Planetary Diet Plate Game
Planetary Plate – Co-Creating Future Diets Within Planetary Boundaries
Participatory Design
Planetary Plate is a participatory board game designed to engage citizens in imagining sustainable and culturally meaningful diets for Finland in the year 2050. The game makes complex climate and food system data easier to understand through a hands-on and visual format.
The core idea is to show the climate impact of different foods using physical game pieces. Each item is represented by a piece whose size reflects its emissions per 10 grams of the food. The higher the impact, the larger the piece. During the game, participants build a shared diet using these pieces, trying to stay within illustrated planetary boundaries on the game board while balancing cultural values and environmental goals.
I was responsible for concept development, visual design and prototyping, and also helped run public workshops with other researchers. These workshops moved the game from early testing into the actual research phase, where it was used as a tool to explore what ecoculturally sufficient diets could look like.
The outcome is a practical and engaging tool supporting research and dialogue. It helps people reflect on which foods are culturally essential and harder to change, and which might be more adaptable as we move toward more sustainable food systems.
More information about the research project can be found here
The method has been published in the CoDesign journal:
Participants playing the Planetary Plate game and planning a future diet for the average Finn in 2050, while negotiating questions of sufficiency and sustainability.
Visualization of game progress. The outer lines represent current consumption levels, while the inner magenta lines indicate the planetary boundaries players aim to stay within.
