Karin Rebel is leading the development of Utrecht 2040, a novel game on sustainability that will be rolled out to incoming students from two faculties at Utrecht University in September. It is hoped that it can be available university-wide in the near future. So what’s in a game?

Do not be surprised when you see groups of students walking around in the city centre of Utrecht, staring at their smartphones, during the first two weeks of September. It is not the new Pokémon or Harry Potter craze. It is the Utrecht 2040 game where sustainability challenges are presented that can immediately be accepted by the players. In real life, in Utrecht.

All students at the university should become acquainted with the topic of sustainability, Utrecht University believes. It’s not easy to devise something that makes both art history students and mathematics students enthusiastic about this topic. But the reaction of Karin Rebel, head lecturer at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development was “Exciting!”. In 2019, she and colleagues Joost Vervoort and Astrid Mangnus and game company IJsfontein developed the Utrecht 2040 Game: a serious game that introduces students to sustainability through the Sustainable Development Goals.