In a world of exponential consumption of finite resources, a world facing scarcity, environmental sustainability has become a central policy issue in 21st century. An ecosystem, a lifestyle, or a community that is sustainable is one which supports itself and its surroundings. Supporting and creating a sustainable ecosystem must place significant focus on environmental protection. After all, our interactions with the environment are only “sustainable” if they don’t destroy the environment and the resources provided by it. Environmental protection entails examining how our use of the environment affects it, and how we can ensure that negative effects are minimized and behaviors that positively impact the environment are emphasized. Furthermore, human well-being and the well-being of society is part and parcel of what sustainability stands for. Ensuring that human beings have access to basic resources, that their health is being protected, and that they enjoy a good quality of life within a sustainable environment is critical.
People can contribute to sustainability if they are educated about it, and if its overall importance is effectively communicated. Raising awareness on environmental sustainability is at the center of worldwide attention, and represents an important axis of UN Sustainable Development Goals that are set to be reached by 2030. We propose a bottom up approach and target children as the drivers of change for tomorrow.
NRGo aims at grabbing their attention and directing it to the issues that matter, raising their awereness of the environment and educating them on the actions that they can take in their everyday life to support the environmental goals of the global society. This is done through an interactive game that motivates them through a fun an interactive way to take an active role in their community. The game is dedicated to all generations, starting at age 7, to take action in their community in order to adress environmental issues. Through collecting points along the axis of four natural elements (water, air, fire, earth) + electricity, the users of the app gain the possibility to use those points to adress issues in their community and compete on a weekly basis to direct funding to the projects of their choice. Furthermore, in order to promote the importance of balanced ressources, combining the Elements gives the user some special Elements that give bonus points to allocate between causes.
The main goal of the game is to collect Elements. Those Elements are items that correspond to the four elements (air, water, fire and earth) plus electricity. In addition to that, we have a sixth category where all your special Elements are stored. Each Elements are unique and the more you upgrade in the level, the more the caracteristics of the Elements become powerful and rare (it is similar to CryptoKitties). Combining Elements allows you to create those special Elements, which could have much more power than the normal one. There is different way to collect Elements and we will present them later.
In order to involve as many people as possible, we invent the concept of competition. The idea is that we released a new competition weekly which is based on the Elements and their power. Depending on the competition, you will compete alone or in a team (like your neighborhood for example). The winner of the competition will then be able to set up a project (in their neighborhood if we continue with the same example) with all the money that we get from the sale of the Elements (see Collecting Elements by buying them). Thus, you receive also a reward in the real life. That will make the game more atractive and involve more people. In order to win a competition, you will of course have to present a best collection of Elements than your opponent. To have such a good collection, you will have to realise some good action for the environment (as you will see in the next point). Therefore, by improving your footprint, you also participate in the realisation of some sustainable project.
The second way of getting Elements is to completing some quests that are provided in the app. These quests are ordered in three levels (easy, middle and hard) and will give you more or less Elements depending on the level.
| Level | Number of Elements |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 to 10 |
| 2 | 11 to 100 |
| 3 | 101 to infinity |
- The easy quests could be very simple task such as "turn off the unused lights in your house". They are here to get you into the game, to get some Elements quite quickly and they work in a educational way as well (they should tell or remind you that turning off the lights is something good for the environment). The easy quests are so simple that they don't even need to be proven, that is also why they don't give lots of points.
- The middle quests are either more difficult to realise or have a greater impact on the environment, that is the reason they give more Elements. An exeample could be "plant a tree in your neighborhood" or "use the train instead of the plane to go in an other country". Those quests have more weight in the game and must therefore be proven by sending a picture of your accomplishment.
- The hard quests are hard to realise but have also a big impact on your footprint. Therefore, you will receive much more Elements than the two others. Those quests could be "install solar (or thermal) panels" and must of course be proven.
In order to always improve yourself, it would be better if you could compare you to your neighbor or at least see your continuous improvement. The best way to do so is to collect all kind of data in your house with some sensors (like in a smart house). The sensor are then connected to the app via the blockchain and the data will then be analysed by the application which will tell you how much energy (of all types) you are consuming. For all data that you provide, you get some Elements. In the long term, this is thus the best way to improve you collection of Elements.
This point is only for those who provide data. If you are providing data, the app will monthly calculate your footprint and redefined your baseline. If you improve your footprint by changing your habits (which is the goal at the end), the app will then rewards you by offering you lots of Elements. Collecting data and improving your footprint is therefore the faster way for becoming a master of Elements.
By envolving your friends in your good and sustainable habits, you can multiplicate your gain and become more Elements. For example, if you plant a tree with a group of friends, each participant of this action will receive more Elements than if they were alone.
As the Elements are unique, it makes sense to trade them. It is thus possible to exchange your Elements against other Elements of others persons (like panini stickers). In that way, you also can try to find the Elements that you miss to combine them in order to get those special Elements with some power.
In the same way as trading the Elements, you also can buy them. That means that some Elements will only be accessible if you buy them with CHF. Those Elements will be daily released and the whole thing will work as a auction system. All the money that we get by selling Elements will be reinvest in local and sustainbable project. Buying Elements could therefore makes you more sustainable, what would makes you getting twice as many Elements.
Presentation: see NRGo-Presentation.pdf in the repository
Demo:
