Africa’s First Green Games Summit Set For Nairobi

Leaders from the video games industry, the UN, and government representatives will convene in Nairobi for the first Green Games Summit on February 24^th.

With 3.4 billion players across the world, the Green Games Summit aims to harness the power of gaming to meet the needs of environmental sustainability. The Summit takes place just before the 6th session of the UN Environment Assembly at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters, which will see Heads of State and Government and more 100 Ministers from across the world gather in Nairobi.

Organised by the UNEP-facilitated Playing for the Planet Alliance and the Pan Africa Gaming Group (PAGG), the summit underscores the commitment of the growing industry commitments to environmental stewardship.

“We’re delighted to host the global gaming industry here in Nairobi for this important Summit. With over a billion digital native youth coming online in Africa, the continent represents the future of gaming. Kenya already runs on 90 per cent renewable energy and has one of the cleanest gaming sectors globally, so it’s the perfect place to start thinking about these questions.” commented Jay Shapiro, Chairperson of the Pan Africa Gaming Group and host of the Nairobi Game Development Centre.

The two-day session will showcase projects such as the Green Game Jam, which this year will see 78 different games aiming to get 1 million people to take action in the real world. It will also highlight some of the best-in-class studios making games in Africa including Usiku Games, Internet of Elephants and Mekon from Kenya and Sea Monster from South Africa.

Held at the Nairobi Game Development Centre, speakers at the Summit include Trista Patterson, PhD, Director of Sustainability at Microsoft Xbox; Kieren Mayers, Senior Director of Environment, Social, and Governance at Sony Interactive Entertainment; Mathias Gredal Nørvig, CEO of SYBO and co-author of “Gaming For Good”; Jake Manion, Group Creative Director at PAGG and Lebo Lekoma from Sea Monster in South Africa.