Addicted to sowing crops and feeding animals on Farmville? Then there’s a new Facebook game for you, one that advances you based on the real-life, energy-saving actions you take to reduce your carbon footprint.
Set to a beach backdrop, eMission—created by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program and DoSomething.org (a group aimed at getting teenagers and young adults involved and volunteering)—asks players to “build and save their habitat by completing offline energy-efficient and environmentally friendly actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Some of these green moves include
- shutting down computers or putting them to sleep when not in use
- recycling plastic bags, aluminum cans, and other items
- taking a week-long hiatus from driving to use public transit instead
- swapping out energy-draining light bulbs for Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent ones
Then the game takes your real world green actions and converts them to points. Or as Sophia Bush, star of the television show “One Tree Hill” and campaign spokesperson puts it, “Reduce carbon in the real world, score points in the game.” Each action generates a snapshot of individual and cumulative energy savings so you can see your impact and encourage your friends to do the same.
“Plus,” adds Bush, “you can win sweet eco-friendly prizes and college scholarships.” (She’s not kidding. DoSomething.org offered five $2,000 eMission scholarships, but the deadline’s already passed.)
The game does require you to allow Facebook access to certain information in your account, so read through it carefully before signing up or before giving your children permission to play. Either way, it’s a creative means to get young people psyched about cutting their carbon footprint. For more info, go to dosomething.org/emission.