As we turn As climate catastrophe approaches, more and more people – and companies – are working to reduce their impact on the planet. Cars are going electric, straws have gone organic, and even video game cases have gotten slimmer. One industry that is lagging far behind, however, is board games.
With an emphasis on delighting customers with big boxes and plastic miniatures, and a manufacturing process largely based in China, and with questionable material sourcing, board games could do well much more to show they care about the planet as much as they do moving units.
That is an argument everyone could make across the table, but it’s also one that’s now being done professionally with the publication of Green Games Guidea paper published today by a group of Designers, industry representatives and academics.
It breaks down how the board game industry works and what its current focus is, noting that it’s driven almost entirely by what it thinks it will sell, rather than what’s best for the environment. It then offers a set of frameworks and potential solutions to them, based on a holistic approach that not only considers how games are made, but also how components are recycled and the rights of workers protecting them all.
Some of these solutions include minimizing the size of game boxes, avoiding excessive packaging materials (and wrapping everything in plastic), moving away from plastic components, ensuring wood and cardboard components are responsibly sourced, and ensuring that renewable energy is used are used wherever possible in the manufacturing process.
Like a recent video game newspaper that we also covered (and some writers share that) rather than just slapping everyone on the knuckles Green Games Guide seeks to provide companies with a range of grades and options, highlighting where current decisions are worst and ways to improve them.
While most of the paper is intended for industry – although it is worded to make very interesting reading for anyone interested in board games and/or climate policy – there is also some advice for gamers looking to do so indicate that we can be there searching for games made with FSC (forest management board) and similar certifications and can also push companies to make more positive changes by contacting them and letting them know about it.
It’s not all negative either; some positives are listed as examples that follow, such as the Game of the Year award Kingdominowhich “is a great example of efficient and attractive game packaging”.
“The size of the box walks a fine line between matching internal components without compromising easy access and not leaving too much empty space,” says the GGG. “The fact that the dominoes are pre-cut avoids the problem of transporting extra weight and also avoids the space requirement that becomes unnecessary when the dominoes are removed from the larger sheets on which they are printed.”
“At the same time, the box size still offers a substantial art surface for attractive presentation.”
If you want to read the whole newspaper, You can check it here.
