ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY GAMES
GREEN BY DESIGN
Greener, more environmentally-friendly games start with greener design. Jessica Metheringham of the Green Games Guide explains why
Written by Jessica Metheringham
Board games tend to involve many small pieces. Granted, these are usually very nice small pieces, but still – games are full of stuff. We board gamers can be rather like magpies, constantly looking for a new game with lovely shiny components to add to our collections.
So, how then do we reconcile owning games with being green? Is it possible to be environmentally friendly and still own a lot of games?
THE ANSWER
One of the first things to point out is that neither of the questions above have a straight answer. I don’t think we should all stop buying games (although board game cafes’ would benefit). We need to debunk the idea that things are either 100% environmentally friendly or 100% not. Real life is more often made up of sliding scales than yes/no dichotomies – much more like rolling a D20 than flipping a coin. A game might be very green in some ways, and not green at all in others.