I was at the Innovation Zero event recently when I stumbled upon one of the more accessible stands, the enormously entertaining “How Bad are Bananas” ?
It all started with a book by Professor Mike Berners-Lee, called, yes you guessed it: ‘How Bad are Bananas ? The book details the carbon footprint of a wide range of activities and helps guide people towards less carbon-costly lifestyle options.
So the book’s themes inspired the founders of an environmental group called Future We Want, Dr Emma Fieldhouse and Anja Fischenich to create a game based around the principles of the book.
Anja is described as a kind of accidental entrepreneur as she came up with the idea of carbon footprint game while studying at Erasmus University. They are business partners for the group and use the game to engage, inform and educate people in how to make positive changes towards the climate.
Climate change, sustainability and environmental principles can be overly scientific and a little off-putting to many people. Calculating one’s Carbon offsetting or learning the 17 sustainable development goals from the UN can be confusing or awkward, so the fact that real facts, figures and credible findings can actually be used in a game is surely a winner.
How Bad are Bananas is a carbon footprint game that focuses on clear evidence and fun. The game is aimed at anyone really, but works best in the educational or charitable sector. The people who run the site are clearly highly passionate about the climate and the moderator at the event who took me through the game was extremely knowledgable and a very good communicator.
There are many types of questions and answers within the game, but just one example which I played was as follows: which has the higher carbon footprint ? A pair of average shoes or a 1kg piece of cheddar cheese ? If you want to know the answer you had better get in touch with the website and arrange a visit to your school, educational establishment or company or even buy the game! Either way, I highly recommend it.