Gamification and Sustainable Palm Oil
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Gamification can help compel consumers to purchase sustainable palm oil products. A proposed game would: 1) Award points on supermarket receipts for RSPO-certified purchases, direct consumers to a game site. 2) In the game site, consumers earn levels, badges and points to learn about palm oil's impacts and certified brands. 3) Social features like leaderboards and sharing encourage game play. The top points earner wins a wildlife conservation prize. Gamifying purchases educates consumers on sustainable palm oil and pressures brands to pursue RSPO certification.
Gamification and Sustainable Palm Oil
- 1. Gamification and Sustainable Palm Oil How gamification can assist the RSPO in compelling consumers to purchase products containing sustainable palm oil Picture credit: Bremen Yong, RSPO
- 2. What is Palm Oil? Palm oil is a highly-versatile vegetable oil used in many food and non-food products. It is produced in tropical countries and is rapidly growing in market share. Palm oil is the worlds top selling vegetable oil and is used in more than half of packaged supermarket products today Source: rspo.org / Picture credit: Bremen Yong, RSPO
- 3. What is Palm Oil Used For? Palm oil is used primarily in food products: cooking oil, shortening, margarine, snack foods, milk fat replacer and cocoa butter substitute. Palm kernel oil is mostly used in the oleochemical industry for making soap, detergent, toiletries and cosmetics Source: rspo.org / Picture credit: Palm Republik
- 4. What are the Dangers of Palm Oil Production? Palm oil is considered a more sustainable source of vegetable oil than other crops. However, the rate of growth of palm oil is so high there is genuine concern regarding its sustainability. With higher output comes rapid and ill-managed expansion of production, which may result in serious environmental and social consequences including: ≒ Deforestation ≒ Loss of natural wildlife habitats ≒ Illegal fires ≒ Land conflicts with indigenous people Source: rspo.org / Picture credit: Unknown
- 5. The Facts ≒ Palm oil is the most produced vegetable oil in the world in terms of production some 37 million metric tons ≒ Malaysia and Indonesia have emerged as the leading producers, accounting for 86% of global production ≒ Both Malaysia and Indonesia have serious environmental and wildlife problems stemming from deforestation. Indonesia alone is home to 15 critically endangered species including the Bali Starling, Sumatran Orangutan and Javan Rhinoceros ≒ However, the palm oil industry is also a giant economic pillar that has helped to alleviate rural poverty in these countries ≒ Other palm oil-producing countries are Nigeria, Thailand, Colombia, Papua New Guinea, Cote dIvoire and Brazil Source: rspo.org / Picture credit: Bremen Yong, RSPO
- 6. What is the RSPO? The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a not-for-profit association promoting palm oil production practices that help reduce deforestation, preserve biodiversity, and respect the livelihoods of rural communities in oil-producing countries. The RSPO ensures that no new primary forest or other high conservation value areas are sacrificed for palm oil plantations, that plantations apply accepted best practices and that the basic rights and living conditions of millions of plantation workers, smallholders and indigenous people are wholly respected. Source: rspo.org / Picture credit: RSPO
- 7. RSPO Certification The RSPO has designed a voluntary certification program for palm oil producers, containing two forms of certification one to ensure palm oil is produced sustainably, and one to ensure the integrity of trade in sustainable palm oil throughout the entire supply chain. Both systems involve third-party certification bodies. Thanks to such rigorous certification systems, oil processors and consumers can be sure that their products indeed contain or support sustainable palm oil. Currently, palm oil certified by the RSPO accounts for 16% of all palm oil production globally. Source: rspo.org / Picture credit: Bremen Yong, RSPO
- 8. The Problem Many consumers are simply unaware of the environmental hazards that non- sustainable palm oil production creates. Yet, with 84% of palm oil production not certified by the RSPO, consumer pressure on the supply chain is the key to any substantial and lasting change. But how can the RSPO compel more consumers to purchase those products that contain RSPO-certified palm oil over those that dont? Source: rspo.org / Picture credit: Dr Darussamin, RSPO
- 9. Gamification Solution Gamification in relation to the purchase of RSPO- certified products would be an effective way to engage consumers and compel them to pay more attention to the brands and products they are purchasing. Picture credit: Bremen Yong, RSPO
- 10. Purchasing Products With the participation of major supermarket chains (who would benefit from their public commitment to environmental conservation), all receipts from supermarket purchases in a pre-determined timeframe would contain a mark next to all products from RSPO-certified brands. Each receipt would also calculate the amount of money spent on certified products and convert that into a number of points (for example, $1 spent = 1 point). At the end of the receipt would be a list of every brand they have purchased from that is RSPO-certified, and also a points total. From there, consumers would be directed to the gamified website. Picture credit: Dr Darussamin, RSPO
- 11. Theme The theme of the gamified site would be environmental and educational, centering around the production of palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia. The game would employ points, levels, badges, leaderboards and rewards to drive engagement. A players home screen would show their bio, including how many points they have earned, their level (including how many points they need to get to the next level), the badges they have earned and badges they have yet to unlock, and the public leaderboard. It would also show any quizzes or challenges they can take, or what their next step in the game should be (earn more points, chat in the forum, take a challenge etc.) Their account would also be linked to their social media profiles including Facebook and Twitter. Players would use their accrued points to advance their status in the game and attempt to win the grand prize, while also learning more about sustainable palm oil and becoming more aware of the brands that have an RSPO certification.
