The first successful steps in this direction were taken this year: In cooperation with ClimatePartner, the core event was climate-neutral with all areas for which Koelnmesse and the game association were responsible (including trade fair center infrastructure, themed areas, shows, personnel and mobility). The accrued CO2 emissions of almost 3,000 tons of CO2 were offset by supporting two certified climate protection projects.

Exhibitors were also able to participate voluntarily in the climate protection projects and thus reduce their CO2 footprint. Numerous companies took part, such as astragon Entertainment, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Black Forest Games, devcom, McDonald's Deutschland, Mediencluster NRW, Microsoft/Xbox, PLAION, Rocket Beans Entertainment, Indie Arena Booth, TikTok and Western Digital. Other exhibitors implemented their own concepts to make their presence CO2-neutral.

Another highlight was the partnership with "Playing for the Planet," an initiative of the United Nations (UN), which made it possible to present the gamescom goes green award for the first time. Visitors were also able to participate in gamescom goes green by purchasing a green ticket or donating online. The proceeds went to the gamescom forest near Bayreuth. Thanks to the commitment of the community together with a donation of 10,000 euros from McDonalds Germany, around 4,300 square meters of forest could be reforested, bringing the gamescom forest to a total of 22,600 square meters this year. Devcom, the conference for all game developers during gamescom week, also participated in gamescom goes green and was itself completely climate-neutral for the first time.

"With gamescom goes green, we have succeeded in making a very good start to a significantly more sustainable event this year and I am proud that this makes us pioneers among major events as well as gaming events worldwide. A particular strength of the concept is the joint commitment of firstly us as organizers, secondly the participating companies and thirdly the community. This makes it clear that we can only stop climate change and protect the environment together. But we are still a long way from reaching our goal. Building on this year's experience, we will continue to develop gamescom's sustainability strategy in the coming years," says games CEO Felix Falk.

"For several years now, we at Koelnmesse have been strongly committed to the topic of sustainability and were, for example, one of the first trade fair companies in Germany to join the Net Zero Carbon Events Initiative of the global trade fair industry. With the gamescom goes green project, we once again took gamescom a step ahead and were able to achieve a widely respectable result. We will continue to build on this - at gamescom and at other, future Koelnmesse events," says Oliver Frese, Managing Director and COO of Koelnmesse.