Anyone can take action to fight against the climate crisis, and the gaming industry is not outside of it. The gaming ecosystem has a huge potential to show leadership by cutting down its use of fossil fuels and switching to renewable electricity.
According to Newzoo, the gaming sector brings around $174.9 billion of annual revenue, uniting 2.9 billion players worldwide. When we thought about the energy consumed by all the game development studios, data centers, cloud gaming services, and others that make up the sector, we decided to reach out and increase their awareness about using sustainable renewable energy.
Why is this important? According to Our World in Data, more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions are related to energy consumption. If the gaming sector continues to grow at the rate it does now, its energy consumption is likely to increase as well. Even though it’s much easier to measure the carbon footprint of, say, the beauty industry (which we targeted with our previous campaign), the gaming sector still makes a significant environmental impact, through its energy use alone.
With our EKOpixel campaign, we encourage the gaming sector to “level up” its choice of energy by switching to renewables. It’s much easier than you think: Using 100% clean electricity is technically possible, economically viable, and increasingly available anywhere. This creates an immense opportunity to get rid of climate-wrecking fossil fuels. Furthermore, it’s possible to go beyond simply using renewable energy and do more with your energy purchase – by choosing EKOenergy-labelled renewables. Our ambition is to engage as many companies as possible to grasp this chance.
Energy that carries the EKOenergy label is generated from renewable sources, and it’s also produced in a sustainable way to ensure the impact on the local environment is minimal. Plus, it provides consumers with a powerful communication tool – buying EKOenergy gives consumers the right to use our internationally recognised logo to communicate about their choice of renewables. This can also encourage others to follow suit.
EKOenergy is available for any consumer regardless of their size, location, sector or energy purchase method. It brings additional benefits as well: When you choose EKOenergy, you help us finance clean energy projects that fight energy poverty and river restoration projects to protect freshwater species.
If you are part of the gaming sector and want to learn more about EKOenergy-labelled renewables or join forces to make our campaign more visible, don’t hesitate to contact us and follow our social media for the latest updates on the EKOpixel campaign.
Campaign materials
- EKOpixel leaflet with general information about the campaign.
- EKOpixel leaflet with general information about EKOenergy
- Presentation: EKOpixel – Press to level up! (pdf, 12 slides)
Published: 13 June 2022