Innovation

Xbox’s goal is to “bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet, but it is critical we do so while taking care of the planet” (Xbox 2023). Xbox as a company has had multiple sustainable innovations inherent to their products, but we have chosen to focus specifically on how they are reducing their carbon footprint by implementing energy-conscious digital features inherent to game operation within their consoles. These digital features range from game-based downloads to energy-saving power modes, as well as greening game code.

First, one of the largest innovations Xbox has created in terms of inherently fighting climate action is their “Game Pass” feature. This feature has enabled Xbox to essentially switch entirely over to digital game downloads, eliminating the need for unnecessary plastic tech waste from CDs as well as plastic game packaging. These cloud downloads are inherently sustainable as well as carbon conscious, and are helping Xbox to promote their goal of bringing gaming to society while also reducing their carbon footprint.

Second, another one of their energy-conscious features is their game development toolkit, which James Miller thoroughly discussed with us. Some of the more specific innovative features within this toolkit include a feature that enables developers to see at any given moment how much power and energy their game is using. The idea behind this is so that they may be able to better gauge when and where within their games to exert more power, for instance during large fight scenes in short periods of the game, rather than loading menus and title screens. By mitigating and delegating this power properly, developers are able to be more conscious with the amount of power and energy their game is consuming which directly impacts a console’s energy usage and therefore the carbon footprint of their games. Within this toolkit, there is also a list created of “best practices” for game developers to help them create “eco modes” for their games to empower users to have a more positive impact on the planet while gaming, as well as provided a screen that helps developers identify code that might be causing power spikes in the game. One of Xbox’s biggest discoveries on top of all of this was that a lot of game engineers have the same sustainability initiatives and goals that Xbox does- which is to lower carbon consumption- so these tools that Xbox has created help to further enable and empower developers to make carbon conscious programming decisions.

Third, within these digital features implemented was an update to Xbox’s “Standby Mode”. Traditionally, video game standby modes have consumed a large amount of power when a player is not active on the console and negatively impacting power usage. In their research, Xbox discovered that a lot of consumers were burning carbon when not playing games. To combat this, Xbox decided to implement a “Power Down” feature instead of standby mode. The goal of this feature is to lower the amount of carbon used by Xbox consoles across the globe. On top of this, Xbox decided to manually change every console in the world to be “Power Down” instead of Standby which made a major difference in energy consumption within their products across the world.

Inspiration

Xbox is one of the largest companies in the gaming industry, and it holds a large corporate responsibility to be an industry leader in sustainability. Xbox wants to lead by example in reducing their carbon and energy waste, and these initiatives toward sustainability were started around 2015 as a result of new leadership within the executive suite of Xbox and Microsoft. Jenn Panattoni, the head of Xbox’s social impact team, said: “Xbox believes in leveraging the power of gaming to enact real-world, positive change and partnering directly with players to support vital, global causes.” To achieve this change, Xbox and the United Nations created the “Playing for the Planet Alliance,” which encourages all gaming studios to make specific and measurable environmental commitments ranging from reducing carbon emissions, integrating green activations in games, and supporting the global environmental agenda. Xbox was also awarded the 'Green Studio Of The Year' award at Gamescom 2023 for their Xbox Sustainability Toolkit. This toolkit allows game developers to create games with more sustainable power consumption and output which developers can translate to all platforms having a major impact on the industry at large. Overall, the inspiration behind these innovations stem from Microsoft’s leadership and desire to be a leader in the tech industry in terms of sustainability as well as society’s desire to drive more businesses toward environmental consciousness. Within our interview as well, we further learned that new EU regulations have also been a driving force behind making video gaming more sustainable and ultimately carbon neutral.

Overall impact

Xbox’s current goal is to be carbon-negative, water-positive, and zero waste by 2030. Xbox also wants all their product packaging to be 100% recyclable in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Beginning in late 2021, the Xbox Series S console became Xbox’s first console to incorporate Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) materials into manufacturing the console’s case and various internal components. At a minimum, 28% of the mechanical component plastic by weight in the Xbox Series S console is made from post-consumer recycled (PCR) resin. Xbox Series X|S consoles were recently assessed to be 97% recyclable in OECD countries based on the UL 2789 Environmental Claim Validation (ECV) Procedure, which is a standardized metric for measuring electronic product recyclability by material type.

