GO GREEN

Playing for purpose: Rovio

How the makers of Angry Birds are focusing on the green.

We all try to do our part to preserve the planet and limit our carbon footprint. But change requires collective action. That’s why it’s heartening to see Finnish developer Rovio – maker of hit game series Angry Birdsstepping up to do their part.

In conversation with Rovio’s sustainability manager, Tommi Lappalainen, we discussed the green initiatives featured in Angry Birds, the company’s efforts to become carbon neutral and how they’ve joined forces with others in the games industry to build a more sustainable future.

Angry Birds go green

Rovio is often part of big environment-focused moments such as Earth Day and Green Game Day. For 2022’s World Environment Day, the team launched a huge event in the consistent crowd-pleaser Angry Birds Friends.

“This event was part of Playing for the Planet’s Green Game Jam, where we participated for the third year in a row,” says Lappalainen. “In the event, we challenged our players to reach a goal of 15,000 planted trees.”

Becoming carbon neutral

It’s not all about games though: for more than five years Rovio have been busy trying to reduce the negative environmental impacts that their operations cause, and they’ve now reached “externally verified carbon neutrality”.

“A mandatory component of our carbon neutrality was to improve the coverage of our carbon inventory to be in line with the GHG Protocol,” Lappalainen says – the GHG Protocol (GreenHouse Gas Protocol) is a standard framework for measuring and managing private and public gas emissions.

“In 2022 we reached an important milestone and became fully carbon neutral, including the energy consumption of players’ and YouTube-viewers’ devices – so when playing our games or watching our YouTube channel, we’ve offset the carbon footprint energy consumed by your individual device,” Lappalainen explains.

United we stand

Rovio became a founding member of the Playing for the Planet Alliance, which launched in September 2019 during the Climate Action Summit at the UN Headquarters in New York. Collectively, the members of the Alliance have the ability to reach more than 1 billion videogame players globally.

All members have made commitments ranging from reducing their emissions to supporting the global environmental agenda through initiatives such as planting trees and reducing plastic in their products.

The future is green

Rovio is not stopping there – focusing on the environment continues to be a key part of their work as game makers.

“We have two big goals: minimise negative impacts and maximise positive impacts for our planet,” Lappalainen shares. “Minimising negative impacts means that we recognise, reduce and compensate for the negative impacts our operations might cause.

“By maximising positive impacts we mean working in a way where we can use our position and reach to raise awareness for important climate and environmental actions. We strongly feel that acting responsibly is now more important than ever.”

Join the mid-air mayhem in the games below, and rest assured that Rovio will offset any carbon footprint generated.