Digitalisation researcher from RUC to lead new project to promote environmentally friendly behaviour

An AI gaming platform that helps companies and municipalities build games that, in a fun way, teach Danes how to make green and sustainable choices. This is the goal of the new research project Game For Green, in which Innovation Fund Denmark has invested DKK 11.3 million.

Roskilde University, the game-based learning platform Actee, and the consultancy firm Provice are partners in the project.

"Denmark is one of the most digitalised countries in the world, with a lot of general data on green behaviour. We can utilise this to reach citizens and employees in new ways, where technology is used to learn," says Magnus Rotvit Perlt Hansen, Associate Professor of Digital Transformation at RUC and head of the research project.

He believes there is momentum to create change in the green sector:

"Consumer mentality has in earnest reached an important turning point, where change is desired, and this can be seen for example in the consumption of gas and electricity, which in Denmark fell by approximately 30 percent in autumn 2022," he says.

Efforts in multiple locations

It must be possible for the games to be built by municipalities and companies, and the game platform's AI helps to assist the game builders along the way. Citizens and employees can, for example, scan a QR code on their mobile phone, where they can play a five-minute game that puts them in different situations, where they have to make choices.

“In order to boost global green development, we need to take action in several places”, says Magnus Rotvit Perlt Hansen.

"Action is needed both at home and in the workplace, and we need to combine technology with information that goes beyond what we hear in information campaigns. In the games, people will be able to experience and test the effect of what they do in everyday life: What if we stopped sorting waste altogether? How expensive is it to leave the heating on all summer? How productive can we be if we cycle or take the electric scooter to meetings and thus reduce our carbon footprint?” he says, adding:

"The results of the actions we take in our daily lives must be illustrated through the technology of the gaming platform. We are researching how digital gaming technology and data can be reused so that municipalities and businesses in new contexts can continuously improve and support the change towards greener behaviour."

Further details:

For further information, contact: 

• Magnus Rotvit Perlt Hansen, Associate Professor in Digital Transformation at the Department of People and Technology, telephone: 4674-3476, e-mail: magnuha@ruc.dk