In March of 2023, Xbox announced their New Game Development Sustainability Toolkit, which is a new set of developer tools designed to reduce energy use and emissions through game code. This innovation is the first developer platform to release dedicated energy and carbon emissions measurement tools designed for and with game developers. This toolkit includes a power monitoring system, energy certification reports, power consumption dashboards, and a pilot program that assists game developers looking to work on their games’ energy consumption. The goal is to help developers make changes to their code that will allow them to reduce energy consumption on the consoles in the living room of every gamer in the world. This specific subsect of the digital innovations Xbox has created has a direct impact on video game usage and developer regulation of power within gaming to make games more power-conscious, and is setting a new standard in the gaming industry.

In our interview with James Miller, Head of Xbox Game Developer Relations, he discussed how Xbox teams are charged an internal fee against all of their product budgets for their carbon footprint for every console and game they make. This system drives progress and accountability within Xbox to maximize sustainable console and game development. James also mentions how all Series S and X consoles have settings that allow users to select various standby modes which display how much power is used by the console per hour, and that all Xbox consoles are on the lowest energy usage mode by default which makes an enormous impact on the reduction of the amount of power Xbox’s consume on average.

Business benefit

Microsoft's pursuit of sustainability with carbon-based efforts is able to provide many substantial business benefits for the company in the short and long term. Firstly, it enhances brand reputation and consumer trust as environmentally conscious practices align with growing global concerns about climate change. The commitment to sustainable business efforts can attract environmentally focused customers and investors that will not only contribute to its market share but also foster a positive image for the company.

Next, sustainability initiatives will often result in cost savings through increased energy efficiency and resource optimization. Financially, a carbon-based footprint for sustainability efforts leads to cost savings which could help boost investments in renewable energy. These not only align with environmental goals but also stabilize operational costs that can shield the company from volatile fossil fuel prices. Additionally, compliance with environmental regulations ensures a smoother business trajectory, minimizing legal risks and ensuring sustained operations in an ever-evolving regulatory environment.

Introducing a sustainability model that can provide a spark in organizations wanting to make an effort for global change serves as a new form of creativity other companies can footprint. Microsoft's focus on developing carbon based projects through technology positions itself as an industry leader that meets the demand for eco-friendly products and services. This not only satisfies existing customers but also opens up new revenue streams as businesses increasingly prioritize sustainable solutions.

One such project is their new 17-building campus that they are developing in Redmond, WA to replace their old 12 office buildings. Separate from the development’s sustainable design and a connection to the Sound Transit light rail station, Microsoft has built the world’s largest corporate geothermal power system that will control the HVAC and other energy-related systems. In their current office spaces, the company has already begun incorporating sustainability into their everyday use. Technology such as laptops and desktops have forced on power profiles that shut off when employees are not using them. Their data centers have also implemented sustainability in the form of liquid immersion cooling methods to reduce energy use while providing higher power, grid-interactive UPS batteries, and using cleaner fuels for datacenter backup generators.

Social and environmental benefit

The gaming community consists of 3.1 billion players worldwide. This large community encourages Xbox, alongside game creators, to create positive social and environmental change for these users. As previously discussed, Microsoft’s goal is to be carbon negative by 2030. While an ambitious goal, with Microsoft being one of the world’s largest companies, the environmental benefit from achieving this goal would be massive.

Beyond being carbon negative, Microsoft (Xbox’s parent company) also aims to become water positive. This means that Microsoft would aim to put more water into freshwater sources than it draws from those same sources. Being headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, doing so would have an immense benefit to the local environment, while also being immensely beneficial worldwide where corporate operations are significant.

One of the largest challenges posed by the growth of the technology sector is the marked increase in e-waste. For starters, Xbox does not produce as much e-waste as other companies such as Apple and Google. This is because while Apple and Google typically release new products every year, Xbox usually releases new hardware every five years or so. Furthermore, Xbox has taken steps to source recyclable products in their supply chain, and the company has begun designing recyclable products to make it easier to reuse materials in older, out of date products once they are retired.

One of the most compelling things James discussed was regarding the Xbox hardware’s power consumption. The system is capable of all sorts of things, including streaming, updating games in the background, and other features. James discussed that when the console is performing these lower power-intensive activities, the console can be programmed to draw less power rather than wasting energy, which is exactly what Microsoft is programming consoles to do. Furthermore, consoles can be set to update games at off-peak hours, and gamers can choose whether to play in “high graphics” mode or “eco mode,” which uses less power and gives users the chance to reduce power consumption. This is especially beneficial in markets where power is expensive, such as Europe.

Beyond the environmental benefits of Xbox’s operations, there are also social benefits. Xbox has committed to promoting “responsible gaming,” which includes providing resources to parents and users about the risks of online gaming, as well as developing tools to help users manage their time on the Xbox platform.

Interview

James Miller, GM of Game Developer Relations at Xbox