Sustainability can feel like a buzzword. Everyone knows they should be doing it, but the question is how, and would it even make a difference? That was the challenge facing Greater Manchester Combined Authority when they reached out to BrightCarbon to help Manchester’s 2.8 million residents turn high-level environmental goals into simple, everyday actions.

So using Manchester’s worker bee mascot, we built Bee the Change: an interactive, gamified learning experience that transforms sustainability from abstract principles into decisions people make at home, on the move, and in their communities.

The challenge

Sustainability guidance already existed, but bee-haviour change wasn’t happening at scale. The question was:

• How do you turn broad environmental goals into actions people actually take day to day?
• How do you make sustainability feel relevant to every resident, regardless of starting knowledge?
• And how do you design learning that people actually want to engage with, not something they feel they have to complete?

Strategy

Sustainability only drives change when it shows up in the choices people make. So we focused on shifting from sharing information to actionable decisions learners can apply in everyday life. We designed the experience to:

• Break learning into short, self-contained microlearning games that were easy to pick up on the go
• Move from discovery → decision → feedback to reinforce behaviour
• Anchor every interaction in familiar, everyday scenarios
• Use visual storytelling to make invisible impact (like carbon and air quality) visible and meaningful
• Encourage participation and engagement through points, challenges, and a public leaderboard

Outcome

Across three mini-games, players step into the role of a bee navigating life across Greater Manchester: spotting unsustainable habits in the home, making eco-friendly upgrades, and choosing how to travel through the city.

Each decision drives outcomes. Immediate feedback shows the environmental impact of choices, reinforcing cause-and-effect and strengthening memory encoding through active engagement.

Gamification keeps learners invested. Points, challenges, and a borough leaderboard encourage replay and competition, prompting repeated exposure to key concepts and supporting long-term retention.

The result is a learning experience that created a real buzz around sustainability: something people notice, think about, and act on every day.

Try it out for yourself here!

The technical bit

• Custom interactive game hosted on the GM Green City website
• Built as a browser-based experience for mobile, tablet, and desktop compatibility
• Accessible design with clear navigation and inclusive interaction formats
• Dynamic scoring and live leaderboard functionality powered by Google’s Data Studio
• Interactive components including hotspots, branching decisions, and game mechanics designed in JavaScript, Articulate Storyline, and Adobe After Effects