Learning environmental management as a game: "Great Green Hipster Hotel" now in app stores

Sorting rubbish, saving water – and beating the high score: with "The Great Green Hipster Hotel", trainees in hotel business and gastronomy learn the basics of environmental and sustainability management. The game and its accompanying learning materials are now available for free download.

"The Great Green Hipster Hotel" is an interactive game focussing on environmental and sustainability management in the hospitality sector. The players have to manage a virtual hotel and make it an economic success. However, important resources such as energy and water are subject to limited availability. This forces players time and time again to make decisions with wide-ranging repercussions. Educational videos on Youtube provide them players the necessary technical knowledge and help them in their decision-making.

They are then able to take the appropriate measures in the game to score points with skilful environmental and sustainability management. Since the options open to them in the game reflect the working reality of the hospitality sector, "The Green Hipster Hotel" enables sustained learning success. 

To reinforce these lessons learned, the game is supplemented by training and accompanying materials for teachers and trainees, thus forming an instructional unit on energy and environmental questions in hotels and restaurants. In this way, trainees at the start of their professional lives will thus develop an awareness of the diverse environmental impacts caused by the hospitality industry and gain the competencies necessary to run sustainable and environmentally friendly businesses.

"The Great Green Hipster Hotel" has been specially developed for smart phones and tablets and is now available for free download on iTunes and Google Play. The supplementary learning materials are offered under a Creative Commons licence and can be downloaded for free from the e-learning portal http://www.greengamespro…. The instructional videos are available in German, English and Spanish on YouTube. 

"The Great Green Hipster Hotel" already successful in international competition

More than 300 game design students and hospitality sector trainees from across Europe tested the game prior to its release. It was also introduced to a broad audience of specialists at multiple European trade fairs for computer-based learning games, for example at the Edtech Conference 2015 in Limerick, Ireland. "The Great Green Hipster Hotel" was among the 12 finalists in the competition ‘Game-based Learning’ at the 9th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL 2015) in Norway.

"The Great Green Hipster Hotel" is part of the 'Green Games in Tourism and Hospitality' project and is funded by the European Commission. Its goal is to educate trainees and employees in the hospitality sector on sustainability, resource and energy efficiency in a fun, entertaining way. Computer games lend themselves to this purpose: In that they provide clearly defined frameworks and various courses of action, players can try things out and receive immediate feedback. People with learning disabilities can especially benefit from this approach, more easily making connections and quickly meeting learning goals. adelphi developed the game with five project partners, including universities and gaming companies from Austria, Great Britain, Ireland and Spain.