For the first time ever, a board game has won one of the Forest Stewardship Council’s annual Leadership Awards for supporting global efforts to protect the world’s woods. Life in Reterra, a gorgeously illustrated tile-laying game about rebuilding a community in a post-collapse earth, scooped the award for its “strong sustainability themes”, as well as using only paper and wood certified by the FSC.
Life in Reterra – one of the most popular new releases of 2024 and a contender for our list of the world’s best board games – is set in a world where human society as we know it has ended, nature has re-conquered the planet, and the remnants of humanity (that’s you) have to collect the scraps left behind to rebuild a sustainable community.
It’s not hard to see why the FSC – a global charity aimed at “protect[ing] forests for future generations” would approve of those themes, as well as its choice of materials.
The organization’s US President Sarah Billig praises Life in Reterra and the 12 other recipients of the 2024 awards as setting “a powerful example for sustainable practices across the entire supply chain, paving the way for a future where forests and the people who depend on them thrive for generations to come”.
Conservation and sustainability are increasingly significant watchwords for board game makers, with manufacturers moving to boot out plastic components (and those ever-present polythene storage baggies) in favor of recycled, or at least sustainably sourced, paper and wood.
Elizabeth Hargrave and Stonemaier Games’ 2019 smash hit bird-themed engine builder Wingspan, for example, went through a major redesign in 2022 to replace its little plastic eggs with painted wooden ones, swap its plastic component trays for sugarcane fiber alternatives, and ensure all its paper and pulp parts are FSC-certified.
And, as a consortium of tabletop industry figures and climate researchers explain in a 2023 open-source manifesto titled the Green Games Guide, the “best practises” for sustainable board games go beyond the obvious first step of dropping unrecyclable, greenhouse gas-producing plastic components inside the box – they also have to consider the box itself.
Loads of board games, the authors say, come in oversized, shrink-wrapped boxes with lots of empty space inside, optimized for store shelf visibility and sales first, cost effectiveness second, and environmental waste not at all.
These are complicated issues, of course, and improving sustainability standards throughout the board game supply chain, while still making a profit, can be a huge challenge – especially for small publishers already working on razor thin margins.
But, as tabletop gamers who also don’t really want the world to end, we at Wargamer can’t help but welcome news of a prominent board game release earning environmental plaudits.
To dive deep into another conservation focused board game, look no further than our Ark Nova review, a game all about making a zoo that’s both financially successful and good for wildlife. Alternatively, check out our Worms The Board Game review, for a game that’s absolutely nothing to do with saving the planet, and everything to do with blowing stuff up.
Source: Wargamer
