues and inspire action on local and global transitions.

Hi Pavlos, tell us a bit about your background and what you did before joining GamesForest.Club

 

I was born inside an ancient olive grove in the northeastern coast of Greece, so I developed a curiosity to explore the natural world early in my life. This interest has motivated my studies on Plant Science (The University of Edinburgh); my postgraduate degrees on Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) and Environmental Protection and Agricultural Food Production (University of Hohenheim); as well as my doctorate at the Department for Societal Transition and Agriculture (University of Hohenheim). In the last decade, I have delivered projects as an independent consultant for companies, non-profit organisations and large institutions, such as the European Commission and the European Parliament, focussing on data-driven innovation for sustainable land management and community-led climate action. In parallel, I am teaching university courses on Sustainable Food Systems and Ethnobotany at the American University of Armenia.

What do you do at GamesForest.Club? 

With my background in the natural and social sciences, I bring to the GamesForest.Club 15 years of research and professional work on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration. During this time, I have worked in rainforests, community gardens and organic farms, as well as universities, herbaria and botanic gardens, studying the relationships between humans and plants in over 20 countries. This experience combines theoretical and practical knowledge about what works in biodiversity protection, but -most importantly- also about what doesn’t. My key duty at the GamesForest.Club is to help the team navigate through the full life cycle of ecosystem restoration: from project design to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Our aim is to upgrade real-life conservation work into meaningful, playful and innovative products and services that enable massive engagement into climate action.

 

How do you find new projects for GamesForest.Club and make sure they are legit?

Besides my own scientific observations on sustainable landscape management, I am actively following the advances of international, interdisciplinary research and policy development on biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration and climate change. This forms a valuable source of knowledge when searching for restoration projects to accommodate the requirements of our members and supporters at the GamesForest.Club. Indeed, there are some inspiring restoration activities taking place all over the world, implemented by highly competent organisations and communities that combine local knowledge with scientific expertise. These projects are checked for relevance, quality and capacity to deliver, before approving them for inclusion in our database.

 

What are your criteria for selecting new forest restoration partners?

One of my very first tasks when I joined the GamesForest.Club was to develop a policy for assessing and selecting our restoration partners. Our guiding principle is to provide the most possible benefit to nature. In practice, this means supporting projects that ensure maximum carbon absorption from the atmosphere, but also integrate more sustainability criteria in terms of ecological, social and economic gains. This includes protecting native biodiversity; improving human health and wellbeing; increasing food and water security; delivering goods, services and economic prosperity for all. Once we find partners that share the same values, it is important to establish reliable and regular coordination with the teams working on the ground, embarking on our journey towards protecting the Earth’s forests together as a community.

What, in your opinion, makes GamesForest.Club unique when it comes to nature protection?

 

It is beyond doubt that the planet’s most fragile ecosystems are disappearing like never before, and this is due to human activity. Climate change is by far the biggest challenge humankind has ever faced and we are losing biodiversity at unprecedented rates. This calls for unprecedented action to reverse these negative trends before they reach dangerous and irreversible tipping points. The GamesForest.Club proposes looking at the climate crisis from the perspective of a global movement that, up to now, has been associated more with climate pollution than climate solutions: the global culture of 3 billion gamers. With the stakes no less than the survival of our own species, there is only a small window of opportunity left to act and the journey ahead looks more like a massive challenge. Luckily, gaming companies know best how to design heroic challenges in ways that encourage players to rise to them and, actually, to have fun with them. As the leading climate organisation within the industry, the GamesForest.Club aims to leverage this potential, by using the elements that create the gaming experience to promote behavioural change and support citizens in choosing carbon-positive lifestyles. While doing so, we are connecting gaming companies with one of the best climate solutions that exist: protecting and regenerating the planet’s forests.

 

What is the biggest challenge in your work and how do you overcome it?

 

Our work aims to merge frontier technologies and game mechanics with natural processes. Even though, at first glance these might look like entirely disparate worlds, there are exciting analogues that can be drawn between them. The key question is whether our knowledge from the natural world can be combined with our expanding technical capabilities for the benefit of humanity. This has happened before, since nature has always inspired human ingenuity and invention. The challenge today is to broaden the perspective, putting natural ecosystems, the needs of other species and the global climate into the equation. On a day-to-day basis, this requires collaboration with partners from different backgrounds, adapting to different cultures of thinking and getting accustomed to the language of different disciplines. I respond to that by upskilling myself in the areas of decentralised tech development, gamification and Web3.0.

How do you take care of the environment in your daily life?

 

I have dedicated my professional life to exploring and explaining the wonderful world of plants. In my personal time, I am an avid urban gardener, trying to utilise every bit of garden, balcony, roof or wall space that can be used for growing plants. My interest varies from year to year: sometimes I like to grow vegetables, others I go for different flowering plants. I like experimenting with permaculture and edible forest concepts, adding plants in specific locations to enhance each other through their various natural functions: providing physical support, extra nutrients, protection and so on. Our garden is teeming with life, different birds and beneficial insects, including important pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

 

If you were in the government, what would be the first thing you’d change in your country?

I would work to pass a Climate Law to drive the rest of public policy and provide a direction of travel for public authorities, businesses and citizens. This would set concrete targets, standards and processes for a variety of sectors: from agriculture and forestry, to housing, energy, transportation and -crucially- the carbon markets.

Thank you for an inspiring interview, Pavlos! For those who want to learn more about reforestation and how the gaming industry can help fighting climate change, we invite you to our webinar “Forest Restoration Powered by the Games Industry” on 23 November, 6pm CET.

 

Pavlos will discuss: 

• What are our top priorities for Ecosystem Restoration?
• How do we monitor progress of restoration work on the ground?
• How can you make a difference by helping us take ambitious action to protect forests and the climate?

 

Register now!

REGISTER

Popcore joins GamesForest.Club and protects forests on 3 different continents

Popcore joins GamesForest.Club and protects forests on 3 different continents

Hello everyone, 

 

We, at GamesForest.Club, are excited to announce that Popcore has joined us as a member to protect forests in Peru, Indonesia, and Germany!

 

Popcore creates beautiful, oddly satisfying ad-driven free-to-play mobile games, like Parking Jam, Scavenger Hunt, Tap Away and Pull the Pin! Based at Berlin HQ, the teams have developed and released chart-topping games that have been downloaded more than 500 million times across iOS and Android.

 

“At Popcore, we are taking steps to do our small part in the fight against the climate crisis. Together Popcorians have decided to partner up with GamesForest, to not only work towards offsetting our own CO2 footprint, but more importantly support amazing reforestation projects all over the world.” – Maik Matischak, Director of Corporate Communications at Popcore, says.

 

With that in mind, the team decided to support three projects. One of them is the Amazon rainforest in Peru, home to jungle giants on tall buttress roots, covered in lianas and epiphytes. They house sedate sloths, playful monkeys, and secretive jaguars. This jungle also stores large amounts of carbon and is essential for a healthy climate on our Earth.

 

When investing in this project and protecting the rainforest, Popcore ensures that the land is legally secured for all future and left as undisturbed unique ecosystems and is only visited for research and education projects. Furthermore, local forest guardians ensure the integrity of the conservation areas and protect them from mining, logging, agriculture, and hunting.

The company has also chosen to support the “Old-Growth Forests in Eastern Germany” project which is aimed to protect Uckermark forests from industrial forestry, agriculture, and infrastructure development. 

 

The area is a biodiversity hotspot in Germany. The hilly landscape is full of precious habitats: old beech and idyllic alder forests, clear lakes and streams, moors, and orchid meadows. The forest is also home to various animal species. In addition to otters, beavers, and pond turtles, sea eagles, fish eagles, and lesser spotted eagles, as well as black and white storks, are part of Germany’s natural treasures. 

 

Finally, Popcore is also reducing its carbon footprint with the Gula Gula Food Forest Program. The project’s goal is to reverse poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss in an integrated manner through the restoration of degraded lands in West Sumatra, Indonesia. 

 

“Our first projects with Gamesforest are located in Peru, Indonesia and even our home turf of Berlin. We’re passionate about doing our bit to reverse poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss and look forward to our journey!” – Maik says.

 

We welcome Popcore onboard and look forward to seeing their forest grow! 

 

To learn more about Popcore, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

A unique Christmas reward for your employees and clients

A unique Christmas reward for your employees and clients

Restore nature and reward your employees and clients with personalized certificates. Your impact will be visualized through unique Christmas models. Get a beautiful Christmas tree, a lucky cat, a cute gift or a fancy hat-tree to make your digital forest even more festive.

To get any of these models, take part in one of the following activities before 31 December 2022:

• Run a donation stream to protect forests;
• Gather donations during events or organize your own charity event;
• Refer another company and inspire them to protect forests.

All donations will go into environmental protection and will be represented in your company’s digital forest.

Pick your Christmas model

Christmas Tree

This is not your average Christmas tree. This tree not only includes its little purple friends, mushrooms, but is also growing its small red trees. A truly amazing Christmas forest.

Artist: Péter Lányi

Christmas Gift

A cute little gift with a branch from a Mountain-ash, the Witch-wood Tree. There is a saying that if the berries are bright, the winter will be snowy and cold (perfect for cozy evenings!)

Artist: Péter Lányi

Lucky Cat

This little cutie will bring luck into your forest’s life. Make a wish and see how it comes true in 2023! Though be aware: cats need attention, so be sure to come and check your forest every now and then 🙂

Artist: Mona Wu

Hat Tree

A funky tree that looks like a Christmas hat and will bring joy and happiness into your forest. With its bright colors, it will definitely make your forest stand out and shine!

Artist: Svetlana Pushnitsa

Bring Christmas into the forest

Reward your employees and clients with personalized certificates

We have also prepared unique certificates for each of your employee! It will show the company’s engagement in forest protection, GPS data of the project, the amount of planted trees / protected square meters of forest and will be fully personalized for each employee.

Get a personalized certificate

Buy your Christmas presents with nature in mind (for our friends based in Germany)

We know that buying presents for your colleagues, family and friends is especially vital during the Christmas period. We found a solution not only to make people around you happy but also to support forests and animals. Use GamesForest.Club’s link to Amazon Smile and make donations while shopping!

What is more, if your company is based in Germany, you can get tax benefits from donations! Corporations such as GmbH or AG (not OHG, KG or GbR) have an income-reducing effect up to certain maximum limits: Max. 20% of the total amount of your income is tax-deductible as a monetary donation per year. If the donation amount exceeds the cap, the remaining amount can be deducted from tax in the following year as a so-called donation carried forward.

GamesForest.Club at the UpLink World Economic Forum 2022

GamesForest.Club selected as one of the winners of the UpLink World Economic Forum 2022 Trillion Trees: Amazon Bioeconomy Challenge!

Berlin, 31st of October 2022, GamesForest.Club, a non-profit organisation guiding the Games Industry to a climate-positive future, has been selected as one of the winners of the UpLink World Economic Forum 2022 Trillion Trees: Amazon Bioeconomy Challenge! The Challenge calls for innovative bioeconomy solutions to protect biodiversity in the Amazon Forest, restore ecosystem functions and protect livelihoods.

 

The goal of the GamesForest.Club is to protect and restore forest ecosystems with the power of entertainment and together with the good hearts and minds of the Games and Creative Industries. Founded in November 2021, GamesForest.Club is already supported by 48 gaming and entertainment companies. With the help of its members and supporters, the organisation was able to support 15 different forest restoration projects worldwide and plant 73,693 new trees and protect over 1.386.815 m² of forests. With its innovative GamesForest, a digital twin which displays the restoration activities of all its partners, it brings playful transparency to an otherwise rather nebulous market. Companies from the Games and Creative Industries can proudly show their engagement to their employees, players and customers, and to their Industries.

 

Why do we focus on forest restoration? Forests are resources of global significance. They cover 31 percent of the Earth’s land surface (4.06 billion ha) but the area is shrinking, with 420 million ha of forest lost through deforestation between 1990 and 2020. With data-driven and transparent forest protection and restoration, the GamesForest.Club team reduces the companies’ and their players’ ecological footprint, regenerating forests and biodiversity. Innovative solutions like the GamesForest.Club make climate action valuable for companies while taking their brand on a regenerative journey. 

 

Georg Broxtermann, co-founder of the GamesForest.Club: “Forests absorb and store about 30% of carbon emissions from fossil fuels and industry and they have the potential to store much more if we finally enter an age of forest conservation and regeneration of nature. Instead, today greenhouse gas emissions deriving from deforestation alone make up to 12% of global carbon emissions. This is frightening and we need to reverse this trend as soon as possible. The Games and Creative Industries could have a major impact in doing so.”

 

Meet the GamesForest.Club:

WebSummit, Lisbon, 2-4 November 

COP27, Egypt, 13-16 November

Learn more about the GamesForest.Club, our forest projects, member- and sponsorships or watch this video for a first impression.

Forest restoration powered by the global games industry

Forest restoration powered by the global games industry

At the GamesForest.Club, when we talk about “protecting nature” we mean a lot more. On the backend of our advocacy for protecting, preserving, restoring and honoring the incredible diversity of life on our warming planet, our day-to-day operations involve research and coordination with our forest restoration partners all over the world. These are organisations and communities that are highly competent at what they do, are ahead of the curve and embody knowledge that make them the most effective agents of change.

 

In practice, our work deals with a variety of issues: from plant communities, pollinators, grazing ecology, wildlife corridors, habitats, and bioregions to social justice, protection of land rights and gender equality. All these are subjects that are not normally associated with global warming, at least directly, but are essential and critical to the living systems that we aim to defend and strengthen. Ultimately, this understanding does not only concern the plots of forest lands that we support, b​ut extends to the ecosystems that surround them: wetlands, peatlands, grasslands, mangroves, farmland and rangeland.

As we are trying to do our bit to halt planetary heating, our work focuses on three important aspects:

Halting deforestation and maintaining forests

 

Forests are arguably the most important thing humanity can do to keep the climate crisis in check, as global temperatures continue to rise. Our top priority is protecting primary forests, sometimes also called ‘old-growth forests, from destruction. They are the largest, most resilient, most carbon- and species-rich ecosystems on earth. Letting them continue to grow, and to absorb carbon from the atmosphere is the best investment we can make for our future.

