Can gamification save the planet? : Developing a POC as an incentive for changing habits through gamification

The construction industry is one of the largest carbon dioxide emission contributors in Europe, producing significant amounts of waste, all while recycling less than ten percent of materials. Responding to growing environmental pressures and the need for economic circularity, this project aims to aid in the development of a digital sustainability platform startup, RebuildR, a marketplace for reused building materials and tools. The objective is to facilitate, quantify and encourage the reuse of construction materials. During the project, it was found that the design of a gamified and visually appealing user interface has the potential to induce behavioral changes by making sustainability more engaging. The system therefore incorporates a reward-based progress tracking, with users being able to gain certifications to unlock features depending on their total CO₂e savings in kilograms. A simple machine learning algorithm was also developed to approximate the CO2e a user has saved through trading reused materials. This approximation was then displayed as a total sum in the user's profile. The system was further developed based on user testing results. Features previously mentioned are used to customize a personal tree that can be exported as an email signature. The aim of this kind of signature is to create a motivated community around the app's goal of sustainability. Because user testing only assessed usability and CSS, the full impact of the system remains unproven, as it is currently a proof of concept. Additionally, the use of energy-costly machine learning systems could raise some concerns whether the digital sustainability tool truly can be considered fully environmentally friendly.