Iain Chantler, a Design & Innovation graduate from the Open University, launched Sustainability in Games, a website that offers free resources and consult for designing and manufacturing sustainable games.
So what?
The board game market is seeing a dramatic global increase, with the total market exceeding $11bn in 2020, while makers raised $236m on Kickstarter alone. With this rise, many people are starting to wonder about the sustainability and sourcing practices of this pastime where many of the different pieces such as tokens and figurines are typically completely unique in form, but ultimately serve the same function within the game – as counters, placeholders, etc. Could we see an overhaul in even our smallest leisure activities move to more sustainable in the future, such as ethically sourced, generic tokens made from wood instead of industrialized plastic? What other new innovations could shake this growing industry?
Sources
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Green Players: The tabletop studios and designers incorporating sustainability into board games https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/board-game/feature/board-games-sustainability-environment-eco -
Free time during lockdown helped board game sales to jump in 2020 - report https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/board-game/news/games-and-puzzles-market-2020-2021 -
Tabletop games raised $236m on Kickstarter in 2020, another record-breaking year https://www.dicebreaker.com/topics/kickstarter/news/tabletop-games-kickstarter-2020-record-1 - http://www.sustainabilityingames.com/
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