The Green Economy Game Where Everybody Wins

One great way to teach something is to make it fun, and another is to make it relevant. The Green Economy board game developed by author and green business expert Scott Cooney does both. 

In the game, players help develop the economy of Hawaii to make it more sustainable. In both the real world and in the game, Hawaii is a land of great natural beauty but also great environmental and economic challenges. Hawaii uses imported oil for 90% of its electricity, producing the most expensive electricity in the nation. Hawaii also imports 85-90% of its food, an expensive proposition that is also hard on the environment. The high cost of living and low wages in the state make island life less than ideal for many.   In the game, players invest in local entrepreneurs in Hawai'i to develop sustainability-oriented businesses like organic farms, geothermal plants, green building companies, solar installers, and bike shops. Players win by having their investments do well economically, creating good green jobs, and improving the environmental state of the state.    As the author of “Build a Green Small Business”, the principal of GreenBusinessOwner.com, and a sustainability consultant who has worked with Fortune 500 companies, Cooney has extensive experience in working to build the green economy of the future, one that provides good jobs, a clean environment, and strong growing businesses. The green economy is not about staking the environment against the economy, but finding ways that ensure the long term health of both.    “People love games and learn a lot from them,” said Cooney. “Monopoly taught us that cutthroat competition, getting obscenely rich, and driving everyone out of business was how you “win” at life. This game teaches people about creating win-win situations, and is really fun, to boot! I built the game to have tons of strategy, integration of public policy, and the fundamentals of the triple bottom line, and people seem to really love it, which hopefully bodes well for the potential of the game to reach millions and educate them about sustainability.”   Players of the game love it on multiple levels, both as a game and as a way to learn. It’s great for kids age 13 and up to learn sustainability, a trend I hope will play an increasingly important role in their world as they grow.    “This game will change the world,” said Dr. Kevin Danaher, co-founder of Global Exchange and the Green Festivals, who played the first ever game with Cooney in January of 2011.   On Tuesday September 20, Cooney is having a live demo of the game from Hawai'i at 5 PM PST, 8 PM EST. Participants will get a chance to see how the game is played, ask questions, and suggest edits. At that time, simply open GreenBusinessOwner.com’s web classroom at http://connectpro97232686.na5.acrobat.com/greeneconomy/.   In addition, the Green Economy game is featured on Kickstarter right now (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/228706802/green-economy-board-game), where people can contribute to help bring the game to fruition. Different levels of contributions receive rewards such as a copy of the game, a cool social entrepreneur t-shirt, getting your business or non-profit mentioned in the game, or having Scott give you a personal sustainability tour of Oahu. Contributing to the game before the deadline (October 10th) can be your way of building the green economy for Hawaii and for people everywhere.    If we are to live in a world with a healthy economy and environment, we need more tools like the Green Economy game that show us how this can be a reality. We don’t have to choose one or the other - we can have both, and we need to have both, using strategies like those in the game where everybody wins.    Aloha   Glenn Croston is the author of “75 Green Businesses”, and the founder of Starting Up Green, helping businesses everywhere to make a difference.

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