- 12. Points System Once signed up, players would enter the number of points they have earned, as shown on the receipt. This could be done by scanning the receipt with a smartphone scanning app, or there could be a unique code printed on the receipt that could be manually entered, that has the data attached to it. They would continue to enter their earned points every time they made a purchase and obtained a receipt. Every time a player entered their points, they would also be presented with a new fact about palm oil, starting with production and moving on through the supply chain to the consumer. There would be a public leaderboard, showing those who have amassed the most points throughout the game (this would be split into regions if the game was released internationally). Note: The points can only be earned through supermarket purchases, however there are other ways to gain status through game play.
- 13. Levels There would be a certain number of levels that players would progress through as they amassed more points. The levels would be named as follows: 1. Eco Novice 2. Eco Enthusiast 3. Eco Elite 4. Eco Expert 5. Eco Master 6. Eco Warrior The levels would be increasingly harder to achieve, with the top level requiring a very high number of points, and probably containing only a small percentage of the most devoted players.
- 14. Badges Badges would be earned in three ways: 1. Earned through amassing certain numbers of game points 2. Special badges earned by completing quizzes and challenges that relate to the environmental theme. For example, answering correctly in an animal- themed quiz could earn the player a Wildlife Protector badge. 3. When a player enters their points, the RSPO-certified brands theyve purchased would also be entered. Players would be awarded badges for collecting a certain number of brands. This would help to encourage players to seek out more RSPO-certified brands than just the ones they are used to. (A list of certified brands would be readily available to all players on the website, and there would also be facts given about a new brand each time a player enters their points, in order to educate the player as much as possible about choosing certified brands as a priority.)
- 15. Social Aspects ≒ All players would be encouraged to share their progress by posting their badges to social media such as Facebook and Twitter. ≒ The game would also contain internal social aspects, such as being able to add friends within the game (both existing friends from social media, and new friends made in the game). ≒ Players would be regularly prompted to post to social media to ask their friends to join them and could earn a special badge earned for referring a certain number of friends. ≒ It would also contain a discussion forum where all players could go to discuss environmental issues and the things theyve learned in the game. Players would have an avatar with their level status prominently displayed. They would also be able to display their favorite badges under their name.
- 16. Rewards ≒ The ongoing reward throughout the game would be status, from earning points and badges and sharing these on social media, to reaching new levels and having the level displayed on their avatar, to also having the opportunity to appear on the public leaderboard. ≒ At the end of the game play period, there would be a grand prize for the player who has amassed the most points. The prize could combine access and stuff perhaps a trip to a wildlife conservation in Indonesia to see the endangered Sumatran Orangutan with a behind-the-scenes tour, or a prize of a similar type that related to the theme and the overall message of the game.
- 17. Player Types Of the four player types, the game would target: ≒ Achievers (amassing points, solving puzzles, answering quizzes, winning a valuable prize at the end of the game) ≒ Socializers (both the internal and external social factors of the game as discussed previously) ≒ Explorers (the journey of discovering the facts about palm oil, also the satisfaction of the journey being something that is helping the environment while also being fun)
- 18. Conclusion By gamifying the purchase of everyday goods and using a game to educate consumers on the environmental impact of palm oil production and which brands are committed to using only sustainable palm oil, the result would be that consumers would be more likely to stick with the RSPO-certified brands they have come to know and not prioritize those with no certification. The RSPO could then increase its ability to use consumer pressure to get other brands to undergo its certification process. By doing this they could realize their mission of implementing global standards for the entire supply chain of sustainable palm oil.
- 19. Picture credit: Bremen Yong, RSPO