Thinking of Sustainability as a Game…

Sustainability is often perceived as something heavy, complex, and even somewhat of an “obligation.” Lately, however, I have chosen to look at it as a “game.”

This perspective is inspired by the ideas of Carl Gustav Jung. According to Jung, human beings make sense of the world through symbols. Play is one of the most powerful of these symbols. It allows us to experiment, makes room for mistakes, accelerates learning, and most importantly, enables transformation.

That is why I have recently been asking leaders:

“If sustainability were a game, what kind of game would it be?”

Some say “chess”. Long-term, deliberate, and strategic.

Some say “a marathon”. Requiring patience, resilience, and pace.

Others say “a team sport”. Something that cannot be won alone.

While these answers are thought-provoking, they also reveal a very clear reality:

Everyone is in the game, but not everyone is playing the same game.

The Strategy Within the Game

This metaphor is more than a creative thought exercise. It can also be a powerful strategic tool. Because when you define a game, you also define its rules, its players, and what it means to win.

Today, many organizations experience sustainability as very different “games.”

In one organization, it may be a reputation game. In another, a cost-optimization game. Elsewhere, it may be viewed primarily as a matter of regulatory compliance.

Perhaps the questions organizations need to ask themselves are:

What game are we really playing? Is the entire organization in the game? Do people feel that they are part of it? Or are there people who remain outside the game?

Culture and Values: The Invisible Rules of the Game

True transformation undoubtedly begins when people, meaning all employees, become part of the game.

But for that participation to be sustainable, something less visible is needed: culture.

Culture determines “how the game is played” within an organization. Values, meanwhile, are the unwritten rules of that game.

If sustainability is not genuinely aligned with an organization’s values, even the best strategies will remain superficial.

But when sustainability is aligned with those values, it stops being a project and becomes a way of doing business.

That is when the game changes: a sense of obligation gives way to ownership. Compliance efforts give way to conviction.

To sum up, sustainability may have started as an obligation. But today, it has evolved into a game in which we can choose how we play.

And perhaps the most strategic question organizations should start with is:

Are we all playing the same game, and do all our employees understand the rules?