Game-Based Approaches to Sustainable Innovation

In this chapter, Whalen and Kijne critically engage with two game-based approaches—serious games and gamification—and how they can be used to support sustainable innovation. Game-based approaches have been increasingly used for purposes beyond pure entertainment, and a variety of examples from within the field of sustainability are presented. The authors discuss both the benefits and limitations of game-based approaches. Games are well suited to sustainable innovation as they can increase user motivation and illustrate complexity in relatively simple ways. However, factors such as assessment can pose a challenge and make their actual impact difficult to quantify