Restoring degraded lands and expanding agroforestry

 

Agroforestry is a land use system that combines varied and dynamic combinations of trees, woody perennials, annuals and livestock. The diverse combination of plantings supports the ecological needs of the land, as well as the economic needs of the farmers and communities living from it. Trees provide shelter from wind, slow down water erosion, and create microclimates favourable to crops that might not have grown in open sunlight. Their roots anchor the soil, falling leaves nourish the ground, and the variety of plants growing on the land provide pollen for beneficial insects, including pollinators. And there is a direct benefit to the climate: fast-growing trees absorb significant amounts of atmospheric carbon. Due to the multi-functionality of agroforestry systems, they are praised by scientists for their potential to regenerate degraded lands, while supporting farmers’ incomes.

Reducing and ceasing net carbon emissions over time

 

Video games are humanity’s most favourite form of entertainment, with an estimated three billion players worldwide. Being aware of the energy needs of cloud and blockchain-backed gaming, we are here to raise awareness, engage and empower the broad ecosystem of game developers to stand up to the challenge. We are not only offering some of the best carbon offsetting opportunities to our members, but -maybe more crucially- we see games as the platform where players can acquire new knowledge and take action against the climate crisis.

 

The approach we follow at the GamesForest.Club protects and restores ecosystems, addresses equity, and creates life. But it also creates opportunities. If implemented rapidly and globally, restoring the world’s forest ecosystems can prevent global warming from reaching dangerous and irreversible tipping points. Is it ambitious? Of course. Is it possible? Absolutely. With your support.

Pavlos Georgiadis

Head of Ecosystem Restoration, GamesForest.Club

Pavlos Georgiadis is a biodiversity, ecosystem restoration and community-led climate action specialist. In the last 15 years, he has worked with indigenous and rural communities in over 20 countries in Europe, Asia and America at the nexus between traditional ecological knowledge, rural innovation and policy change. 

 

He is an Adjunct Lecturer at the American University of Armenia, instructing academic courses on Sustainable Food Systems and Ethnobotany. He holds a BSc/(Hons) in Plant Science from the University of Edinburgh; an MSc in Biodiversity & Taxonomy of Plants from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; and an MSc in Environmental Protection & Agricultural Food Production from the University of Hohenheim, where he is currently finalising a PhD in Societal Transition & Agriculture. Pavlos is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar.

Thank you for joining us at gamescom!

Thank you for joining us at gamescom!

Hello everyone,

 

Our GamesForest.Club team is back from gamescom and is ready to share all the excitement from last week!

It all started with a beautiful day in the woods not far from Cologne, where we visited one of our conservation projects — “German Beech Jungle”. Together with Tobias from Wohlleben’s Forest Academy, an expert in forests and nature, we learned a lot about wildlife, trees, local biodiversity, and ecology. The hiking tour lasted for 2,5 hours and inspired us even more for further nature protection and forest support.

On the following day, Maria Wagner participated in a European Video Games Society event at devcom. The event, titled Greening the Video Games Industry: Winning Solutions for the Environment, focused on what actions can be taken in the whole video game creation process to support the green transition and help combat climate change.

 

Then we jumped into gamescom week with our GamesForest.Pins that help to support forests in Peru, Indonesia, and Germany. Together with your help, we managed to give away 173 pins! All the donations from this initiative will go into forest protection and planting new trees. We will bring more pins to the other upcoming conferences and gaming events, so say tuned for the forthcoming updates!

We are thankful to all the guests who visited us during the conference. We are also thrilled to share that Dr. Severin Fischer, Head of the Berlin Senate Chancellery, and Michael Biel, visited us intending to protect and improve resilience to the climate crisis of forests in the Berlin-Brandenburg area.

 

By getting our ecological GamesForest.Club-Pins to support the German project, Dr. Fischer and Dr. Biel will help us to increase local biodiversity and create the old-growth forests of tomorrow. We are grateful and honored to have such a guest and look forward to raising environmental awareness on a political level.

Being mentioned in Xsolla’s podcast and joining a party from Altagram and Tantalus concludes our successful journey to Cologne. We are thankful to everyone who joined us at this conference, supported the forests, got the pins, spread the word, and helped us continue fighting climate change.

Sanlo joins GamesForest.Club to protect the last remaining old-growth forests in Peru

Hello everyone, 

 

We, at GamesForest.Club, are excited to announce that Sanlo has joined us as a member to protect the last remaining old-growth forests in Peru.

 

Sanlo is a financial OS for game and app developers on a mission to bring financial independence and control. Sanlo’s first product is a platform that combines financial insights about a company and its products with frictionless access to non-dilutive capital for scalable growth. The team works with a number of small and medium-sized game and app developers, and is on a mission to build financial products specifically created for the gaming and larger creator industry.

 

Sanlo’s goal is to support game developers in ways that promote prosperity without damaging our planet. The team recognizes that the gaming industry’s consumption of electricity and e-waste undeniably adds to the carbon footprint. Sanlo will continue to actively invest in sustainability, climate protection, and nature restoration.

 

With that in mind, the team decided to support one of the conservation projects in Peru. The Amazon rainforest is home to jungle giants on tall buttress roots, covered in lianas and epiphytes. They house sedate sloths, playful monkeys, and secretive jaguars. This jungle also stores large amounts of carbon and is essential for a healthy climate on our Earth.

 

When investing in this project and protecting the rainforest, Sanlo ensures that the land is legally secured for all future and left as undisturbed unique ecosystems and is only visited for research and education projects. Furthermore, local forest guardians ensure the integrity of the conservation areas and protect them from mining, logging, agriculture, and hunting.

 

“Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. By joining the Games Forest Club, we are taking our first step in our commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of the gaming industry and contribute to protecting our planet,” — Olya Caliujnaia, CEO of Sanlo, says.

 

“Games Forest Club is an amazing initiative that brings the gaming industry together and utilizes our collective forces to reduce our carbon footprint. We are happy to join and do our part alongside other gaming companies to contribute to a more sustainable future.”

 

We welcome Sanlo onboard and look forward to seeing their forest grow! 

 

To learn more about Sanlo, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

We visited a real forest from one of our projects!

We visited a real forest from one of our conservation projects

This Sunday GamesForest.Club team had an amazing walk in one of the forests near Cologne. Joined by Stephen Lee (DECA Games), Derk de Geus (Paladin Studios), and Rebecca Lautner (Landfall Games), we met with Tobias Wohlleben from Wohlleben’s Forest Academy. The academy consists of experienced foresters, geographers, ecologists and nature educators.

 

The forest we visited is also part of one of our conservation projects — “German Beech Jungle”. It is a mix of beech and oak trees and is characterized by long-lasting stability. Many highly specialized animal and plant species have adapted to such permanent forests. Most of them depend on particularly old trees; the rare middle spotted woodpecker, for example, can only colonize beech forests when the trees are 200 years old or more.

Together with Tobias, an expert in forests and nature, we learned a lot about wildlife, trees, local biodiversity, and ecology. The hiking tour lasted for 2,5 hours and inspired us even more for further nature protection and forests support.

 

Now it is our time to inspire others at gamescom this week. Meet us in Hall 4.1 Booth C061g – D070g and get your GamesForest.Pins to help us save forests in Germany, Indonesia and Peru.

Meet us at gamescom

GamesForest.Club will speak at the European Video Games Society event at DEVCOM

GamesForest is excited to announce the participation of Maria Wagner in a European Video Games Society event at DEVCOM, the biggest game developer conference in Europe. 

 

This event, titled Greening the Video Games Industry: Winning Solutions for the Environment, will take place on Monday 22 August (13:00-14:30 CEST).  This workshop will focus on what actions can be taken in the whole video game creation process to support the green transition and help combat climate change. In this sense, Maria Wagner will show the main initiatives in the video games sector that promote sustainability across the industry.

 

Maria will be joined by Jens Isensee from Serious Bros and Johanna Pirker from GameLabGraz. Jens will present the Imagine Earth game they have developed about climate change and how it can encourage more sustainable practices in the industry. Johanna will introduce the audience to the potential of gamification in the industry to become more sustainable.

 

Anyone attending DEVCOM is welcome to join us! Secure your place by registering in advance here – seats will be given on a first come, first served basis.

The European Video Games Society is a project launched by the European Commission to better understand the video games sector in the EU and its impact on areas such as the economy, education, wellbeing, among others. Until December 2022, European Video Games Society is gathering experts, thinkers, leaders from the sector – including game developers, studios, creators, and business experts through a series of workshops designed to shape a European agenda for video games. 

 

Want to learn more about this project? Feel free to visit its website and get in touch by email.

Want to contribute to a better EU understanding of the video games sector? Answer this short survey and have your voice heard!

Sustainable travelling — an interview with Jiri Kupiainen, CEO of Matchmade

Hello everyone, 

 

At GamesForest.Club, we pay a lot of attention not only to reforestation and conservation of forests but also to what the gaming companies can do in their daily operations to preserve the environment and conquer climate change. Travelling plays a significant role in the gaming industry: commuting, going to conferences, attending meet-ups and networking events, travelling between offices, and meeting with partners and clients. Fortunately, it is also an excellent opportunity to show your mindful and sustainable approach and make a difference for the future.

 

Therefore, we have interviewed Jiri, a CEO of Matchmade, who is not only an expert in the gaming industry but also has a fantastic experience in sustainable travelling. Jiri has travelled to multiple conferences and events and is now ready to share his expertise about the best and most efficient travel methods while also minimising the damage to our nature.

Hello Jiri! Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us. Let’s start with the main concept: what does sustainable travelling mean to you?

 

It’s been a big source of cognitive dissonance for me for sure. Travel is hugely important to me both in the hippie “bringing people together” sense as well as an important part of business, but I’m also keenly aware that all the jetting around done by my friends and business partners can’t go on like this. So I’m trying to raise awareness of other ways of getting around and thinking of travel in my own admittedly limited ways, like posting about my extensive train trips on LinkedIn.

 

How do you usually commute to work? Go on vacation? On a business trip?

 

Commuting to work nowadays mostly means changing rooms (we’ve always been very remote-friendly and remote-first for a long time now at Matchmade), but when we still had an office in Berlin I would ride my bike there. For longer distance travel, I’m trying to give up flying completely, and so in practice most of my business trips are done by train, and most of my personal trips are done by electric car. I’m intimately familiar with the Berlin-London train trip as well as all the charging stations on the Berlin-Helsinki route.

 

What was the most memorable environmentally friendly trip? Why?

 

I did a lot of Interrail travel when I was younger – just felt like a fun way to see the world, even though I wasn’t necessarily as aware as I’m now of the massive difference in emissions between rail and plane travel. Trains are such a magical way to travel – you can see the landscape change, you meet new people, everything just feels much more human.

 

Do you reduce/offset your carbon footprint after travelling?

 

Offsetting is a complicated topic, but I’ve typically made one larger donation every year to offset my travels. Going forward we hope to just do this through GamesForest.Club for the entire company.

 

What can you tell people who say that sustainable travelling is more expensive and/or time-consuming?

 

Don’t get me started on how messed up subsidies for different forms of travel are right now. I wish our politicians would grow some spines and rapidly shift the subsidies given to the airline industry to sustainable forms of travel. So yes, it unfortunately can be more expensive today to travel in a sustainable manner, but that will hopefully change.

 

As for the time spent, we should reset our expectations and move away from the modern ultra-efficiency mindset. When people hear “8 hours on a train”, they often equate that with “8 hours on a plane”, and that’s completely wrong. 8 hours on a train passes quickly – you can easily get work done, you have plenty of space to move around, there’s endless pleasant scenery outside the window, etc. Travel is a part of the trip and something you should make the most of, not “unproductive time”.

 

What should travelling to the conferences look like in the future?

 

I think the whole business development scene will look very different in the future. I don’t see physical events going away, but it could be that in the future people doing business development work will be much more nomadic, slowly travelling around the world, meeting with business partners and attending events at a very different pace to today. Long distance flights probably won’t go away, but people will hopefully become much more aware of the emissions cost of these & think twice before flying transatlantic for a couple of days at GDC. And I’m happy to see more and more people switching to train travel for inter-EU trips already!

 

What’s your next conference and how do you get there? 

 

Gamescom! I have some meetings in Paris and Amsterdam before heading to Cologne, so looking forward to several awesome train trips in the next couple of weeks.

 

If you had a huge billboard and you could put any message on it, what would you say to the gaming industry? 

 

Our industry reaches 3 billion people, and those people vote. Let’s make sure the politicians hear the call for climate solutions today.

 

Thank you very much, Jiri!

We, at GamesForest.Club, has recently introduced a new way of sustainable travelling to gamescom! Check out our exclusive GamesForest.Pins and learn how you can reduce your carbon footprint with them.

Behind the scenes: production of GamesForest.Pins

Behind the scenes: production of GamesForest.Pins

Hello everyone, 

 

As many of you already know, our GamesForest.Club team has recently released an ecological pins collection for gamescom 2022 — to protect forests and reduce carbon footprint. With each pin worth 25 EUR, you can support one of our conservation projects in Germany, Peru, and Indonesia. Moreover, all GamesForest.Club members get an exclusive pin for free!

A huge thank you for designing these pins goes to Yaldi Games, who not only helped with the whole concept but also designed each pin so that it perfectly represents our mission and projects.

Yaldi Games is a startup game’s developer with the mission to make games that inspire real-life activities. The team is passionate about merging fun gameplay with little nuggets of knowledge, so that players can learn something new while playing.

 

Yaldi Games is currently working on its new game “Wholesome – Out and About” – a relaxing and fun life simulator that connects you with nature and teaches you real life skills. Explore an open world, learn to forage responsibly, cook and craft, decorate and farm from your garden (learning about permaculture!), and customise your own unique character, making friends with the local townsfolk.

The game is exciting for all nature lovers and those who want to learn more interesting and essential facts and skills (real cooking recipes, identifying plants and mushrooms, crafting). Moreover, by talking to its community, Yaldi Games has also discovered that players with physical disabilities are really looking forward to exploring nature through the game, so the studio has committed to creating accessibility features that allow everyone to play.

 

Now Yaldi Games has supported us, GamesForest.Club, in forest protection by designing these unique pins made from 100% recycled plastics that have reached the end of their life cycle and were destined for landfill or incineration. The pins have already arrived and were even delivered to some of our partners. So make sure to get a few as well!

You can read more about our pins and how to get them during gamescom here.

