Climate change, changing labour markets and the push towards a sustainable economy mean we need to find new ways to learn and innovate. Initiatives like the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the European Youth Strategy see young people not just as recipients, but as leaders of change too. But traditional teaching methods often don’t give young people the creativity, risk-taking attitude and systems thinking they need to start their own green businesses. So, educators, policymakers and youth organisations are adopting game-based learning, using digital and analogue games, simulations and gamified challenges to encourage green entrepreneurship.

This article explains why game-based approaches are being used, what the challenges are, and what the future might hold. It also looks at how these strategies fit in with the bigger European educational and policy goals.

Why game-based approaches for green entrepreneurship?

Educational games are more than just interactive – they’re a great way to learn and can help you to develop in lots of different ways.

• Engaging and motivating

Games are great at capturing people’s attention because they’re interactive and make you feel like you’re part of the story. This makes complex sustainability topics easier for young people to understand and remember.

• Offering safe learning environments

You can use simulations and gamified scenarios to test strategies, experience consequences and make improvements without worrying about real-world stakes.

• Developing skills

Participants get to build critical entrepreneurial skills through games, like creative problem-solving, strategic planning, collaboration, decision-making under uncertainty and systems thinking.

• Shaping the value

Games that are well-crafted can encourage certain attitudes, like responsibility, innovation and environmental awareness, which are all really important for driving green entrepreneurship.

Game-based learning is thus a great way to develop sustainable mindsets and entrepreneurial skills.

The European educational landscape

Europe is a great place for game-based green entrepreneurship education, with lots of support from policy frameworks and new ways of teaching.

• Policy alignment: European strategies focus on green skills, digital skills and empowering young people.
• Funding ecosystems: Programs like Erasmus+ or Horizon welcome experimentation with game-based learning.
• Institutional adoption: Schools, universities, youth centres and incubators are all using games, gamified challenges and simulations to teach sustainability in fun ways.

What’s more, combining storytelling, gamification and serious gameplay has shown strong engagement and cross-cultural relevance.

Empirical evidence and research trends

Recent studies show that game-based approaches can work well in sustainability education, for example:

• A review of 324 publications in 2025 showed that gamification for sustainability is most common in themes like energy, urban systems, consumption, education and climate action. It seems that engagement, motivation and social interaction are the main drivers here. (1)
• A good example of such an approach is an immersive, simulation-based model aimed at enhancing hydrogen literacy among adolescents. It showed a big improvement in technical knowledge and learning engagement (2).
• A review of game-based learning in entrepreneurship education showed how serious games can encourage problem breakdown, collaboration and an entrepreneurial mindset, as well as content acquisition (3).

These findings show that well-designed games can really help to boost knowledge and motivation, which are both key to empowering young people to become green entrepreneurs.

Challenges and obstacles

Despite the clear promise, there are still several obstacles slowing the uptake:

• Curricular integration: Games are often seen as extra tools rather than central ones, and teachers may not have the training or support from their institution to include them.
• Digital equity: Access to tools and infrastructure is uneven, which could mean some differences in how much people take part and how many people it reaches.
• Impact measurement: Evaluating long-term entrepreneurial outcomes is a challenge, particularly beyond initial engagement metrics.
• Cultural relevance: Many existing resources need adaptation to diverse sociocultural contexts.

In order to tackle these issues, we need proper teacher training, accessible platforms and relevant evaluation tools.