Sustainable Games Alliance, a non-profit cooperative of game companies and trade associations, has formally announced its launch with the goal of making games the most sustainable form of entertainment on the planet.
The Sustainable Games Alliance creates specific and actionable ways to measure, understand and reduce the footprint of the global games industry, designed for the needs of people who make games.
Jiri Kupiainen, former Disney VP and serial gaming entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the industry, said:
“Games are the defining entertainment medium of the 21st century and a huge industry generating almost 200 billion in annual revenues, and we believe the industry can and should also lead on sustainability
We’re seeing strong demand to act from players, employees and regulators, and many companies want to do the right thing. By working together we can coordinate and enable definite, specific action that’s based on latest data and leading research.”
Jiri Kupiainen, Chairperson and Co-Founder of the SGA
As one of its key initiatives, the Sustainable Games Alliance is developing a free, open & global industry standard for sustainability reporting for companies that develop, publish or operate games.
“Gaming is one of the world’s leading industries in terms of metrics and data, and so it’s in a unique position to leverage all that also in sustainability.”
Dr. Ben Abraham – author of “Digital Games After Climate Change”
SGA is developing the standard working closely with its members to simplify compliance with key regulations such as the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
We can make it easy and reliable for game companies to report on sustainability matters in a way that is data driven, comparable and transparent – and actionable for the people that make games so that they can reduce their footprint.
Dr. Ben Abraham, SGA’s Standard & Research Lead
To guide the effort to develop a unified reporting model for the games industry, the alliance is today also releasing a briefing paper on gaming’s scope 3 emissions that is freely available on its website here .
The Sustainable Games Alliance is a global member driven cooperative with its operations overseen by Managing Director & Co-Founder Maria Wagner. Maria previously led the Berlin & Brandenburg area gaming initiative games:net, and Co-Founded the innovative environmental conservation non-profit Games Forest Club.
“Concrete action is needed, and by working together with a unified set of actions, it’s more efficient and cost-effective for all the member companies and associations.
The games industry’s growth over the past 20 years has been stunning, and if we can show the way – not only on revenues, but sustainability as well – we can inspire other industries to follow suit.”
Sustainable Games Alliance Managing Director & Co-Founder Maria Wagner
The alliance is backed by games industry veterans like Petri Järvilehto (co-founder, Remedy Entertainment and Seriously Entertainment) and David Helgason (founder of Unity Technologies and the Transition VC fund), and counts many leading European game companies and associations as its members despite its young age.