 

To learn more about Yaldi Games, visit their website or follow them on social media:

 

• TikTok
• Instagram
• Twitter
• FB

CD PROJEKT RED joins GamesForest.Club and protects the Amazon rainforests in Peru

CD PROJEKT RED joins GamesForest.Club and protects the Amazon rainforests in Peru

Hello witchers and sorceresses,

 

or more the citizens of Night City?

 

We, at GamesForest.Club, are excited to announce that CD PROJEKT RED has joined us as a sponsor to protect the last remaining old-growth forests in Peru.

 

The creators of such outstanding games as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 have decided to reduce their ecological footprint after one of their community events during gamescom and contribute to the environment. The company’s DACH Team is leading the investment in this project, being eager to help nature and make a difference in conquering climate change.

 

“We’ve been thinking about how to make our events in the DACH region more sustainable for a while, and when we discovered the inspiring  work from the team at GamesForest.Club, it felt like a perfect match. Our company is committed to preserve a balance between growth and care for the environment, for example by reducing energy and water consumption, streamlining recycling operations and setting up green areas on our campus, among many others. By joining this initiative, we further support a cause we deeply care about.” — Carolin Wendt, Senior Community Manager DACH, CD PROJEKT RED.

The protected forest of CD PROJEKT RED is growing in one of the Amazon rainforests in Peru. The area is home to jungle giants on tall buttress roots, covered in lianas and epiphytes. They house sedate sloths, playful monkeys, and secretive jaguars. This jungle also stores large amounts of carbon and is essential for a healthy climate on our Earth.

 

When investing in this project and protecting the rainforest, CD PROJEKT RED ensures that the land is legally secured for all future and left as undisturbed unique ecosystems and is only visited for research and education projects. Furthermore, local forest guardians ensure the integrity of the conservation areas and protect them from mining, logging, agriculture, and hunting. In turn, they gain a sustainable income. 

 

CD PROJEKT RED protected its forest in the region of Madre de Dios, known to be the most biodiverse place on Earth. The protected areas are also located along the Tambopata River, about 30k m southwest of the town of Puerto Maldonado.

We welcome CD PROJEKT RED onboard and look forward to seeing their forest grow! 

 

To learn more about CD PROJEKT RED, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

Xsolla joins GamesForest.Club to protect forests in Peru and Germany

Xsolla joins GamesForest.Club to protect forests in Peru and Germany

Hello everyone, 

 

We, at GamesForest.Club, are excited to announce that Xsolla has joined us as a member to protect the last remaining old-growth forests in Peru and restore alluvial forests in Eastern Germany.

 

Xsolla is a global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the video game industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms.

 

Now the company is aiming toward its plan for more sustainability and climate protection. Joining GamesForest.Club is the first step for Xsolla in this direction. The company wants to create more internal awareness and inspire others to think more about this important topic. Therefore, the team has invested 8,000€ in two conservation projects, making it one of the largest investments and becoming one of the biggest members at GamesForest.Club.

 

Supporting the conservation projects

 

The protected forests of Xsolla are growing in one of the Amazon rainforests in Peru and Eastern Germany. As the team explains, they want to support at least one project in their region and close to their Berlin office. This enables Xsolla to go out and let their efforts come alive. By investing in this project, the company helps restore alluvial forests and gives the Elbe river the space it needs.

 

“Climate change is undeniably impacting all of us. We at Xsolla Europe make our contribution and commit to help protect the environment in Europe and beyond as we partner with GamesForest.Club.” — Miikka Luotio, Regional Director Europe at Xsolla, says.

 

The second project is located in one of the Amazon rainforests in Peru. The area is home to jungle giants on tall buttress roots, covered in lianas and epiphytes. They house sedate sloths, playful monkeys, and secretive jaguars. This jungle also stores large amounts of carbon and is essential for a healthy climate on our Earth.

 

When investing in this project and protecting the rainforest, Xsolla ensures that the land is legally secured for all future and left as undisturbed unique ecosystems and is only visited for research and education projects. Furthermore, local forest guardians ensure the integrity of the conservation areas and protect them from mining, logging, agriculture, and hunting. In turn, they gain a sustainable income. 

 

We welcome Xsolla onboard and look forward to seeing their forest grow! 

 

To learn more about Xsolla, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

GamesForest.Club at gamescom 2022

GamesForest.Club at gamescom 2022

Get the pins to support forests

Welcome back to the “in-person” gamescom 2022. How wonderful to see the games industry from around the globe in Cologne again. Do you want to make your conference experience this time a bit “greener” and support the severely attacked nature? Then this is for you…

 

We are GamesForest.Club, a non-profit organisation guiding the games industry to a climate-positive future by 2030. With data-driven and transparent reforestation and forest conservation, the GamesForest team reduces the companies’ and their players’ ecological footprint, regenerating climate and biodiversity. Innovative solutions make regeneration profitable while taking a brand on a regenerative journey.

 

This year we are at gamescom, Europe’s leading trade fair for digital games culture, together with media:net berlinbrandenburg and GamesCapitalBerlin, which can be found in Hall 4.1 Booth C061g – D070g. The goal is to protect and support forests close to Berlin (Uckermark), as well as forests in Indonesia and Peru.

 

Make gamescom a success for you and the climate. Support selected forest projects to reduce your ecological footprint and show off with the limited GamesForest.Pins.

 

The GamesForest.Pin gives companies an attractive possibility to reward their employees and players by reducing their ecological footprint and supporting biodiversity, showing their impact embedded in a fun and visible Symbol.

 

We, ar GamesForest.Club, curated regenerative packages specifically for this year’s gamescom visitors to directly support three selected forest projects. You choose which one you like, and with every donation over 25€, you will get a GamesForest.Pin out of the limited collection for gamescom 2022. Care, wear and show off your regenerative impact.

 

Do you believe that carbon sequestration is the most important thing to fight climate change?
Or does your heart beat for the amazon rainforest and its biodiversity? Or would you rather protect a forest nearby in Germany? Choose, Care and Shine.

Rainforest

 

By supporting this project in Peru and wearing the Rainforest Pin, you save the rainforest’s unique ecosystems and ensure the integrity of the conservation areas protecting them from mining, logging, agriculture, and hunting.

 

🌳You protect 17,5 m2 of rainforest 

 

🌳1050 kg CO2 are stored by the forest (this amount of carbon equals e.g. a one-way flight from New York to Cologne).

 

🌳Each year another 17,5 kg will be added (this equals approximately the carbon footprint of 2 days of a two person household in Europe)

 

🌳You protect the habitat of Sloths, Cockatoos and Monkeys among others. 

Womens Forest

Let’s make carbon farming more attractive and make forests thrive.

With this project in West Sumatra in Indonesia, you:

🌳Support the carbon farming activities from an indigenous community in one of the few left matriarchies;

🌳Protect the thriving food forest, which feeds over 100 farmers and their families;

🌳Store 1t of CO2 (which equals roughly a one-way flight from New York to Cologne).

Berlin

 

You love Berlin, its parties, and lifestyle as much as we do? By wearing the Berlin Pin with pride, you protect and improve resilience to the climate crisis of the forests in Uckermark in Brandenburg, very close to Berlin.

 

Why are the mushrooms in colors of the pride flag, you ask? Because that’s Berlin (Dit is Berlin, wa). Plus: The tinder mushroom you see on this pin has a healing effect and has been used for its calming, relaxing effects on digestion. By donating to this project, you actively protect: 

 

🌳4 m2 of the beautiful forest in the Uckermark in Brandenburg.

 

🌳Habitat of Otter, Beaver, Black and White Storks as well as various insects and fungi as the tinder.

All pins are made from 100% recycled plastics that have reached the end of their life-cycle and were destined for landfill or incineration. The minimum donation, awarded with a pin, starts at 25€.

You can pick up your pins at the gamesforest.club booth at hall 4.1 booth C061g – D070g.

Get the pins to support forests

Note: it is a Prototype

 

Please note that these pins are prototypes. In case your pin breaks, we would love to recycle and replace it for you with an upgraded version, which we are already working on. We are experimenting with new ways of upgrading and producing these from biodegradable material or ocean plastic. As soon as we have a new version we are happy to hand it out to you at upcoming games industry events to avoid shipping emissions. Stay tuned and help us with further development and regeneration.

For any additional information or inquires contact us: maria@gamesforest.club

Support forest projects with GamesForest.Pins

Make gamescom a success for you and the climate. Support selected forest projects to reduce your ecological footprint and show off with the limited GamesForest.Pins.

Get the pins and support forests

Welcome back to the “in-person” gamescom 2022. How wonderful to see the games industry from around the globe in Cologne again. Do you want to make your conference experience this time a bit “greener” and support the severely attacked nature? Then this is for you…

 

The GamesForest.Club curated regenerative packages specifically for this year’s gamescom visitors to directly support three selected forest projects. You choose which one you like, and with every donation over 25€, you will get a GamesForest.Pin out of the limited collection for gamescom 2022. Care, wear and show off your regenerative impact. 

 

Forest Projects

Do you believe that carbon sequestration is the most important thing to fight climate change? 

Or does your heart beat for the amazon rainforest and its biodiversity? Or would you rather protect a forest nearby in Germany? Choose, Care and Shine.

Rainforest

By supporting this project in Peru and wearing the Rainforest Pin, you save the rainforest’s unique ecosystems and ensure the integrity of the conservation areas protecting them from mining, logging, agriculture, and hunting. 

You protect 17,5 m2 of rainforest 

 

1050 kg CO2 are stored by the forest (this amount of carbon equals e.g. a one-way flight from New York to Cologne).

 

Each year another 17,5 kg will be added. Thank you nature (this equals approximately the carbon footprint of 2 days of a two person household in Europe)

 

You protect the habitat of Sloths, Cockatoos and Monkeys among others.

Berlin

You love Berlin, its parties, and lifestyle as much as we do? By wearing the Berlin Pin with pride, you protect and improve resilience to the climate crisis of the forests in Uckermark in Brandenburg, very close to Berlin.

Why are the mushrooms in colors of the pride flag, you ask? Because that’s Berlin (Dit is Berlin, wa). Plus: The tinder mushroom you see on this pin has a healing effect and has been used for its calming, relaxing effects on digestion. By donating to this project, you actively protect: 

 

4 m2 of the beautiful forest in the Uckermark in Brandenburg.

 

Habitat of Otter, Beaver, Black and White Storks as well as various insects and fungi as the tinder.

Womens Forest

Let’s make carbon farming attractive and make forests thrive.

With this project in West Sumatra in Indonesia, you support the carbon farming activities from an indigenous community in one of the few left matriarchies, thriving food forest, which feeds over 100 farmers and their families, the natural storage of 1t CO2 (which equals roughly a one-way flight from New York to Cologne)

Pin Pick Up @gamescom 

You can pick up your pins at the gamesforest.club booth at hall 4.1 booth C061g – D070g.

 

Packages

Do you need a conversation starter or a little gift for your clients at the conference? The minimum donation, awarded with a pin, starts at 25€. Donate at the spot or quickly pre-order these packages by donating now HERE. 

 

Friends Pack = 5 GamesForest.Pins

Do you want to make new friends, and your hooklines at meetings and gaming parties were a bit lame recently? How about  “I have saved a piece of Rainforest for you”?

 

Sales Pack = 10 GamesForest.Pins

You use the rule of reciprocity anyway and know that a special gift will be paid back. No one has a chance of forgetting your pitch with that unique regenerative gift. 

 

Company Pack = 15 GamesForest.Pins

You have made lots of cash, especially during Covid, and want to show off the right way. Be a role model and get pins for your employees, clients, and players to have an impact and spread the word.

 

Pin design & Partners

All pins are made from 100% recycled plastics that have reached the end of their life-cycle and were destined for landfill or incineration. The design is a collaboration of Yaldi Games, a studio led by two women, developing Wholesome — a game out and about, a life sim that creates a connection to nature and inspires real-life activities and GamesForest.Club.

All projects are carried out in collaboration with our reforestation and forest conservation partners, “Rainforest” project by Wilderness International, “Berlin” by WWF Germany, and “Womens Forest” by the Gula Gula Food Forest Project.

Pre-order your pins

The world is on fire — heroes wanted!

The world is on fire — heroes wanted!

All the donations will go to the “Athenian Oak Revival” project and will be used to plant new trees in the area where the fires were. The activities will also be represented in the GamesForest Community’s digital forest.

Support forests now

We are calling for the heroes of the gaming industry to help the damaged forests and contribute to a greener and safer future by planting new trees and preventing potential fires!

Wildfires are raging across Europe, where a heatwave has intensified drought conditions. Firefighters are still tackling blazes in Greece, Spain, Italy, and France.

 

These heat waves have become more frequent, intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures keep rising.

 

The fires have sad and horrific consequences: burnt forests, harvest, villages… We, at GamesForest.Club, are eager to help the local communities recover from this tremendous loss. Therefore, together with our forest partner SUGi, we are launching a project that will support the forests in Greece and plant new trees in the former areas of fires.

Reforestation of the degraded and fire-prone land in Greece is based on the Miyawaki Method. This method of planting is 100x biodiverse, 100% natural, and 30x denser compared to monoculture tree stands. In 2-3 years only, we will create a maintenance-free, biodiverse forest. 

 

The project is vital for land management and the prevention of forest fires. It offers an alternative to the pine monoplanations that have come to dominate the local landscape and are highly susceptible to fires. In planting a diverse mix of species, this pocket of forest could potentially help combat future blazes.

Support forests now

DOOM WOOD: Raze hell and save the world

DOOM WOOD: Raze hell and save the world

Hello everyone, 

 

We are excited to announce that DOOM WOOD joined GamesForest.Club as an associate and its forest activities are now represented on our website.

 

DOOM WOOD is a great project run by Bethesda DE and organised during gamescom 2019. Instead of giving away goodies and producing more waste, the team decided to donate a certain amount of wood, 0,666 m² to be precise, per player. For its online community, they donated wood based on the amount of social media interactions with the game.

Via Treemer they also found a partner who is well versed and experienced in reforestation and sustainable forestry. Treemer is a private company that cares about the state of our climate and nature. They have been planting trees for a long time and offer companies to become active and help in the forest areas — this can be done in various ways: you can plant trees by yourself, have trees being planted for you, or just support a project financially.

By cooperating with Treemer, DOOM WOOD managed to plant over 10,000 square metres of forest in Bavaria. It also turned out to be a great social engagement as the team was nominated for the “Special prize for social commitment” by the German Developer Innovation Prize.

