A survey on the design of gamified systems for energy and water sustainability

Abstract In a world affected by the constant growth and concentration of the population in urban areas, the problem of preserving natural resources has become a priority. A promising approach to resource conservation is demand management, i.e., the ability to positively influence the behaviour of the population towards more sustainable consumption. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools have shown a great potential in influencing consumers’ behaviour, which could be exploited for the common good. However, the design of so-called persuasive systems for environmental purposes is a challenging task, because it cannot be based solely on the utilitarian motivation of users, but must be able to trigger a broader range of engagement factors deeply rooted in the human psychology. In this paper, we review the main design principles and models at the base of a class of persuasive system that exploits gamification and Games with a Purpose (GWAPs) to engage users towards sustainability; we identify the most commonly used incentive mechanisms for inducing behavioural changes; and present a selection of gamified systems for energy and water conservation. From such a survey, we distill design guidelines to be applied in the design of demand management socio-technical systems

Smart contract and web dapp for tracing sustainability indicators in the textile and clothing value chain

Mestrado em Engenharia Informática na Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão do Instituto Politécnico de Viana do CasteloNa sociedade atual, o têxtil e vestuário é um dos maiores setores de mercado do mundo. O rápido crescimento desta indústria está a ter impactos sem precedentes na sustentabilidade do planeta, respondendo por consequências negativas ambientais, sociais e de saúde. As tendências da fast-fashion, juntamente com a falta de transparência na cadeia de valor têxtil global, somam-se a cenários desfavoráveis para o mundo, à medida que os níveis crescentes de poluição e consumo de recursos dentro da cadeia de valor atingem máximos históricos a cada ano que passa. O ciclo de vida de uma peça de roupa precisa de se adaptar a um modelo económico regenerativo em vez de linear, que acaba no equivalente a um caminhão de lixo de produtos têxteis sendo descartado num aterro sanitário a cada segundo [1]. Não só as indústrias precisam de reformular os seus processos para circularizar as suas cadeias de valor e promover ações sustentáveis, mas também os consumidores precisam de participar do processo de manter os produtos no círculo da cadeia de valor, pois cabe a eles decidir o destino final de um produto vestuário aquando o seu fim da vida útil. Com estas questões em mente, esta dissertação visa desenvolver duas soluções que possam mitigar os problemas a cima mencionados e promover ações sustentáveis rumo a uma economia circular na cadeia de valor do têxtil e vestuário. Uma solução business-to-business baseada em smart contracts do Hyperledger Fabric para gerir a cadeia de valor do têxtil e vestuário com funcionalidade de rastreabilidade foi desenvolvida como prova de conceito para apoiar as reivindicações de sustentabilidade dos participantes na cadeia de valor, da fibra à peça final de vestuário. A actual funcionabilidade de rastreabilidade desenvolvida no smart contract fornece aos operadores da cadeia de valor a capacidade de rastrear um lote até à sua origem, contudo, também limita a escalabilidade devido ao aumento exponencial do tamanho do bloco, especialmente se considerarmos uma cadeia de valor circular. Para os consumidores, foi proposta uma aplicação descentralizada business-to-consumer-to-consumer com elementos de eco-gamificação para promover o envolvimento e motivação do utilizador para a realização de tarefas que contribuam para a adoção de uma economia circular na cadeia de valor do têxtil e vestuário. Após testar a usabilidade da aplicação com o questionário AttrakDiff, concluiu-se que o sistema precisa de focar a sua usabilidade em prol de um produto orientado à tarefa em vez da orientação pessoal atual da aplicação a fim de promover ações que contribuam para a economia circular da cadeia de valor do têxtil e vestuário.In today’s society, Textile and Clothing (T&C) is one of the biggest market sectors world wide.The sheer size and fast growth of this industry is having unprecedented impacts on sustainability, accounting for negative environmental, social and health consequences. The fast-fashion trends along side the lack of transparency in the global T&C value chain add up to unfavorable scenarios for the world as the increas- ing levels of pollution and resource consumption within the value chain reach historic highs with every year that passes. The lifecycle of a clothing item needs to adapt to a regenerative economic model instead of a linear one that ends up in the equivalent of a garbage truck full of textiles being disposed into a landfill every second [1]. Not only do the industries need to revamp their processes to circularize their value chains and promote sustainable actions, but the consumers also need to partake in the process of keeping the products in the value chain loop as it is up to them to make the final decision upon the end-of-life of an item of clothing. With these issues in mind,this dissertation aims to develop two solutions that can mitigate the aforementioned problems and promote sustainable actions towards a circular economy in the T&C value chain. A Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Business-to-Business (B2B) T&C value chainmanagement smart contract solution builton Hyperledger Fabric with traceability features was developed to support the sustainability claims of participants in the value chain, from fiber to garment. The current traceability feature developed into the smart contract provides value chain operators the capabilities to trace a batch back to its origin, however, it also constraints scalability due to the exponential in crease in block size specially if considering a circular value chain. For the consumers, a Business-to-Consumer-to-Consumer (B2C2C) Decentralized Application (DApp) was proposed with eco-gamification elements fo rpromoting the user’s engagement and motivation to complete tasks that contribute for the adoption of a circular economy in the T&C value chain. After testing the consumer DApp’s usability with the AttrakDiff survey, it was concluded that the system needs to focus it susability towards a task-oriented product instead of the current self-oriented results in order to promote actions that contribute to the circular economy of the T&C value chain

