Can video games help save the world? Major game titles have been upping environmentalist themes in gameplay as a way to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change and how to combat them, reports The Financial Times. Sims characters have stopped leaving the TV on all night or heating the backyard pool all winter, with a recent expansion pack — The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle — allowing them to instead tap into their “full eco warrior.” The updated characters practice everything from recycling and collecting dew for their morning showers to upcycling their own clothes and making candles. Sims maker Will Wright had the environment in mind from early on; incorporating global warming into the 1990 release of SimEarth.

A recent add-on for Minecraft introduced carbon dioxide levels to the game, allowing players to monitor greenhouse gas levels and reduce it by planting trees. The Minecraft Education platform used the add-on features to teach children how common chemical reactions can be created by natural and human activities. Civilization VI also featured an expansion in June 2019 titled Gathering Storm, where rising pollution levels could turn plains into deserts — a theme first featured in Civilization’s first game release in 2001.

For more climate-change related games, you can check out these lists by The BBVA and The Verge.

Taking it one step further: What about the carbon footprint of consoles? The gaming industry has also begun to look at its sustainability practices in hardware production and beyond. For example, the plastics and metals used to manufacture Playstation 4 hardware resulted in more carbon emissions than all of Jamaica would put out in a year, The Verge found. Even after production, consoles have a carbon footprint, with the electricity used to fuel gaming hardware in the US alone estimated to be equal to powering 5 mn cars — or the annual energy use of Denmark, according to a study in the Computer Games Journal.

Gaming companies are looking for solutions: The industry have already been moving towards a shift to digital downloads as opposed to physical game disks, and major players such as Microsoft and Sony have set ambitious environmental targets — Microsoft intends to be carbon negative by 2030, and Sony plans to “achieve a zero environmental footprint” by 2050. The United Nations founded in 2019 “The Playing for the Planet Initiative” which now has 29 global gaming companies as members. The initiative supports integrating green activations in games, reducing emissions, and reducing plastic in products as well as planting mns of trees.