 

DOOM WOOD does not plan to stop here. The plan is to continue growing the forest further and plant another 666 m² of woods. GamesForest.Club is excited to support such a huge initiative and represent it on its interactive map.

 

If you want to learn more about DOOM WOOD, visit their project webpage.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

Use GamesForest.Club widget to show your engagement in the forest protection

Use GamesForest.Club widget to show your engagement in the forest protection

Hello everyone,

 

We are excited to introduce our GamesForest Widget, which will show your engagement in forest protection and inspire others to support nature.

A widget will show your membership and display how many trees your company has planted or how many square meters of forests have been saved.

 

It’s an excellent addition to your website and can be implemented easily and quickly. We provide you with all the necessary instructions and a code snippet which you just need to copy and paste into your website’s backend.

It is also unique for every company as it only shows relevant information about a specific digital forest and varies in color depending on your membership package.

 

New members will receive the instruction for implementing the widget when joining GamesForest.Club, and we will also start sending it to those who have already joined our community. So do not miss an opportunity to celebrate your engagement and inspire others!

Beer for Forests: Altagram and GamesForest.Club held a networking event for the gaming industry

Beer for Forests: Altagram and GamesForest.Club held a networking event for the gaming industry

Hello gaming community, 

 

We are happy to announce that Altagram joined GamesForest.Club as a member to support two reforestation projects in Peru and Germany! To celebrate it, we organised a networking event on 7 July, in Berlin. The gathering called “Beer for Forests” took place at Altagram’s office and hosted over 40 professionals from the gaming industry.

 

The guests were offered delicious snacks and drinks, and everyone had an excellent opportunity to connect with other attendees and learn more about GamesForest.Club, support the reforestation projects in Germany and Peru, and have a good time and enjoy the evening.

All donations gathered during the dinner will go into the growth of Altagram’s forest, which, with the help of their community and GamesForest.Club, supports old-growth forests in Peru and Eastern Germany.

 

Joining GamesForest.Club is Altagram’s first step in becoming environmentally responsible.

 

“As technology, and specifically gaming is evolving so rapidly and taking up an ever-growing part of our lives, we recognize that the growth of our industry also comes with responsibilities. We want to be part of a movement that is not only aware of these responsibilities but also takes action. Seeing organizations like GamesForest.Club is very encouraging!” — Marie Amigues, CEO of Altagram, says. 

Altagram is supporting old-growth forests in Peru and Eastern Germany

 

The company has decided to support two reforestation projects in Germany and Peru. The main goal is to protect the last remaining old-growth forests.

 

The Amazon rainforest in Peru is home to jungle giants on tall buttress roots, covered in lianas and epiphytes. They house sedate sloths, playful monkeys, and secretive jaguars. This jungle also stores large amounts of carbon and is essential for a healthy climate on our earth. Altagram invested in these wilderness areas to legally secure the land and protect the areas for the future. Local forest guardians ensure the integrity of the conservation areas and protect them from mining, logging, agriculture, and hunting.

 

By supporting the “Old-Growth Forests in Eastern Germany” project, Altagram protects Uckermark forests from industrial forestry, agriculture, and infrastructure development. The area is a biodiversity hotspot in Germany. The hilly landscape is full of precious habitats: old beech and idyllic alder forests, clear lakes and streams, moors, and orchid meadows. By supporting this project, Altagram not only protects the forests but also contributes a lot to the local biodiversity and improves the forests’ resilience to the climate crisis.

 

“We chose this charity because we wanted to give our team the opportunity to feel like they are actively part of a project. GamesForest.Club is very transparent with their data and provides GPS tracking for donors, making some of the supported local forests easily visitable. We also appreciate the variety of projects that are offered, as well as the additional research that has been put into selecting and showcasing them,” — Marie explains.

 

We welcome Altagram onboard and are looking forward to seeing their forest grow! 

 

To learn more about Altagram, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

3 reasons to be part of GamesForest.Club community

Hello!

 

Whether you are already a member of our community or just thinking about joining us, we are glad to inspire you again and remind you why it is so important to grow trees together with GamesForest.Club.

 

At GamesForest.Club we aim to tackle 3 main environmental issues that arise in every country. Let’s take a look at each problem in more detail.

 

Deforestation

 

Deforestation has been an issue for decades. 25.8 million hectares of forest were lost in 2020, double the amount of forested land lost in 2001. And by the time you finish reading this sentence, another three hectares of forest have been cut down.

 

Unfortunately only 18% of the world’s forests are protected from deforestation. GamesForest.Club is cooperating with various environmental organisations whose main goal is to protect forests. By buying out the areas of the forests, we secure the green territories and make sure that the trees there cannot be cut down.

 

By helping us to fight against deforestation, you also fight against the other issues that arise from the global forest loss::

 

• 137 different species of plants, animals, and birds are lost every single day due deforestation.
• Approximately 1,400 tree species are currently listed as critically endangered.
• 90 percent of people who live in extreme poverty depend on forests for their survival.
• 31% of modern diseases are a result of deforestation. 

 

Air pollution 

 

Air pollution is one of the most important environmental issues facing the planet today. It is not only devastating to the environment but also human health.

 

The world’s forests absorb a third of global emissions every year. Trees play a vital role in directly removing pollutants from the air. Plants are often seen as the “lungs” of an ecosystem because they absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. But they also act as an ecosystems “liver” too, filtering atmospheric pollutants like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide through their leaves.

 

GamesForest.Club offers various locations where you can plant new trees or protect forests which will help us to reduce carbon emissions. Acting now will make a huge difference in the future.

 

Climate change

 

As trees grow, they help stop climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air, storing carbon in the trees and soil, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. Trees provide many benefits to us, every day. They offer cooling shade, block cold winter winds, attract birds and wildlife, purify our air, prevent soil erosion, clean our water, and add grace and beauty to our homes and communities.

 

We believe that by creating a strong, mindful and supportive community at GamesForest.Club we will be able not only to protect our nature now but also create a better future for the next generations and make a difference in how people approach our environment. 

 

To learn more about environmental projects we support, click here. And do not forget to join our community.

Join GamesForest.Club

Our new project in West Sumatra Indonesia

Our new project in West Sumatra Indonesia

Hello everyone,

 

As you know, GamesForest.Club offers a wide variety of different reforestation and conservation projects worldwide. Our members and sponsors can choose to support forests in Peru, Canada, Germany, Cameroon, India (find more information about our project here), helping the local communities, planting trees, and/or securing the forest areas.

 

This time we have something new for you!

 

Together with GamesForest.Club and Gula Gula Food Forest Program, you can now reduce your carbon footprint, protect a thriving forest in the middle of a degraded area in West Sumatra, and support an indigenous community.

 

Our new carbon farming project is a shining example of how we can support local communities and restore nature. It follows a unique and simple method, called Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR), to make degraded land productive again by stimulating natural reforestation processes. It requires very few resources without the use of fertilizers and pesticides. A great help in assisting the natural regeneration of the land is the local Gula Gula Plank. Local farmers can use the plank to flatten the tough long grass. This gives other plants and trees present the chance to grow again.

 

As a result, the local population can re-use degraded land as a food forest with the deployment of few resources through Gula Gula’s unique approach. The farmers can once again live off their land and develop themselves. Currently, there are 111 farmers and 86 families active in the Gula Gula food forest, and around 1600 people live in the village nearby. However, more and more people are ready to start working in the area and help the environment, i.e., there is even a waiting list of more than 100 farmers, who are eager to get started.

 

By choosing this project, your company can make a significant impact by reducing its carbon footprint and have a positive effect on the liveability and the ecosystem of the Gula Gula food forest. 

 

Make a difference now: easily reduce your carbon footprint in just a few steps and let your forest grow.

 

1. Choose how much carbon you would like to reduce and how many carbon credits you want to purchase. If you don’t know your carbon footprint yet, we will help you measure it.

 

2. We retire the carbon credits on your behalf to minimize administrative costs and provide you with the official certificates.  

 

3. Get your own digital forest page on www.gamesforest.club and see your digital forest grow. 1 digital tree = carbon credits worth 100€

 

4. Receive a unique GamesForest Restoration Badge

If you reduce your entire carbon footprint, you get the badge for compensation.

 

5. Celebrate your engagement with your employees, clients, and community by getting promoted on social media and in GamesForest’s blog.

Get started now

Learn more about the project here: Reduce Carbon Credit Footprint with GamesForest.Club.

Reduce your carbon footprint with GamesForest.Club

Reduce your carbon footprint with GamesForest.Club

GamesForest.Club approaches the climate adaptation and mitigation potential of forests in a holistic way. The projects we support ensure maximum carbon absorption in the most cost-effective way, while also integrating multiple aspects of ecosystem integrity. This means that we do not only focus on carbon sequestration, but also integrate multiple sustainability criteria in terms of ecological, social and economic gains, such as protecting biodiversity; improving human health and wellbeing; increasing food and water security; delivering goods, services, and economic prosperity for all.

To achieve this, we facilitate carbon credit purchases directly from restoration project managers throughout the world. This does not only allow us to build relationships of trust with the people doing restoration work on the ground, but also to achieve competitive carbon credit prices through direct purchases. These take place through the most established carbon credit Registries to avoid double carbon accounting and to ensure transparent handling of all transactions: from your company’s account all the way to the intervention taking place on the land. 

We apply the minimum possible overhead costs above the purchase price of carbon credits, to cover administrative costs of running the GamesForest.Club. As a non-profit organisation, we are committed to reinvesting all profits to restoration of more forest land, through an expanding array of partnerships, products and services. At the same time, we are developing innovative tools for effective and transparent monitoring of the supported projects. In this way, we make sure that your money is translated to the maximum climate benefits, advancing your company’s effort towards the Sustainable Development Goals, and beyond.

Get in contact with the GamesForest.Club today, to discuss your carbon credit purchase. We will take immediate action to reserve the respective carbon credits, offering official certificates with unique identifiers for each carbon credit, as well as our Social Media-Package (promotion on 4 different channels & a blog article) including your own digital forest twin, and a GamesForest Restoration Badge.

Gula Gula Food Forest
West Sumatra, Indonesia

 

Past deforestation and inappropriate land use practices in West Sumatra have turned the village-owned upland areas into degraded grasslands. These are not only unproductive but are also highly susceptible to pests, diseases and wildfires which can spread rapidly to the surrounding forests. The aggressive growth of grasses competes for survival with the seeds of indigenous forest tree species that are dispersed by wind, birds or animals.

 

The Gula Gula Food Forest Program works to reverse poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss in an integrated manner through the restoration of degraded lands in West Sumatra, Indonesia. They achieve this by converting degraded land into productive food forests that capture and store carbon; training communities in assisted natural regeneration techniques and in building regenerative forest enterprise cooperatives. Through this, community incomes are not only supported through the trading of sustainably sourced food forest products, but also through profit-sharing of carbon credit sales.

Within 2-5 years, the growing of indigenous food trees (eg. fruit, timber and spice trees) restores the microclimatic conditions needed for planting other tree and crop species of high economic value. Biodiversity and ecosystem services are then restored, paving the way for sustainable agricultural production. Rural livelihoods are improved and people are not forced to encroach into the forest any more. Above- and below-ground carbon fixation is increased considerably, achieving a triple win for climate change mitigation, biodiversity and rural livelihoods.

Project contributions towards the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals are a call to action to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. By offsetting your carbon footprint at the Gula Gula Food Forest you are contributing to measurable impact against the combined climate, biodiversity and poverty crisis. Specifically, the project addresses the following Sustainable Development Goals:

A total of 140 families participate in direct restoration work at the project, each one managing ca. one hectare of land from which they get a decent livelihood. The project aims to reach more than the official minimum wage of West Sumatra for the farmers (above 150 EUR/month on average), by building village-based processing units to add value to the agricultural products and increase incomes for the producers.

Roughly 1600 people (over 500 families) from the villages of the Solok and Agam districts already benefit from the program, through the provision of healthy, nutritious and sustainable food.

Employment relationships and opportunities are based on the principle of equal opportunity and fair treatment. Local processing provides growing employment opportunities for everyone.

The project focuses on carbon sequestration through the restoration of degraded lands, by planting an average of 1,355 trees per hectare, including the natural regenerants. Increasing the tree cover improves the water retention capacity, as increasingly intensive and irregular rainfall can be absorbed better by a forested landscape, reducing risks of impacts from heavy rains, i.e. floods and soil erosion.

The project adopts practices that integrate conservation needs (Assisted Natural Regeneration) and development priorities (planting of economic valuable trees) to ensure environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources. 165 hectares of degraded land are restored in West Sumatra, and this number keeps rising. By promoting sustainable land use, the project halts and reverses land degradation, bringing back forested landscapes and its associated native biodiversity.

The project establishes democratic, local association development (cooperatives) to improve access to global markets, strengthening partnerships between farmers, the private sector and end consumers.

Real-time Project Monitoring

 

We use state-of-the-art technology to monitor progress, detect land use changes, map trends and quantify differences on the Earth’s surface related to the restoration projects we support. By integrating data and satellite imagery from open databases, we can share with you locally-specific insights such as which species that might be present in the area, soil pH, vegetation change, rainfall amounts, carbon sequestration potential, and much more. In this way, you can also track the restoration project you support in real time, pushing the boundaries of positive and lasting impact. Current computational ability to cache around 3 million pre-calculated insights means that we can receive multiple insights in mere seconds from a multi-petabyte catalog of satellite imagery and geospatial datasets. These monitoring capacity improves as new land data becomes available.

Reduce carbon footprint

Together with its partners GamesForest.Club organizes a charity dinner to support reindeers and local communities in Swedish Lapland

Together with its partners GamesForest.Club organizes a charity dinner to support reindeers and local communities in Swedish Lapland

This spring was full of events for GamesForest.Club. Together with our partners from Game Habitat and Invest in Skåne, we organized a charity dinner for our members and sponsors. The event was held on 18 May in Malmö, Sweden, and gathered 66 like-minded professionals from the gaming industry who wanted to support our forests and nature.

 

The guests were offered an entirely vegetarian menu, and everyone had an excellent opportunity to connect with other attendees and learn more about GamesForest.Club, support one of our local projects in Sweden and have a good time and enjoy the evening.

 

All donations gathered during the dinner went into the growth of Game Habitat’s forest, which, with the help of their community and GamesForest.Club, supports conservation and rewilding efforts of Swedish Lapland.