Gamifying Sustainable Behavior at Work: Results from an Experiment with a Corporate Gamification App

Society’s increasing demand to protect the climate puts enormous pressure on companies of all sectors to reduce their CO2 footprint. Besides strategic investments in more sustainable value creation, it is also essential that employees adapt their mindset, motivation, and behavior. However, measures to engage employees to change their behavior are rare. In recent years, gamification has gained popularity as an effective approach to influencing human motivation and driving behavior change. This paper provides an overview of existing research on the use of gamification to engage sustainable behavior and empirical results from an experiment with a gamified app to promote sustainable behavior in a mid-sized company. Data is collected from users of the app and extended with information about their personality traits according to the HEXACO and NEP scales. The results indicate that gamification does indeed appear to be a suitable approach to support sustainable behavior at work

Proceedings of Abstracts Engineering and Computer Science Research Conference 2019

© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For further details please see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Note: Keynote: Fluorescence visualisation to evaluate effectiveness of personal protective equipment for infection control is © 2019 Crown copyright and so is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Under this licence users are permitted to copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information; adapt the Information; exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application. Where you do any of the above you must acknowledge the source of the Information in your product or application by including or linking to any attribution statement specified by the Information Provider(s) and, where possible, provide a link to this licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/This book is the record of abstracts submitted and accepted for presentation at the Inaugural Engineering and Computer Science Research Conference held 17th April 2019 at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK. This conference is a local event aiming at bringing together the research students, staff and eminent external guests to celebrate Engineering and Computer Science Research at the University of Hertfordshire. The ECS Research Conference aims to showcase the broad landscape of research taking place in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. The 2019 conference was articulated around three topical cross-disciplinary themes: Make and Preserve the Future; Connect the People and Cities; and Protect and Care

Review of Serious Energy Games : Objectives, Approaches, Applications, Data Integration, and Performance Assessment

In recent years, serious energy games (SEGs) garnered increasing attention as an innovative and effective approach to tackling energy-related challenges. This review delves into the multifaceted landscape of SEG, specifically focusing on their wide-ranging applications in various contexts. The study investigates potential enhancements in user engagement achieved through integrating social connections, personalization, and data integration. Among the main challenges identified, previous studies overlooked the full potential of serious games in addressing emerging needs in energy systems, opting for oversimplified approaches. Further, these studies exhibit limited scalability and constrained generalizability, which poses challenges in applying their findings to larger energy systems and diverse scenarios. By incorporating lessons learned from prior experiences, this review aims to propel the development of SEG toward more innovative and impactful directions. It is firmly believed that positive behavior changes among individuals can be effectively encouraged by using SEG

Gamifying sustainability : raising carbon footprint awareness through gamification : the carbon footprint movement

