Saltsea Chronicles climate impact report shows how development affects our planet
An extensive climate impact report published by Saltsea Chronicles developer Die Gute Fabrik (DGF) shows how the project's near four-year production cycle affected this little blue dot we call home.
The Danish studio commissioned Benjamin Abraham, author of Digital Games After Climate Change, to produce the report with a view to understanding its own climate impact compared to other studios across the industry; identifying its main sources of emissions and learning how it can reduce its climate impact; and demonstrating to other studios what's involved in the calculation process behind climate impact assessments.
The report [Google Drive download] shows the total footprint of Saltsea Chronicles is estimated to be around 47,196 kg CO2e (CO2 equivalent), or just over 47 tonnes of CO2e. For context, that's approximately 0.000058 percent of what some of the biggest game companies in the world said they emitted during 2022.
Breaking that figure down DGF—which is currently fully remote and works with employees and contractors in nine countries—said the energy used by devs while working from home amounted to around 1.8 tonnes of CO2e, with an additional 7.2 tonnes being created by employees seeking to regulate the temperature in their home.
Purchases by the company in the UK and Denmark, which house the bulk of DGF's workforce, amounted to 13.1 tonnes and 7.2 tonnes of CO2e, respectively. Travel was responsible for 15.7 tonnes of CO2e, the vast majority of which was produced by just four international flights.
The charts below provide a visual breakdown of those emissions, again highlighting just how much of an impact international air travel had on the studio's overall footprint during production.
To highlight how alternative forms
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