“Rewilding Lapland“ is a great project run by Rewilding Europe, whose mission is to demonstrate the benefits of wilderness through the rewilding of diverse European landscapes and inspire and enable others to engage in rewilding by providing tools and practical expertise.

 

The Swedish project aims at recreating the ecological system on a big scale, side by side with local people and local business operations, to secure the future for both nature and people in Swedish Lapland.

 

Furthermore, Rewilding Europe is working with Rewilding Lapland and local partners to support guided reindeer migration, raising awareness of these threats and supporting Sami communities in their fight for traditional grazing rights. The aim is the complete protection of all remaining old-growth forests, combined with the adoption of reindeer-adapted forestry and the elimination of mining threats to key reindeer wintering areas. By collaborating with Sami communities to develop wildlife watching businesses and guided reindeer tourism, the Rewilding Lapland team and partners are working to grow a local nature-based economy and reduce human-wildlife conflict. Raising Sami income from wildlife watching will hopefully contribute to greater acceptance and protection of local wild nature, including an increased tolerance of the presence of large carnivores.

Together with our partners, members, and sponsors, we gathered over 882,90 EUR to support the local communities and reindeers in Lapland. More donations are still coming and the most up-to-date information can be found in the digital forest of Game Habitat. We thank everyone who participated in this event and are looking forward to supporting more projects and great initiatives!

 

We will also be glad to see you as one of our members and supporters! Join GamesForest.Club and restore nature. 

Join GamesForest.Club

GamesForest.Club’s co-founder, Maria Wagner, spends 76 hours on a bus traveling from Berlin to Istanbul and back to attend WN Istanbul conference

GamesForest.Club’s co-founder, Maria Wagner, spends 76 hours on a bus traveling from Berlin to Istanbul and back to attend WN Istanbul conference

Hello everyone,

 

We are sure that most of you follow an environmentally friendly approach in daily life. When it comes to traveling, there are various ways of making your trip even more sustainable and eco-friendly. When purchasing tickets, there are often possibilities to offset your carbon footprint; some prefer trains and buses instead of going by plane, and others use bikes or public transport when commuting to the office.

 

Now we are excited to share that GamesForest.Club took it all to the next level!

 

One of our co-founders, Maria Wagner, will spend 36,5 hours on a bus this week traveling from Berlin to Istanbul to attend WN conference 2022. By doing so, Maria wants not only to minimize the effect of her carbon footprint but also to inspire others and show that there is always a possibility to make a difference.

 

The trip started on 2 June in Berlin at 13:37. From there, Maria traveled 4,5 hours to Munich, where she got ready for her longest trip to Istanbul. The bus left Munich on 4 June and arrived in the Turkish capital on 6 June, around 32 hours on the road!

 

The trip back to Berlin will be even longer – 39 hours. The overall costs for traveling are 464 EUR. Yes, it’s more expensive than going by plane but GamesForest.Club’s team believes that taking care of our environment is more important here.

 

We are proud of Maria and hope this small story can inspire you for big actions and changes. Let’s make a difference and save our planet! 

 

If you want to read more of our stories, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn.

MetaverseME is reviving a biodiverse forest in the Himalayas

MetaverseME is reviving a biodiverse forest in the Himalayas

Hello everyone, 

 

We are excited to announce that MetaverseME joined GamesForest.Club as a member and has already planted 73 new trees in India!

 

MetaverseME is a platform and marketplace for creating and sharing your digital self (your ME!) through NFTs, digital fashion, AR, games, dance, and music. MetaverseME brings your avatar into the Metaverse, where you can explore the world, communicate with other users, record videos, collect rare fashion items, and much more.

 

Creating a “ME!” is only the first step in what the team is building. The company is also working on use cases to provide a full social and gamified experience, expanding the development of avatars, considering the uniqueness and individualities of the users, into a large variety of actual uses. 

 

MetaverseME proudly joins GamesForest.Club, understanding and believing its mission in aligning the games industry in making a change for the benefits of creating a better future for all of us.

 

“While engaged in most virtual worlds and gaming spaces, we strongly believe that our progressive industry needs to play a vital role in preserving our “real life” environment and our planet by active participation and in the creation of awareness in the community,” – Arne Peters, CSO and Co-Founder of MetaverseME, says.

 

The company decided to support a reforestation project in the Himalayas by reviving degraded land with the Miyawaki Method. This method of planting is 100x biodiverse, 100% natural, and 30x denser compared to monoculture tree stands. In 2-3 years only, the community creates a maintenance-free, biodiverse forest.

 

By helping the community in Uttarakhand, North India, MetaverseME creates a 6,000-tree multi-layered, wild, native forest planted on rural commons land in Village Saitoli. By reviving these degraded rural commons, we can add real value to the region by securing the basic livelihoods of locals and restoring native biodiversity.

 

“GamesForest.Club is a fantastic and forward-looking initiative, offering its network of supporters dedicated ways to contribute to these efforts. Our industry is highly influential, and together we can make a difference,” – Arne says.

 

Outside of this engagement, MetaverseME is also looking into working and collaborating in technical partnerships like GamesForest.Club and strives for less environmental impact. 

 

We are excited to welcome MetaverseME onboard and are looking forward to seeing their forest grow!

 

If you want to learn more about MetaverseME, visit their website or follow them on Twitter, Instagram, Discord and LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

GamesForest.Club at the Nordic Game Conference 2022!

GamesForest.Club at the Nordic Game Conference 2022!

GamesForest.Club is glad to announce its participation at the Nordic Game Conference on 17-20 May 2022. The video game developer conference will take place in Malmö, Sweden, and gather thousands of industry professionals.

 

Buy a ticket — save a tree

 

By actively supporting nature, Nordic Game has implemented a possibility for every visitor to donate 10% of each ticket’s sale to two environmental projects supported by GamesForest.Club: “German Beech Jungle” and “Planting Trees Cultivating Peace”.

 

The “German Beech Jungle” project is dedicated to saving beech and mixed beech/oak forests. These forests are characterized by long-lasting stability, which allowed many highly specialized animal and plant species to adapt to such permanent forests. By investing in this project, we will be able to protect ancient beech forests and keep them in good condition for various animals and insects.

 

The goal of the second project is to support local communities in the ecological restoration of the region after the armed conflict in Colombia. The donations gathered from ticket sales will go to protecting National Park Sierra de la Macarena by planting native trees, providing alternative livelihoods to local communities, and increasing the national park’s biodiversity.

 

Meet our team

 

Meet Maria Wagner from GamesForest.Club and learn how your company can make a difference in environmental protection and fighting climate change. We have recently introduced several new ecological services. Now you can offset your carbon footprint with GamesForest.Club by supporting one of the reforestation projects. Learn more about our new offers during the conference, or join us as a member or sponsor! 

 

Sustainable traveling to the conference

 

Maria will be traveling from Berlin to the Nordic Game Conference by train, and we encourage everyone to join us in this sustainable journey. If you are traveling from Berlin to Malmö by train and would like to have a fantastic experience even before the conference, contact us, and we will travel together!

 

See you at the conference!

 

André Bernhardt joins GamesForest.Club as an ambassador

André Bernhardt joins GamesForest.Club as an ambassador

Hello, gaming community,

 

We are excited to announce that André Bernhardt, CEO of Indie Advisor & Company, has joined GamesForest.Club as an ambassador!

 

André has been part of the German games industry for 25 years and has worked on online, offline, mobile, and console titles. Due to his love for innovative indie games, he quit his office job in 2012 and started working as a freelance agent called Indie Advisor, which he turned into a limited Indie Advisor & Company in 2019. Nowadays, he is offering external business development and funding support for indies while also curating indie expos at events like devcom, Quo Vadis Berlin, and EGX Berlin. The company is also a European Partner of the US-Korean Accelerator Global Top Round – GTR.

 

Moreover, André is a guest lecturer at different universities like FH Salzburg.

 

Both at work and in private life, André does his best to care for the environment and nature. Indie Advisor & Company is compensating flights, and the team tries to avoid CO² emission by preferring trains when traveling within Europe.

 

“You do not have to be a great visionary to see that the future will not look bright for humankind if we don’t change our lifestyle right now. Changes begin with a first step; that is why I want to be part of GamesForest.Club. I think it is a great initiative, and I am happy to spread the news and compensate together with like-minded people in our beloved industry.” – says André.

 

We are looking forward to protecting the forests together with André, and thank him for joining our initiative!

 

If you want to learn more about André’s work or get in touch with him, check his LinkedIn profile.

 

If you want to protect nature with us and make a difference too, join our GamesForest.Club community, and we will support forests together!

Join GamesForest.Club

GamesForest.Club supports sustainable development goals

Curve Games joins GamesForest.Club and plants over 1700 trees on 3 different continents

Curve Games joins GamesForest.Club and plants over 1700 trees on 3 different continents

Hello gaming community,

 

We are happy to announce that Curve Games has joined GamesForest.Club as a member by supporting forest projects on 3 different continents!

 

Curve Games is an award-winning independent publisher working with developers across the world to deliver the best in interactive entertainment. With a uniquely diverse games catalogue that includes classic indie gems For The King and Bomber Crew, community favourites The Ascent and Lawn Mowing Simulator, and the multi-million selling smash hit Human: Fall Flat, Curve Games has taken its place as one of the leading games publishers worldwide.

 

The company is also making every effort to conduct business in the most sustainable and environmentally friendly way possible. Alongside working at group level to audit its current carbon footprint as part of informing a wider ESG policy to be rolled out in 2022, Curve Games recently introduced a Train over Plane policy with travel needs being closely monitored to ensure no unnecessary journeys are made. Sustainability sits at the heart of any product and merchandise produced by Curve and any suppliers appointed by Curve teams.  

 

By joining GamesForest.Club, Curve Games has supported 3 reforestation projects in Colombia, Ghana and India. The goal of each project is to support local communities in ecological restoration and plant new trees increasing biodiversity of the areas.

 

“Reforestation is such a multi-faceted benefit. Alongside the obvious carbon offsetting, it supports biodiversity, economic growth and habitat linking (promoting genetic diversity in animals). Addressing these environmental issues is vital, so we’re proud to be joining GamesForest.Club alongside friends and colleagues from the wider gaming industry,” commented John Clark, Curve Games CEO

 

The projects were chosen by all Curve staff members in a poll, after careful consideration. All employees had their own reasons for the projects they voted for, with a particular move towards Planting Trees, Cultivating Peace. In a world too often marred by conflict, feeling as though we are actively contributing to peace in these times is important.

 

Curve Games has already planted 1,774 trees, and we are excited to have them onboard and looking forward to seeing their forest grow!

 

If you want to learn more about Curve Games, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest projects you can support, click here.

 

Fein Games is protecting natural dynamics and supporting old-growth forests in Eastern Germany

Fein Games is protecting natural dynamics and supporting old-growth forests in Eastern Germany

Hello everyone, 

 

Meet our new member – Fein Games, a female-led game development studio based in Berlin. Founded in 2020, Fein Games develops mobile games with a female perspective. The story of their first game takes place in modern times, in Berlin, and shows three German women and their struggles to find happiness and self-determination.

 

Fein Games decided to join GamesForest.Club because the team believes that it’s their responsibility to fight climate change. “We love the idea of joining a club, it makes us feel like we’re part of a bigger movement. On a more practical level, GamesForest.Club makes it easy to get involved,” – Franziska, Co-Founder of Fein Games, says.

 

The company has chosen to support the “Old-Growth Forests in Eastern Germany” project which is aimed to protect Uckermark forests from industrial forestry, agriculture, and infrastructure development. 

 

The area is a biodiversity hotspot in Germany. The hilly landscape is full of precious habitats: old beech and idyllic alder forests, clear lakes and streams, moors, and orchid meadows. The forest is also home to various animal species. In addition to otters, beavers, and pond turtles, sea eagles, fish eagles, and lesser spotted eagles, as well as black and white storks, are part of Germany’s natural treasures. 

 

By supporting this project, Fein Games not only protects the forests but also contributes a lot to the local biodiversity and improves the forests’ resilience to the climate crisis.

 

“For us, it was important to choose a regional project that focuses on conservation rather than reforestation. Old forests are magical places and we hope to one day be able to visit our forest in Uckermark,” – Franziska explains their engagement with the local forest project.

 

GamesForest.Club is excited to have Fein Games onboard and looking forward to seeing their forest grow!

 

If you want to learn more about Fein Games, check their website or follow them on LinkedIn. 

 

To learn more about our environmental projects that you can support, click here. 

Sealguin Studios is protecting the last remaining old-growth forests in Peru

Sealguin Studios is protecting the last remaining old-growth forests in Peru

Hello gaming community,

 

Great news —  Sealguin Studios has joined GamesForest.Club as a member and is now protecting old-growth forests in Peru.

 

Sealguin studios was founded in 2019 in Israel with the aim to create games that can allow you to support environmental & social causes as you play. The world isn’t getting any better and the team at Sealguin believes that change is possible.

 

By partnering with foundations & using the games themselves to tell a similar story (Ex. Play as earth and stop humans from polluting), the company found its unique niche.

 

“We believe that games are a powerful medium for change. Most games don’t have any positive real-world effect, we want to show their abilities to do so. Doing so will also respect the players time & investment, not just wasting it”, — Oded Ilani, CEO of Sealguin Studios, says.

 

The studio believes that GamesForest.Club is the perfect fit for their goal. As a mix of impact & gaming, both GamesForest.Club and Sealguin Studios are striving for the same goal using the same medium.

 

By deciding to invest in one of the environmental projects in Peru, Sealguin Studios legally secures the forest areas of the Amazon rainforest, which is home to jungle giants on tall buttress roots, covered in lianas and epiphytes. They house sedate sloths, playful monkeys and secretive jaguars. This jungle also stores large amounts of carbon and is essential for a healthy climate on our earth. By supporting this project Sealguin Studios protects forest areas from mining, logging, agriculture, and hunting.

 

The team also thinks about the environment in its daily life. A cut from the studio’s profits goes to foundations to plant trees. Every game will support certain causes, be it forestation, ocean conservation, poaching and more. The theme of the game will correlate with the cause.

 

Future plans also include joint efforts with the foundations to create events that will reward players for real world actions.

 

“In the end the goal is the same for all our projects: we want to make environmental action as fun and seamless as possible using games as our medium”, — Oded Ilani explains.

