Green League, the App that teaches recycling through gaming

Green League is a gamification project of the environmental education campaign of CONOU (National Consortium for the Management, Collection and Treatment of Used Mineral Oils) and, historically, the first national environmental body dedicated to the separate collection of this hazardous waste.
The campaign, started in 2013 with the scientific advice of Legambiente, was created with the specific aim of using gaming to involve and sensitise young people on the importance of separate collection and recycling of pollutants such as industrial oils.  

Green League is thus, first of all, an online platform with information content and video games designed to educate on the principles of the circular economy and show how even used mineral oils, if disposed of correctly, can be part of a "regeneration" process that gives them a new life which is more sustainable for the environment.
Green League: from platform to mobile App

Green League: from platform to mobile App

ONOU has turned to EPR Comunicazioni and the mashfrog Group for an overall renewal of the project. Specifically, it has given the task of carrying out an important technological upgrade to the expertise and skills of the Group's programmers and UX designers.
Video games, previously present only on the Greenleague.it platform, have become a mobile App available on the Google Play and iOS stores and can be downloaded free of charge. The App is dedicated to a target of young people, children and adolescents, but not only: the 3 video games currently available – Snuck, Garble and Oil Buster Reloaded – are inspired by gaming classics such as Snake and Tetris and use vintage graphics reminiscent of Arcade video games in 1980s amusement arcades. The game sessions are short (1-3 minutes) and everything is designed to combine entertainment and learning of information and virtuous behaviour.

Download the App on Google Play

Download the App on Apple Store

From educational project to edutainment project

In addition to the transition from the web to mobile phones, a key aspect of the evolution of the Green League project is the edutainment logic on which the App is based.  
At the beginning of each game session, which as we have said lasts for a maximum of 3 minutes, a training pill is offered on the issues of environmental sustainability, energy saving and differentiated management of municipal and hazardous waste, as well as on CONOU activities. At the end of the game session, the user is invited to answer a quiz on the same topic. Each correct answer allows you to increase your score and climb the overall ranking of all users. The app also has some social features that allow you to create and manage lists of friends to challenge, configure a nickname and choose an avatar from among those available. A logic that not only stimulates healthy competition between players and increases engagement, but encourages the birth of a community of players who choose to commit themselves personally to protecting the environment and contribute to spreading the message.  

The 3 video games

Oil Buster Reloaded is a challenge divided into 14 levels focused on the quality of the used oil collection. The protagonist of the game is Joil, the mascot of CONOU's environmental education projects. The 3D character is engaged in releasing used oil drops by hitting groups of spheres and subsequently collecting them, avoiding however to include drops of water or other polluting substances to preserve the quality of the collected waste.

Snuck is the green evolution of Snake, the memorable 1990s game readapted in 3D. Driving a CONOU collection vehicle, the player has to collect as many barrels of used oil as possible, thus contributing to the circular economy of the supply chain.

Garble is built on the logic of the classic Tetris and focused on the recovery of materials for daily use with a view to an advanced circular economy. The aim is to combine three or more icons of the same recyclable object (used oil, paper, plastic, aluminium, organic waste and batteries) to trigger series of combos, paying particular attention to special waste in order to obtain additional points and increase the game time available.

Behind the App

The Green League app uses the Unity graphics engine and has been designed and developed entirely in mashfrog; behind the product is the work of a team of 8 people including programmers, developers and UX/UI designers. 
The smart and captivating graphics and the simple and intuitive user experience, combined with the social functionality and quality of the information content, make this app a tool with high dissemination potential. 

The campaign was created precisely with this goal: to spread a culture of recycling and sustainability in general through interactive and fun learning of increasingly virtuous forms of behaviour.