gamescom goes green

gamescom goes green: Taking responsibility for climate action together

Environmental protection and climate action play an important role for the games industry. Whether game developers or publishers, (esports) organizers, educational institutions, or service providers from the games sector: they have all long recognized the urgency of the issue. For this reason, 76 percent of German games companies are already involved in corresponding projects to operate more sustainably and to raise awareness of these issues. This commitment is clearly demonstrated, for example, by the "Playing for the Planet" alliance, an initiative of the global games industry and the United Nations (UN).

The organizers of gamescom, the game – The German Games Industry Association and Koelnmesse, are also aware of their responsibility in climate action. The clear goal is for gamescom, as the largest games event in the world, to also lead the way in terms of climate action. The reputation of gamescom is to be used to win over even more people, companies, trade fair and event organizers for concrete measures and climate action concepts.

Following this claim, the organizers have launched the project "gamescom goes green".

Building on existing measures, such as free public transport tickets (VRS and VRR) or the gamescom forest, Koelnmesse and the game association want to design gamescom as a whole to be climate-neutral over the medium and long term through the reduction, avoidance, and offset of CO2 emissions. In the short term and as a pilot project, gamescom 2022 will already become even more climate-friendly.

In the short term and as a pilot project, gamescom 2022 will already become even more climate-friendly.

First Pilar: The core event

The core event, with all areas for which Koelnmesse and the game association are responsible, will be climate-neutral via offsetting in cooperation with ClimatePartner . This means that all emissions from these areas have been calculated on the basis of the internationally recognized "Greenhouse Gas Protocol" standard and fully offset by supporting certified carbon offset projects. For example, the following areas are included in the calculation: exhibition center infrastructure, material consumption for event-internal setups, themed areas, own side events, devcom, personnel, mobility, catering, vehicle fleet, websites, etc.

Second Pillar: Visitors

Visitors can make a voluntary contribution to climate action with a donation or the purchase of a "green ticket". The revenues will benefit the gamescom forest near Bayreuth that started in 2020 and has already grown to 20,000 m².

Third pillar: Exhibitors

Exhibitors can also make a voluntary climate contribution to offset their CO2 consumption at gamescom (stand construction, travel, accommodation, etc.). In cooperation with ClimatePartner , they are given the opportunity to make a recommended climate contribution, depending on the size of their stand, which supports the certified carbon offset projects selected by gamescom and ClimatePartner .

The game - The German Games Industry Association is particularly concerned about environmental and climate protection

The association has screened and optimized all of its work processes, so that work in the office has already been climate-neutral since 2019.

Through ClimatePartner , the game association supports climate protection projects such as "Clean Cooking Stoves" in Nyungwe, Rwanda and the "Hydropower" project in Virunga, D.R. Congo. With these two projects, the association offsets its CO2 emissions, which are caused by business operations, employee commutes and business travel, among other things. Other central institutions of the games industry such as the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK), the Digital Games Culture Foundation, the esports player foundation and devcom are also already climate-neutral.

Since 2021, the game association has also been part of the "Playing for the Planet Alliance", a cooperation between the United Nations and the games industry.

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Koelnmesse: Climate neutral with all trade fairs and events by 2050

Koelnmesse has set itself the goal of balancing its economic activities with society and the environment. It wants to implement this for its partners and its customers and likewise takes them to task for making their contribution.

In November 2021, Koelnmesse joined the "Net Zero Carbon Events" initiative of the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC), the global organization of the event industry, and thus committed itself to designing its events worldwide in such a way that CO2 emissions are a net zero by the end of 2050 and to reporting on its progress along this path.

Since the event and trade fair industry is very resource-intensive, this will not happen overnight. Nevertheless, Koelnmesse has already set out to implement numerous measures for air pollution control, energy efficiency or resource management in dealing with resources and protecting the environment. These improve both the energy balance of the approximately 80 events in Cologne and that of the company.

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