 

We thank Sealguin Studios’ team for making a difference! 

 

If you want to learn more about Sealguin Studios, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

To learn more about our forest project you can support, click here. 

Interview with Khayalan Arts, developers of SAMUDRA

Interview with Khayalan Arts, developers of SAMUDRA

Hello everyone! 

 

Today we have an inspiring interview with Khayalan Arts, game developers of “SAMUDRA”. The game’s story takes place deep under the water and through vibrant and beautiful atmosphere raises such important problems as pollution of oceans and seas. 

 

We talked to El Lim, CEO and Head Developer, to learn more about the company’s vision on environmental protection and how the gaming industry can help with it.

Tell us a bit about Khayalan Arts.

 

—  Khayalan Arts is a creative studio based in Jakarta, Indonesia We focus on bringing environmental, cultural and social values into interactive storytelling experiences. We’ve done various work ranging from; video games, webcomics, workshops, parades, art installations, beach cleanups, to charity relief work. 

 

Tell us about SAMUDRA and what this game is about.

 

—  SAMUDRA is 2D atmospheric deep-sea adventure that focuses on environmental storytelling. You play as a kid that fell deep into a polluted ocean and is trying to find a way back to reach the surface. Along the way you’ll come across majestic creatures, and a beautifully ethereal yet devastated ocean. 

 

How did you come up with an idea for creating this game and why did you decide that it should raise environmental problems?

 

—  The concept for this game stems from our experience being with the amazing local activists here in Indonesia – spending time with them to know more about the current issues that our dear ocean is facing. Being raised in an archipelago surrounded with many beautiful islands from a young age only made it natural to have a deep desire in protecting and preserving this natural beauty. There are many activists fighting for a more sustainable generation, so our team decided to contribute in the best ways we could, creatively. This way we could do both things that we love most; making games and helping the environment, and reach a younger audience that are not quite aware of the problems just yet.

What was the biggest challenge when you were developing this game and how did you overcome it?

 

— The biggest challenge is bringing the heavy unattractive topic of pollution and presenting this to the players, not to mention that talking about these issues on Social Media sometimes gets our account restricted access for ads and such services. We overcame the heavy topic issue by setting a focus on highly atmospheric & surrealistic visuals from the very beginning, with a mantra of ‘making the unattractive look attractive’. 

 

How do you think this game influences the players and their attitude and approach towards nature and environment?

 

— SAMUDRA consciously avoids being an ‘educative’ experience, we focus on the story and the adventure, which so happens to have a thematic backdrop and characters heavily influenced by the polluted real world. This combined with the non-dialog, show-not-tell type of gameplay –  subconsciously always seems to evoke lots of questions and reflections from the players as they play. We hope that this in turn will drive the player’s natural curiosity to seek out the state of the environments around them, and eventually – take action. 

 

How does your team take care of the environment at work?

 

— Living in a third world country like Indonesia, there are tons of things that we are still struggling to get in place, we are still having issues with even simple things like separating recyclable disposals & plastic bans that were only starting to be implemented in major cities in 2020. So on our own, we are doing what we can by joining community clean-ups when we can (and when it’s not a Covid lockdown). We replaced plastic with tote bags, and separated the plastic that was not received by choice, and we all have our own personal utensils that we religiously bring everywhere we go. 

If you were in the government, what would you change in your country about environmental protection and fighting against climate change?

 

— We have been a part of a huge campaign that successfully banned plastic bag in retails in 2019-2020. Right now we are actively helping activists in working towards a campaign that stops the excessive usage of plastic in food delivery services. Plastic usage had been on the steep rise due to the pandemic. 

 

Do you think the gaming industry can have a big impact when it comes to protecting our nature, animals and forests and fighting against climate change?

 

— Yes, absolutely. The game industry has a long history of creating impact for its users and communities, we have been there as gamers, and so now it’s our turn as creators to take the helm and create a responsible community that helps the fight for a more sustainable future generation.

 

What advice would you like to give your community when it comes to environmental protection?

 

— That nay-saying is not the right way to go about it. Oftentimes we encounter aggressive ‘activists’ that shut down all kinds of alternatives and regularly point fingers, yet not really presenting a real solution. This only creates a division among people, and that’s the least thing we want. It’s important not to impose our mission, we need everyone to work together from all sides to really have an impact.

Thank you, El, for such a great interview and giving us a new perspective of how the gaming industry can help the environment!

 

 

If you want to protect nature with us and make a difference too, join our GamesForest.Club community and we will support forests together!

Join GamesForest.Club

Interview with ISDEC, developers of “Elva the Eco Dragon”

Interview with ISDEC, developers of "Elva the Eco Dragon"

Hello Gaming Community, 

 

Today we have an inspiring interview with ISDEC, the game developers of “Elva the Eco Dragon”. The game raises important environmental issues and increases awareness among young generations.

 

We talked to Peter Kratky, the main developer of the game, to learn more about the company’s vision on nature protection and how the gaming industry can help with it.

Tell us a bit about your company.

 

— ISDEC is a Spanish human resources company founded in 2011 in Barcelona, which has undertaken the development of educational and formative videogames. The idea is to create games that have an ethical message, allowing the player to reflect on different aspects of society. This doesn’t mean that adult games with violent elements can’t be created, but always in a controlled way and appropriate to the context. Never with explicit violence or against human rights. The main team working on the games is variable between two and four people.

 

Tell us about “Elva the Eco Dragon” and what this game is about?

 

— “Elva the Eco Dragon” is a game aimed at children and young people, whose main objective is to raise awareness among the new generations of the importance of caring for planet Earth in all aspects of life. To do so, we will start with simple tasks, such as cleaning different areas, controlling toxic products, and recycling all the garbage collected in the correct way. Tasks such as planting forests, extinguishing fires, or rescuing animals will also have to be accomplished. At other times we will have to clean the sea, and even go to space and the Moon. In the first case to clean the garbage that floats around the Earth, and in the second case to collect Helium, which will be used on Earth for fusion reactors. All this with simple language and without violence of any kind. Elva will obtain some superpowers during her journey to carry out all these objectives.

 

How did you come up with an idea for creating this game and why did you decide that it should raise environmental problems?

 

— I have been working on the idea of the extinction of the Earth since I was very young. After finishing a saga of fiction books on the subject, I understood that there had to be a more direct way to reach young people and children. I thought that a videogame was a natural way to bring Earth’s environmental problems to a young population totally devoted to videogames. Children, and not so children, can learn about the Earth’s problems while they play, and in this way raise their awareness of the need to take care of the planet. In any case, another game with a much more adult character, of strategy, and also based on a book, is in the development phase. A project that we will present in a few months, and which is much more ambitious.

What was the biggest challenge when you were developing this game and how did you overcome it?

 

— The biggest challenge was to design the game in a way that would not be interpreted as politically motivated or partisan. Unfortunately, many ideas about the conservation of the planet are believed to be directed from certain political tendencies, when it is a problem that concerns us all in general. We have partially achieved this objective, but there are still people who believe that politics is more important to us than the conservation of the Earth.

 

How do you think this game influences the players and their attitude and approach towards nature and environment?

 

— The game has been defined for children and youth, and that causes some adult players to see that it is not consistent in its mechanics with the idea of conservation of the planet. It is important to note that this game is designed mainly for children between three and twelve years old, and therefore its mechanics have to be adapted to those ages, with very important restrictions at all levels of gameplay and development. The new strategy game we are developing will be designed for adults, and there will be many aspects not present in Elva.

 

How does your team take care of the environment at work?

 

— At home we are very careful to separate all the material so that it goes to the right containers. Even oil, a very typical product in Spain, has its own recycling. The rest of the team, well, there is a bit of everything, but I think the general awareness is pretty good.

If you were in the government, what would you change in your country about environmental protection and fighting against climate change?

 

— I know this may cause controversy, but I would ban bullfights, “Toros in Spanish”, at least those where the animal is slaughtered to death. We believe it is a bloody tradition and out of any logical reasoning in the 21st century. We would also work much harder for renewable energies, although I have to say that Spain is leading the way in this area with several innovative ideas.

 

Do you think the gaming industry can have a big impact when it comes to protecting our nature, animals and forests and fighting against climate change?

 

— It would be, if there were a determination to do so. But there doesn’t seem to be the desire in general. I am not against games where everything is destroyed, I myself enjoy many action games, with violent elements. But they are games, and violence in games is understood in the context of adults playing them. However, I miss games and ideas that promote positive attitudes in favor of the planet. Again, we want to change that in a clear and decisive way. Whether we succeed or not will be seen later.

 

What advice would you like to give your community when it comes to environmental protection?

 

— My advice would be: we live in a world full of commodities, with very advanced technologies, with impressive communications systems, where all information is at our fingertips, and where we can play on sophisticated PCs and consoles with thousands of people around the world. That’s great, but it comes at a very high cost in materials, services, and energy. Let’s think, even once in a while, about finding new ways to conserve all those advantages in such a way that we don’t destroy the planet. For the sake of our children, taking care of the planet will be worth it. Thank you.

Thank you, Peter, for such a great interview and giving us a new perspective of how the gaming industry can help the environment!

 

If you want to protect nature with us and make a difference too, join our GamesForest.Club community and we will support forests together!

Join GamesForest.Club

GamesForest.Club wins in the “Best Innovation” category at Mobile Games Awards 2022!

GamesForest.Club wins in the "Best Innovation" at Mobile Games Awards 2022!

Great news, everyone! 

 

We have won in the “Best Innovation” category at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2022!

 

The event took place on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. By actively developing its interactive website, growing its community, launching new services and environmental projects, we were able to get an award for our innovative way of increasing awareness about environmental issues in a gamified way.

 

We are very honored to receive this award and would like to thank all our members, sponsors, partners, and everyone who is supporting us and ready to make a change. Out team is excited to continue planting trees and protecting forests.

 

Congratulations to all the other winners and a big thank you to the team of Pocket Gamer, who made this all possible!

 If you want to make a difference too, join our community and support nature while having fun!

Join GamesForest.Club and support nature

Pelimetsä with a record-breaking €500,000 donation for over 300 acres of Finnish forest joins GamesForest.Club

Pelimetsä with a record-breaking €500,000 donation for over 300 acres of Finnish forest joins GamesForest.Club

Pelimetsä is a project of the Finnish game developer community for the protection of old Finnish forests and their vulnerable biodiversity.

 

In June 2019, the famous Finnish film director, Aki Kaurismäki, announced that he will personally protect 14 acres of forest in Southern Finland. This piece of news became a hot topic among the Finnish gaming community and sparked a conversation about finding ways to protect forest areas. Soon this discussion was turned into a project called ‘Pelimetsä’ (translates to ‘the Forest of Games’) – an initiative to protect old Finnish forests and their vulnerable biodiversity.

 

Currently Pelimetsä consists of two locations: one in South Finland, one in Lapland.

 

Utterinvuori Forest

A lush forest of 130 acres with some rolling hills, located in Hauho, near the city of Hämeenlinna.

 

 

 

Tsiuttajoki Old Growth

 

Nearly 200 acres of untouched woods near the Tsiuttajoki-river in the Inari region.

 

 

“We wanted to create something positively impactful and permanent. In the best-case scenario, Pelimetsä will encourage more people to start similar initiatives – getting started was actually harder than getting it done”, says Jani Kahrama, one of the team members behind Pelimetsä.

 

The Pelimetsä forest will now be included in the digital forest of GamesForest.Club so that it can continue to grow and be visible to even more people. This commitment can be followed in an interactive way on the digital globe on our website.

 

Even though the two forest areas are now under legal protection, Pelimetsä is not over. The project will continue as an official part of the Finnish Game Developer Association.

 

“The Finnish game industry is a warm-hearted community that is eager to contribute to society. Pelimetsä is an excellent example of both. In the near future, we hope to encourage other industries – especially our friends in the European game community – to join and follow the example of Pelimetsä”, says KooPee Hiltunen, representative of the Finnish Game Developers Association.

 

If you want to learn more about Pelimetsä, check their website.

Torpor Games is planting trees in the National Park Sierra de la Macarena in Colombia

Torpor Games is planting trees in the National Park Sierra de la Macarena in Colombia

Hello everyone!

 

GamesForest.Club is excited to welcome Torpor Games on board! By joining as sponsors, Torpor Games has planted trees in Colombia and protected the National Park Sierra de la Macarena.

 

Torpor Games was formed in May 2019. Combining a wide variety of disciplines and experience, the team of nine worked on their first game project, Suzerain. A niche indie success. A political drama set in the 1950s, the game allows players to explore what they would do if they had to lead a country in political turmoil.

 

Suzerain demonstrates the company goal of questioning our reality through the medium of video games. Torpor Games is ready to level up with more ambitious future endeavours.

 

The company has chosen to contribute to the “Planting Trees Cultivating Peace” project which is aimed to support local communities in ecological restoration of the region after the armed conflict in Colombia. Torpor Games is protecting National Park Sierra de la Macarena by planting native trees, providing alternative livelihoods to local communities, and increasing the national park’s biodiversity.

 

“We want to support good initiatives. We funded food for the homeless in Berlin. Donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross, and now we want to make a statement regarding climate change! Also, it is great to be able to stand among such great international and national organizations.

 

We also thought that the Columbia project speaks to the social impact element of Suzerain. Since it is a game about politics and social division.” — Ata Sergey Nowak, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Torpor Games, explains.

 

The company wants to bring a community with a different past together in peace. Suzerain displays social friction and division and gives the player the ability to try to mend it. The Torpor Games team felt that it was speaking to the values of building socially impactful and thought-provoking games.

 

If you want to learn more about Torpor Games, check their website or follow their LinkedIn channel.

 

Read more about our environmental projects and join the GamesForest.Club community. 

Travel & Restore: GamerLegion protects forests and reduces its carbon footprint after travelling to Dubai

Travel & Restore: GamerLegion protects forests and reduces its carbon footprint after travelling to Dubai

Hello everyone, 

 

We have recently introduced Travel & Restore as a new service for its community. Travel & Restore is a playful and supportive way of reducing CO2 footprint after travelling by protecting forests around the world. By our customised approach to every partner, we will be able to calculate CO2 emission after each trip and advice on how many square meters of forests should be supported to cover the carbon footprint.

 

To give you a real example of how it works, we would like to show a real case from one of our members, GamerLegion. Their team has already reduced their carbon footprint by enlarging the protected area of forest in the Eifel in Germany after their trip to Dubai.

