MSc, MMA Georgina Guillén’s doctoral dissertation shows how gamification offers an opportunity to communicate sustainable consumption (SC), facilitating practice changes and habit formation through hands-on approaches to support individual and societal efforts. Due to its systemic nature, sustainable consumption is a complex-to-grasp notion, yet it implies making decisions and thinking about their consequences beyond individual implications.
"Leading a sustainable lifestyle is about the choices we make, considering the impacts they will have on the wellbeing of others, human or not, today and in the future. Hence, in times of faster, easier accessibility to (more often than not, unnecessary) products and services, gamification has proven its worth as an engaging approach to choice editing, keeping individuals motivated to... what? That is the question: more, less, different consumption practices?" wonders Guillén.
Gamifying sustainable consumption can happen anywhere
Guillén’s initial findings show that most of the research about gamifying sustainable consumption is framed under narratives of environmental impacts, mainly in terms of CO2 reduction or waste management, with point and badge collection or leaderboards to indicate progress, risking the oversimplification of the problems that current consumption practices bring about. Following a triple line of inquiry, Guillén first assessed various gamified backcasting experiences to develop a comprehensive framework for SC practitioners that was later applied to the strategic planning activities of the GRI Academy.
"In general, different stakeholder groups are open to non-IT-mediated gameful approaches; the key is defining the most suitable gamification strategies that can help enjoy the activities that bring them together and enable engagement for the implementation of co-created solutions" reflects Guillén.
The second line of inquiry led to the exploration of the potential of gamification to drive transitions toward the circular economy (CE), depicting existing approaches through a socially oriented lens that CE strategists can implement and highlighting that gamification is mainly applied for education and policymaking efforts, overlooking business development and organizational change, leaving plenty of room for work on this area.
The third line of inquiry stemmed from the revelation that most cases of gamified sustainable consumption are represented via mobile apps, which often struggle to survive and fulfill their purpose to help individuals live more sustainably.
"Gamified e-commerce platforms feature many simple elements to build up excitement among its users, encouraging them to remain engaged with the platform and buy stuff for the sake of it. There is a lot we can learn from this and apply to enable the opposite behavior," notes Guillén as one of the reasons for systematically reviewing several sustainable consumption apps and engaging in a dialogue with their creators.
Everyone can be an active change agent
Identifying similar approaches to gamification and sustainable consumption narratives among all these apps led to questioning their creators about their decisions and considerations to opt for such choices. The interviews unearthed tensions, dilemmas, ethical stances, managerial and organizational approaches, understanding of gamification, and practices of responsible innovation that anyone considering either creating or using an app to help with their sustainability journey can find enlightening and useful for their own sustainable living endeavors.
"With each step of the research development, new questions and promising approaches to gamifying sustainable consumption practices emerged, positioning this dissertation as a hopeful-looking contribution to the ever-evolving relationships of shared responsibility between societies, nature, and technology,” Guillén says.
Public defence on Thursday 21 November
MSc (Strategic leadership toward sustainability), MMA (Marketing and commercial direction) Georgina Guillén Mandujano Hanson's dissertation in the field of games and gamification titled Gamifying Sustainable Consumption: Opportunities and Dilemmas is publicly defended at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University on Thursday 21 November at City centre campus, in auditorium D11 of Päätalo building (address: Kalevantie 4, Tampere). The Opponent will be Professor Geertje Bekebrede from TU Delft, the Netherlands. The Custos will be Professor Juho Hamari from the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University.
The doctoral dissertation is available online.
The public defence can be followed via remote connection.