Extreme human-induced environmental pressures are being felt across the globe. Scientific evidence increasingly alerts for the urgent need to induce societal engagement in climate change mitigation to achieve carbon-reduction targets. This thesis’ overreaching purpose aimed at appraising the extent to which a gamification-based system may increase carbon literacy and empower individuals to adopt lower-carbon lifestyles. Simultaneously, this study explores the hotspots where policy action should be taken to reduce the contextual barriers to more pro-environmental lifestyles. Given the multitude of factors influencing behaviors, the research herein described disaggregated national data to local levels. To attain the set objectives, a gamified-survey tool was developed, as the primary learning and data collection instrument: The Carbon Footprint Movement. Results showed carbon footprint was not a primary deliberation preceding everyday behavior and that respondents’ misconceptions regarding the environmental effects of their actions prevailed. Additional findings also reinforced contextual factors further detached intentions from behaviors, intensifying the so-called value-action gap. Notwithstanding, participants reported carbon literacy increases (23%) and pledged imminent behavioral changes, over the course of the intervention. This dissertation reinforces high-magnitude carbon emissions to be locked-in at the household level, and the potentiality of gamified interventions to unlock substantial reductions. However, it simultaneously unveils large potential savings to remain unfulfilled, suggesting active civic engagement also calls for wider structural adjustments The methodology devised might be used to guide the development of future gamified interventions.Pressões ambientais extremas estão a ser sentidas em todo o mundo. Evidências científicas alertam para a necessidade urgente do envolvimento da sociedade na mitigação das alterações climáticas. Esta dissertação visa avaliar em que medida um sistema baseado na gamificação pode aumentar a literacia de carbono e capacitar os indivíduos para adotarem comportamentos mais sustentáveis. Paralelamente, este estudo explora os pontos críticos em que devem ser tomadas medidas para a redução de obstáculos a estilos de vida mais pró-ambientais. Para atingir os objetivos estabelecidos, foi desenvolvido um instrumento de aprendizagem e de recolha de dados: The Carbon Footprint Movement. Os resultados indicam que a tomada diária de decisões raramente é precedida de uma deliberação sobre a respetiva pegada de carbono, que as pessoas mantêm ideias erradas sobre a eficácia ambiental das suas ações, e que os fatores contextuais desassociam ainda mais as intenções dos comportamentos. Não obstante, os participantes reportaram aumentos em literacia de carbono (23%) e afirmaram mudanças comportamentais ao longo da intervenção. Esta dissertação destaca a potencialidade de intervenções gamificadas na redução substancial de emissões de carbono, bloqueadas ao nível doméstico. No entanto, este estudo revela que um envolvimento cívico mais ativo no combate às alterações climáticas exige, simultaneamente, ajustes estruturais fundamentais. A metodologia descrita poderá ser utilizada para orientar o desenvolvimento de futuras intervenções gamificadas

Verifying the application of online gamification methods to introduce pro-environmental behavior

The goal of this thesis is to validate whether online gamification methods can be used to introduce pro-environmental lifestyle. Human activities have since the Industrial Revolution had an increasingly destructive impact on the biosphere, which has started to endanger the environment and our existence as a species. Awareness of the situation is increasing, but real actions to combat the problem are not, as environmental activists lack the knowledge and tools to drive the necessary individual behavioral change. At the same time, the emergence of the internet has created a mass medium which has proven to be very effective in altering individuals’ habits. One of the newest and most potent methodologies to spark behavioral change is gamification, which implies using game design elements in non-gaming context. Due to a vast gap between the academic and commercial practitioners’ world, little research has been so far done regarding gamification, and the results of these studies have not been implemented to create effective products. This research tried to bridge this gap and validate the use of gamification to drive proenvironmental behavior change, by deploying an experimental prototype which was developed based on Eric Ries’ Lean Startup ideology and Yu-kai Chou’s Octalysis gamification framework. In addition, a pretest-posttest survey was conducted to investigate the impact of using the prototype. The minimal prototype proved to be effective in acquiring and engaging new members by growing its user base 8.5 fold. More than one fourth of registered members became engaged users and continued to use the gamified product throughout the experiment. The pretestposttest survey results indicated that engaging with the prototype did in fact change the users’ behaviors towards a more sustainable lifestyle, moderate pro-environmental increases were detected in both respondents’ attitudes and concrete undertaken everyday activities.http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2654451~S1*es