 

This is how it was:

 

The trip included the following:

 

• 3 persons
• 8 nights at the hotel
• Around 35km by taxi per day
• A flight from Düsseldorf to Dubai
• A train to Düsseldorf’s airport

 

Using only legitimate and certified tools, we calculated the following footprint:

 

• Flights: 1909.6 kg CO2 
• Hotel (4-star): 1288 kg CO2 
• Transport (300 km taxi): 94 kg CO2
• Transport (train Berlin-DUS): 28.8 kg CO2

 

TOTAL: 3320.4 kg CO2

 

To compensate for this amount of CO2, GamerLegion expanded its forest protection by additional 51 square meters. This will not only protect existing forests but will also remove the company’s carbon footprint. You can check their digital forest and engagement here. 

 

We believe that with the help of “Travel & Restore” the companies will not only help the environment but also show a great example to others of how it is easy but also important to restore nature.

 

Send us your travel data and restore nature with us: welcome@gamesforest.club

Devin Kemp, a video game and music streamer, is supporting old-growth forests in Eastern Germany

Hello everyone! 

 

Today we are happy to introduce our new sponsor – Devin Kemp – a video game and music streamer based in Berlin, Germany!

 

After earning her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance Devin performed Opera professionally in the US as well as owned and operated her own voice studio. She moved to Germany in 2019 to further pursue her singing career. In 2020 during the COVID19 pandemic, she began streaming as an outlet for music and entertainment. She now streams full-time on Twitch and Facebook Gaming under the title “Devin Discovers‘. Collaborations and charity streams are something Devin enjoys organizing and performing! Therefore, she is very excited to collaborate with GamesForest.Club whose initiative is close to her heart.

 

“I was so intrigued by the concept of combining climate awareness and protection efforts with the gaming industry and online communities involved with it. I am always intrigued when a person brings together two seemingly unconnected things and highlights the important connections between the two things. I am currently trying to do this with my own streams and online presence: Highlighting the importance of classical music, specifically opera, in modern society and the gaming industry. I am so pleased to support such a creative and important cause with my music!” – Devin says.

 

Devin often has conversations with her friends about ways to support climate protection in their day-to-day lives. She owns and rides a bike everywhere as well as eating vegetarian meals regularly to lessen the impact of meat on the environment.

 

“I think that these small changes are not nearly enough and large-scale corporations need to take more active and greater responsibility in climate protection efforts. I am happy to use even my small platform to bring awareness to this issue.”

 

Together with GamesForest.Club, Devin Kemp is protecting and supporting Uckermark which is a biodiversity hotspot in Germany. The hilly landscape is full of precious habitats: old beech and idyllic alder forests, clear lakes and streams, moors, and orchid meadows. The area is also home to various animal species. In addition to otters, beavers, and pond turtles, sea eagles, fish eagles, and lesser spotted eagles, as well as black and white storks, are part of Germany’s natural treasures.

 

“I chose the WWF forest protection project in the Uckermark because I have been living in Germany for 2.5 years now and I want to make sure I am supporting the climate and doing my part to give back to the place that I live and call home.”

 

On March 17, Devin will run a donation stream on her Twitch channel. All the donations will go to the Uckermark environmental project and will be represented in Devin’s digital forest. Join us and support the old-growth forests in Eastern Germany! 

 

Check out also our “Stream for Forests” projects: a great opportunity to run donation streams with us and grow your digital forest!

Stream for Forests

Travel & Restore – a new way of mindful travelling for your company

Travel & Restore – a new way of mindful travelling for your company

Hello everyone,

 

Game Developers Conference (GDC), one of the largest games conferences, is coming this month. We all know how excited everyone is and how people are looking forward to travelling and attending the event offline after 2 years of lockdowns. Gathering companies from all over the world, GDC gives everyone a great opportunity to meet face-to-face and connect with partners, clients, players and sponsors.

 

But what impact does it have on our environment?

 

Many companies are going to fly to San Francisco, stay at the hotels, use taxi services and… produce A LOT of CO2. According to International Council on Clean Transportation (theicct.org), CO2 emissions from all commercial operations in 2019 totaled 918 million metric tons, an increase of 29% since 2013. 85% of emissions derive from passenger transport.

 

Taking all of this in consideration, GameForest.Club is glad to introduce its “Travel & Restore” service for those who are looking for new ways of mindful travelling. We strongly believe that it is possible and important to provide support and restore while you are flying, driving or staying at the hotel. We want our partners to have a good conscience and positive experience whether they are flying to another continent or just commuting to the office.

 

Travel & Restore is a playful and supportive way of reducing CO2 footprint after travelling by protecting forests around the world. By our customised approach to every partner, we will be able to calculate CO2 emission after each trip and advice on how many square meters of forests should be supported to cover the carbon footprint.

 

The process is super easy and the results are amazing. Let us show you how it works:

 

1. You send us information about your travel activities. It can be a one-time restoration after or before a specific trip, but you can also provide us with your company’s trip history and or future travels.

 

2. We calculate:
– The amount of CO2 emitted
– The amount of square meters of forest that should be saved to minimize the effect
– The amount of invest based on the forest’s location and the project you choose to support (currently there are 2 projects you can use for offsetting your emissions but there are more to come!)

 

3. Once agreed, our team sets up your digital company’s forest page on our website or expands your existing digital twin forest if you are already a member of our community.

 

4. You just not only had a great trip but also supported our nature and forests!

 

Do we have an example of how it works? Yes!

 

Let’s imagine you are flying from Berlin to San Francisco and back. During the flight you will produce 5,900 kg of CO2. In order to minimize this effect, you can protect forests in Germany or in Brazil by investing the following:

 

Project in Germany = 336,3€
Project in Brazil = 214,17€

 

However, we are also able to calculate CO2 emissions not only from the flights but also from staying at a hotel, using a taxi or travelling by train. Our offer is based on average flight CO2 emissions calculation derived from Atmosfair, road travel (car/taxi) CO2 emissions calculation derived from MyClimate and a 50 kg CO2/person/night rate for standard accommodation. Estimations of CO2 emissions when travelling by train are also possible when relevant data is available.

 

We believe that with the help of “Travel & Restore” the companies will not only help the environment but also show a great example to others of how it is easy but also important to restore nature.

 

“Travel & Restore” is a playful and supportive way of mindful travelling, and we encourage everyone to keep our nature in mind when booking the next trip.

 

Send us your travel data and restore nature with us: welcome@gamesforest.club

 

Learn more about Travel & Restore:

Travel & Restore

OKA Gaming is running livestreams to raise awareness and support ancient beech forests

OKA Gaming is running livestreams to raise awareness and support ancient beech forests

Happy Monday! Meet one of our sponsors – OKA Gaming – a mobile-based entertainment organization dedicated to empowering individuals through a supportive team environment.

 

OKA Gaming was founded in 2021, by Arman Safai-Navai, Philipp von Thadden and Jonas Fandel, with an office in the Ubisoft Fusion Campus buildings in Düsseldorf, Germany. With its daily mobile gaming and esports content, OKA Gaming reaches more than 4 million people each month across all team social media channels. In 2021, the company got into the top 32 of the Clash Royale World Championship Finals with 2 players. OKA Gaming is proud to be the first professional mobile gaming organization in Germany. 

 

Joining the “German Beech Jungle” project

 

With its success in mobile gaming, OKA Gaming’s team has also decided to support its first environmental project and become part of Games Forest Club’s community.

 

“It results from private commitment. It is important for us as a start-up to do something good right from the start in these difficult times and therefore to do our contribution,” – Arman, CEO and co-found of OKA Gaming, shares with us why they decided to support the “German Beech Jungle” project which is dedicated to saving beech and mixed beech/oak forests in the Western Germany.

 

These forests are characterized by long-lasting stability, which allowed many highly specialized animal and plant species to adapt to such permanent forests. Most of them depend on particularly old trees; the rare middle spotted woodpecker, for example, can only colonize beech forests when the trees are 200 years old or more. By joining the project, OKA Gaming helps to protect ancient beech forests and keeps them in good condition for various animals and insects.

 

Live Streams on Twitch

 

The company is also gladly sharing its engagement with the community by hosting bi-weekly Twitch Livestreams to raise awareness and support environmental projects. OKA Gaming’s goal is to help the community to learn more about climate change and how individuals can do something against it: “It is great to help save one of the oldest rainforests in Europe together with our community and through the love for mobile gaming”.

 

The online tournaments are run every 2 weeks and provide a possibility to donate in order to support the forests. For every Twitch Sub OKA donates 5€ and is also giving away 5 subs in each stream and donating these 25€ to the project.

 

If you want to learn more about OKA Gaming or support their initiative, visit their homepage or follow them on Twitch. 

 

For more information about the “German Beech Jungle” project , click here.

GameInfluencer is saving forests in Germany, Mexico and Haiti

GameInfluencer is saving forests in Germany, Mexico and Haiti

Today we are happy to introduce one of our members who has been with us since the very beginning of GamesForest.Club’s journey. GameInfluencer is a full-service influencer marketing agency with a deep focus on the gaming industry. The company develops and executes memorable influencer marketing campaigns with unique talents for game publishers.

 

GameInfluencer has already worked and helped such market leaders as Tencent, Facebook, Sega, Samsung, King, and many more. They also help independent and smaller studios to find their right and best players. In 2021 GameInfluencer was awarded as best influencer marketing agency by Pocket Gamer’s mobile games award.

 

In its operations, the company has reduced traveling and became a fully remote enterprise in 2021.

 

GameInfluencer was also part of the Playing for the Planet Initiative from the UN Environmental Programme. “I was amazed about the interest from the games industry to make some positive impact on our climate change problem. “As I was missing a proper platform to see the engagement from the games industry as a whole, the first ideas came to set up a new initiative  – GamesForest.Club”,  – Georg Broxtermann, Initiator of GamesForest.Club and founder and president of GameInfluencer, explains.

 

At GamesForest.Club, the company supported three projects: “German Beech Jungle”, “Yucatán Restoration”, and “Gonaives Agroforestry Planting Site”.

 

The “German Beech Jungle” project is dedicated to saving beech and mixed beech/oak forests. These forests are characterized by long-lasting stability, which allowed many highly specialized animal and plant species to adapt to such permanent forests. Most of them depend on particularly old trees. By joining this initiative, GameInfluencer helps to protect ancient beech forests and keeps them in good condition for various animals and insects.

 

The “Yucatán Restoration” project’s location and history seem to be the perfect place to fight climate change fast. In Yucatán, trees grow four meters in less than two years. A fascinating fact is that these trees grow four times faster than in central Europe and will help to tackle climate change fast.

 

The Haiti Reforestation Project restores tree cover by cultivating agroforestry systems that protect watersheds and improve food security. The project equips local farmers with the training, tools, and trees needed to design their plots, grow, and care for their trees while increasing their farms’ food production and biodiversity.

 

“At GameInfluencer we are representing a young generation that is deeply concerned about how our planet will look in the future. We want to do our part in helping to preserve our future and show that all of us deeply care about our environment. Planting trees and reforestations are great ways to achieve our goal, that’s why we are very happy to be a member of GamesForest.Club,” – Benedikt Seitz, CEO at GameInfluencer, says.

 

By supporting all these initiatives, GameInfluencer makes a big difference in our environmental future. If you want to make a difference too, join our community, and we will protect our nature together. 

 

If you want to learn more about GameInfluencer, visit their homepage or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

Find more information about our projects here. 

Our projects: Old-Growth Forests in Eastern Germany

Our projects: Old-Growth Forests of the Future in Eastern Germany

If you still cannot decide which project to support and where to plant the trees, we have great news for you! We are starting a series of blog articles that will help you get acquainted with our projects in different countries. You will learn how you can contribute to nature protection and how planting trees or protecting forests helps the environment and the local community. 

 

Today we will talk about our “Old-Growth Forests in Eastern Germany” project run by WWF Germany. 

 

Uckermark is a biodiversity hotspot in Germany. The hilly landscape is full of precious habitats: old beech and idyllic alder forests, clear lakes and streams, moors, and orchid meadows. The area is also home to various animal species. In addition to otters, beavers, and pond turtles, sea eagles, fish eagles, and lesser spotted eagles, as well as black and white storks, are part of Germany’s natural treasures.

 

However, many of these forests were used for timber production. It makes them vulnerable to drought, bark beetles, and dry soil. According to the current estimations, most of these trees will not survive next 20 years. It also means that many animals and insects will lose their habitat. 

 

WWF Germany has taken 1,500 hectares of forest under its wing to protect and develop it sustainably. It provides significant benefits to the local biodiversity and improves the forests’ resilience to the climate crisis. We hope to give the next generations the privilege of experiencing old-growth forests in Germany and inspire a change in the way forests are managed in the future.

 

If you want to support this project, feel free to join our community. Then we can help the German forests together. 

 

To learn more about the available projects, click here. 

Booster Space supports German Beech Jungle and rewilds water catchments in Cameroon

Booster Space supports German Beech Jungle and rewilds water catchments in Cameroon

Hello, everyone! 

 

Booster Space is our new member and we are excited to share their story with you! 

 

Booster Space Events und Consulting GmbH is an event and consulting agency based in Berlin. They run not only physical events but also specialize in virtual formats, live streams on Twitch and their implementation. Based on the brand of gamesweekberlin, Booster Space organizes, among others, the in-house B2B format of PRO X, including the Career Day, the Womenize! Games and Tech or modules of the QUO VADIS – game development & business conference.

 

The team joined GamesForest.Club and decided to contribute to two projects: German Beech Jungle and Water Catchments. “We love this initiative because it’s playful, modern and a no-brainer in it’s concept”, – Booster Space explains.

 

The “German Beech Jungle” project is dedicated to saving beech and mixed beech/oak forests. These forests are characterized by long-lasting stability, which allowed many highly specialized animal and plant species to adapt to such permanent forests. Most of them depend on particularly old trees; the rare middle spotted woodpecker, for example, can only colonize beech forests when the trees are 200 years old or more.By joining this project, Booster Space helps to protect ancient beech forests and keeps them in good condition for various animals and insects.

 

While saving the German nature, Booster Space’s team is also supporting the local community in Cameroon (Africa). There is a lack of water resources and local inhabitants have faced a serious water crisis for a generation, as a result of poor water management. By being engaged in this project, Booster Space rewild water catchments in Buea, Cameroon with the Miyawaki Method. This method of planting is 100x biodiverse, 100% natural and 30x denser compared to monoculture tree stands. 

