The climate crisis is looming large on everyone’s minds – especially as the irrefutable evidence isn’t just intangible rises in ocean temperature, but can be seen across the world with various weather anomalies and natural disasters.
But, while we have some time to try to bring our net carbon output down to try to stop the overwhelming effects of climate change, industries across the world are beginning to see how they can do their part to help with the battle that should have the whole world united as one.
Which brings us to our key question. From the gaming industry to the hospitality industry, what is being done to combat climate damage?
Gaming
The gaming industry is attempting to do its fair share to prevent further climate damage. Indeed, in 2018, the gaming revenue brought in by Egypt alone was around $293mn, surpassing every other African country by a wide margin.
Games consoles take up around 16 billion kilowatt-hours of energy every year – a lot of this is done while the consoles aren’t even in use. So, developers are addressing this problem by manufacturing better consoles. The PS4 has an energy-saver mode now, while the Xbox One is deemed to be 90% energy efficient.
Developers are also offering streaming options which take better advantage of the energy-saving options involved. In the iGaming sector, we can see Canadian casinos going green, with sites attempting to run exclusively on clean energy. Another managed to save 40 million sheets of paper simply by changing the size of some of the printouts. Gaming is a huge pastime and by solving the problem at the source, the effects could ripple out across the world’s gaming population.
Hospitality
Attempting to tackle climate change shouldn’t mean losing out on activities we enjoy doing – if the industries behind them are amenable. Swapping to carbon-free dining, such as restaurants that serve vegan food or combat waste could help.
For instance, Egypt is seeing a rise in vegan and vegetarian restaurants. Eating vegan compared to eating meat-based meals could prevent further deforestation and intense farming and could replace this space with more sustainable models of producing food.
Indeed, it has been claimed that if everyone swapped to a vegan diet we’d reduce the amount of farmland needed to sustain us by 3.1bn hectares, which is roughly the size of the whole of Africa. Additionally, by ensuring that restaurants do something productive with their food waste can also help with a two-pronged approach.
By attempting to solve the hospitality’s climate issues at their source can lead to positive changes down the line. Making changes that promote sustainability and renewability across each industry could have the effect of preventing further environmental damage.
The gaming industry shows that they have isolated a problem and are looking to solve it, while the hospitality industry shows that we can continue to enjoy the things we do and by making some small changes, we can affect positive change. Other industries should take note and see if they can follow in the footsteps of these sectors.