 

We are happy to have Booster Space on board and are looking forward to their forest to grow! 

 

If you want to support forests in different countries as well, join our community and we will protect our nature together. 

 

If you want to learn more about Booster Space, visit their homepage or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

Find more information about the “German Beech Jungle” and “Water Catchments” projects here.

Gamescom joins GamesForest.Club as an associate

Gamescom joins GamesForest.Club as an associate

Hello, GamesForest.Club’s community! Today we have really exciting news – Gamescom has joined our community as an associate and has its own forest on our website now! 

 

Gamescom is the world’s largest gaming event held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany. The event is used by many video game developers to exhibit upcoming games and game-related hardware. One of gamescom’s goals is to reforest as much forest area as possible. 

 

The gamescom forest is the sustainability project of gamescom: together with its project partner Treemer, it is rebuilding a climate-resilient mixed forest near Bayreuth. Treemer is known as an expert in reforestation and sustainable forestry. So far, the companies have already been able to reforest 18,500 m² of forest thanks to the great commitment of the community which donated over 45,000 euros for this sustainability project.

 

“Environmental and climate protection are of key importance to us as gamescom, the games industry and the games community. That is why we are doing our part and setting an example with the gamescom forest, which the community and gamescom partners can directly participate in. We are therefore very pleased that upjers is also supporting our gamescom forest with such a generous donation,” says Tim Endres, Director of gamescom at Koelnmesse.

 

The gamescom forest will now be included in the digital forest of GamesForest.Club so that it can continue to grow and be visible to even more people. This commitment can be followed in an interactive way on the digital globe on our website.

 

Learn more about the gamescom forest here or check their LinkedIn page.

Goodgame Studios continues fight against climate change and joins GamesForest.Club as founding member

Goodgame Studios continues fight against climate change and joins GamesForest.Club as founding member

Great news for the Games Forest Club’s community! Goodgame Studios, leading developer and publisher of online video games on browser and mobile devices is intensifying its engagement to further a sustainable future on earth and joins GamesForest.Club as a founding member.

 

The first project supported by Goodgame Studios in cooperation with GamesForest.Club will be the newly decorated “PlanBe” cultivation area near Campeche, Mexico. The area will not only help fight the effects of the climate crisis thanks to the planting of new trees but will also be made available for active field tests for scientists and research facilities all over the world.

 

”We are very happy to support GamesForest.Club all over the world in the future. We found a very committed partner from the gaming world with whom we want to push sustainable projects to protect our planet.” says Oleg Rößger, CEO of Goodgame Studios.

 

“As a tech company, we will work with GamesForest.Club to promote the fight against climate change even more intensively, and at the same time we can provide science with the support it needs in the wild,” said Verena Schnaus, CFO and Managing Director at Goodgame Studios.

 

Over the coming weeks and months, Goodgame Studios will support further projects in cooperation with GamesForest.Club and actively include their already existing communities of gamers – among these is the 10th anniversary of Goodgame Big Farm this year.

 

The Hamburg company already supported various projects to sustain natural resources in the past as well as the global forestation with the charity organization One Tree Planted. Goodgame Studios, as a part of Stillfront Group, was certified as a climate neutral company by South Pole in 2020.

 

We are excited to have Goodgame Studios on board and looking forward to protecting our nature together with them. 

 

Do you want to make a difference too? Join our community and support the forests!

 

If you want to learn more about Goodgame Studios, visit their homepage or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

Find more information about the “PlanBe” project here.

Matchmade is protecting natural dynamics and creating old-growth forests in Eastern Germany

Matchmade is protecting natural dynamics and creating old-growth forests in Eastern Germany

Today we are excited to introduce our new members – Matchmade – a marketplace that provides relevant and easy sponsorships for content creators, and scalable and predictable creator marketing for brands.

 

Since its founding in 2016, Matchmade has been committed to creating an online ecosystem that is fair, respectful, and fun. From pricing to privacy, the company’s goal is to promote honest, straightforward marketing practices in the new creator economy.

 

At work, Matchmade is not only avoiding fishy cooperations and campaigns which are worsening the environmental situation but also tries to implement small things in its daily working life: minimizing waste, recycling, repairing, and reusing. Moreover, the employees are given a transport allowance which makes it easier to rent a bike or take advantage of public transport, and all rides taken are offset. In the future, the company also aims to implement plans to offset all business trips.

 

Why did they become part of GamesForest’s community? Well, that’s also an interesting story.

 

“Games Forest is addressing the biggest challenges of our time — the climate crisis and biodiversity loss — in a playful way that feels “true” to the games industry. It has been embraced by this sphere from the get-go, and beyond that, it is something that can connect with today’s consumers,” — Matchmade explains.

 

The company has already supported the Pelimetsä project, which helps to protect forests in Finland. Matchmade decided to stay local and follow up by supporting “Old-Growth Forests in Eastern Germany”, not far from the Berlin office. Over the past centuries, Germany’s forests were under immense pressure by industrial forestry, agriculture, and infrastructure development. Today, real old-growth forests are almost non-existent in Germany. By supporting this project, Matchmade not only protects the forests, contributes to the local biodiversity and improves the forests’ resilience to the climate crisis but also has a chance to reach a lot of people and help them to learn and care about environmental issues. 

 

“We hope to take a trip there one day and visit the trees ourselves!” — Matchmade’s team says. 

 

We are excited to have Matchmade on board and are looking forward to their forest to grow! 

 

Do you want to make a difference too? Join our community and we will protect our nature together!

 

If you want to learn more about Matchmade, visit their homepage or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

Find more information about the “Old-Growth Forests in Eastern Germany” project here.

Interview with Netzbewegung: how a digital agency supports 6 environmental projects on 4 continents​

Interview with Netzbewegung: how a digital agency supports 6 environmental projects on 4 continents

Hello, dear Games Forest Club community! Today we will hold an inspiring interview with one of our sponsors – Netzbewegung!

Netzbewegung is a creative digital agency for engaging experiences for websites, social and e-commerce. Its goal is to create immersive, interactive, and emotional brand experiences for the user.

 

We are proud to say that the company has already supported 6 different projects and planted 1,138 trees on different continents. That is an absolute record in our community! 

 

Netzbewegung has also contributed a lot to Games Forest Club’s website development. The team created not only the whole interactive forest map but also supported the backend and the whole maintenance of the web pages. Thanks to their huge support we were able to win CSS Design Awards for UI, UX, and Innovation.

 

We are curious to learn why Netzbewegung decided to join our forest projects and what their team thinks about the whole environmental situation. 

 

Do you pay attention to sustainability and climate protection in your company?

 

– Sustainability has become an increasingly important issue in the past years. We have decided that we will continue to offer our team to work from home in order to cut commuting emissions and we are currently switching to hybrid company vehicles. We also cooperate with local companies from the neighboring Black Forest to supply our team with drinks and snacks.

 

The topic of sustainability has also become more and more important in our projects. For example, we have worked on two exciting online projects for the LUBW, the state institute for environmental issues in Baden-Württemberg, “The sustainable shopping cart” and the ideas portal “Toolbox of Change”, which promotes the topic of sustainability locally. In addition, we work for the SWR for the school platform PLANET SCHULE for projects on the topics of climate-friendly energies and climate change.

 

Why did you decide to become part of Games Forest Club’s community?

 

– We feel very proud that we have been selected to develop the Gamesforest.Club visually and technically. As an agency for digital experiences, we see it as our responsibility to not only contribute to this project with our digital know-how. We wanted to be a part of this community ourselves since we have recognized that it is becoming more and more important to actively protect our environment.

 

What goals are you pursuing with the sponsorship?

 

– In the past years we have become more and more concerned about the way our climate is changing. With the sponsorship, we want to raise further awareness among our team and also our customers. Not only for the need to take action but also for the possibilities that develop. Like the Game Forest. We feel that the Gamesforest.Club offers a great opportunity to do something in an uncomplicated way. We recommend the Gamesforest.club to our customers, even if they are not part of the games industry.

 

Why did you decide to contribute to these specific projects?

 

– We couldn’t decide on a specific project and wanted to support projects on all continents in order to document their importance.

 

We are happy to have such great supporters on board. Netzbewegung has helped to develop a sustainable forestry management system in Ethiopia, fought against the lack of fresh water in Kenya, protected ancient beech forests in Germany, supported ecological restoration on Biak Island in Indonesia, maintained sustainable reforestation in Mexico, and increased biodiversity in one of the national parks in Colombia. Quite impressive, isn’t it? 

 

If you want to make a difference too, join our community and we will protect our nature together. 

If you want to learn more about Netzbewegung, visit their homepage or follow them on LinkedIn.

 

For more information about all the projects, click here.

GamerLegion: engaging community to protect nature

GamerLegion: engaging community to protect nature

Hello, dear Games Forest Club community! We would like to introduce you to one of our founding sponsors – GamerLegion. The company is based in the eSports mecca Berlin, owns a professional coaching platform, and offers top-class eSports in four different titles. Short: They’re living gaming in every facet.

 

One of their teams is stacked with some of the best Age of Empires players in the world. In the beginning, the connection to the Games Forest Club seems kind of odd. The logging of large areas of forest is standard in the game. Just because their AoE players hack trees with hundreds of villagers virtual doesn’t mean they wouldn’t worry about the forest in real life. It’s quite the opposite, as forest dieback has become a real problem.

 

Many highly specialized animal and plant species have adapted to such permanent forests. Most of them depend on particularly old trees; the rare middle spotted woodpecker, for example, can only colonize beech forests when the trees are 200 years old or more.

 

GamerLegion wants to tackle this problem, together with an absolutely awesome community. They started a charity event with all of their six Age of Empires players and invoked the community to become Guardians of the Forest. While the boys streamed on their own Twitch channel, they all collected money for the forest together.

 

GamerLegion shows what is possible when you have a strong community in your back. The gaming community is full of nice people with good hearts, who are willing to donate for the good cause.

 

Do you like to know more about GamerLegion?

 

Visit their website or follow them on social media: LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

7 tips how to be more environmentally friendly at home

7 tips how to be more environmentally friendly at home

Following an environmentally friendly lifestyle is actually easier than you might think. Read our 7 tips on how to protect the environment and which healthy habits you can implement in your daily life. 

Recycle

Recycling conserves natural resources, reduces pollution and saves energy. Try sorting out your trash — most of the time glass, paper, metal, and plastic can either be reused or recycled. Recycled aluminum, for example, is a particularly valuable resource; manufacturing using recycled aluminum is 92% more efficient than when unused raw materials are used. So next time you want to get rid of aluminum cans, it is better not to throw them into the garbage. 

Buy only what you will use

Think twice before buying a new car, TV or a huge pack of cookies. Most of the time we actually buy much more than we need. Excessive personal consumption of goods means higher direct and indirect costs to the environment, including the energy used and pollution emitted in the extraction of natural resources, and in the manufacturing, transportation, and disposal of goods. So let’s try avoiding impulse buying.

 

Avoid buying plastic bags

Plastic bags take hundreds of years to decompose and pose a particular threat to wildlife. When doing groceries, try to bring your own reusable bag instead of buying a new one at the cashier every time. Packing fruits and vegetables in a plastic bag is also not a great idea. You can easily buy a cloth bag for this purpose nowadays and it will definitely be healthier for the environment.

Donate used goods

You can always donate some of the used consumer goods instead of just throwing them away. You can send clothing to the local Red Cross organization or a local church, donate electronic devices to schools or needy families. In addition to the environmental benefits of giving these items a second life, you are helping others and may be eligible for a tax deduction.

Buy products with less packaging

 

Containers and packaging made up the largest portion of municipal waste at almost 78 million tons, or nearly 30%, according to the EPA. Slightly more than a third gets recycled, but huge amounts end up in landfills. Packaging also adds significantly to both the cost and carbon footprint of consumer products.

 

Avoid disposable products

 

The more we buy cheap plastic plates, paper towels and other non-durable consumer goods, the larger greenhouse gas emissions are. Store away a quantity of durable, bargain-priced dishes, use cloth napkins, cloth rags, rechargeable batteries, durable razors, and refillable coffee thermoses for take-out coffee.

Stop throwing food out

Buying too much food often means throwing some of it away. Plan your menu in advance or create grocery lists to avoid this situation. If you have bio-garbage, you can use it for composting. It saves disposal costs, reduces the methane emitted from landfills, and creates a valuable soil amendment, reducing the need for manufactured fertilizers. 

 

As you can see, helping our nature does not require much and can be easily implemented at home. Share this tips with your friends and family and let’s take cate of the environment together! 

CrimeBloc is protecting German forests

CrimeBloc is protecting German forests

Hello, everyone! 

 

We are happy to introduce CrimeBloc to you – our new member in our GamesForest community.

 

CrimeBloc is a retro multiplayer mafia game set in Eastern Europe. It has its origins in the mid 2000s but since 2020 the team is completely rebuilding the game from the ground up with modern technologies.

 

By nature, Germany would be over 90 percent covered by forest, most of it beech or beech/oak mixed forests. Nowadays ancient beech forests are the rainforests of Europe, and similar to the tropics, they are in very bad shape.

CrimeBloc joined the “German Beech Jungle” project at GamesForest.Club and already saved 31 square metres of the German woods.

 

“We are committed to invest a portion of our revenue for sustainable and good causes, primarily to protect our nature and to give something back if we are able to,” – Frank Hartmann, CEO of the company, says.

 

CrimeBloc is already engaged in different forest related projects. Having connections and partnerships with hunters, forest owners, or just friends and community members who are  passionate about recreational and sustainable activities in the forests, helps the company to protect nature and stay up-to-date about the environment.

 

As a young game developer, CrimeBloc wants not only to be stronger integrated into the gaming community but also to do its part in sustaining the environment, to learn and exchange experiences with like minded people.

 

“Building and playing games all day is a good contrast to spending time in nature and “by doing what we love, we want to sustain what makes us live,” – Frank says, explaining the reason why they decided to join GamesForest.Club.

 

Did you like what CrimeBloc is doing? Would you also like to help the forests gro w and contribute to nature protection? Join GamesForest.Club and make a difference! 

 

If you want to learn more about CrimeBloc, visit their homepage.

 

For more information about the “German Beech Jungle” project, click here.