FAQ | PlanetPlay Help Center

The ‘tecchy' bit..Carbon credits originated in the 1990s as part of global efforts to tackle climate change by putting a price on carbon emissions. The concept was formalised under the Kyoto Protocol, adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997, which introduced market-based mechanisms allowing countries and companies to offset their emissions by funding verified projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gases elsewhere.

These projects, such as reforestation, renewable energy, or clean cooking initiatives, generate carbon credits, each representing one tonne of CO₂ reduced or removed from the atmosphere. The system was later expanded and refined through the Paris Agreement (2015), which encouraged broader participation from both public and private sectors under international oversight by the UNFCCC and independent standards bodies such as the Gold Standard.

When individuals or businesses buy these credits, they're helping to fund the project and support the environment. Many of these projects also bring wider benefits, such as creating jobs, protecting wildlife, or improving health.

At PlanetPlay, we turn all that climate jargon into something you can actually see. We show your impact as trees saved and a simple way to see how your gameplay helps the planet.

PlanetPlay works to support high-quality projects that create measurable environmental impact. When a game studio or publisher supports one of these projects through PlanetPlay, they receive a certificate showing the number of credits retired, the project supported, and the verified impact delivered.

For example, our support of the Green.Earth Hongera Energy Efficient Cookstoves Project in Kenya provides clean cookstoves to families, reducing carbon emissions while also cutting household costs and improving health. This project is Gold Standard verified: each carbon credit represents 1 tonne of carbon reduced. Because the project is crowd funded by game studio partners, we retire those carbon credits on behalf of our game studios partners to mark their contribution and as a quantifiable way to address impact.

Please find the Hongera Cookstove project on Gold Standard Registry here.

Gold Standardis a globally recognised certification body established in 2003 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and other NGOs. It sets rigorous criteria for verifying that climate and development projects, such as renewable energy installations, reforestation, or clean-cookstove programmes, genuinely reduce emissions and create positive social impact.

For platforms like PlanetPlay that support or invest in these projects, Gold Standard verification ensures transparency to players and industry partners. It guarantees that every contribution leads to verified carbon reductions and tangible community benefits, not ‘greenwashing' for marketing purposes.

You can track the impact of your contributions through updates on our website and within your own profile once you log in to PlanetPlay. We provide annual reports on the projects funded and the progress made on our impact page:https://planetplay.com/gb/how-it-works

The PlanetPlay marketplace also visualises collective impact on a live dashboard, showing the amount of carbon our projects have removed, the equivalent number of trees saved and the total dollars donated.

Carbon credits sound technical, right? We've made it simple. We show your impact as trees saved, so you can see the difference your play really makes.

Here's how we calculate that impact: One tree is estimated to absorb around 0.2 tonnes of CO₂. To offset one tonne of CO₂, we calculate the equivalent cost based on certified project pricing. That means supporting one full tree equates to the cost of offsetting 0.2 tonnes.

From this, we can also show fractional impact — for example:

• Supporting 0.1 of a tree equals 0.02 tonnes of CO₂ removed.
• Even a small purchase with a small donation (around $1) already saves nearly half a tree.

In 2024, we published a Green Credentials Report citing flagship projects and explaining partners and outputs. The report describes in detail how profits turn into verified projects in addition to naming project partners.

If you have any questions about how PlanetPlay manages its project or calculates the impact of the purchases you make on our marketplace, contact us at help@sphaira-i.com.

PlanetPlay is the trading name of our platform and is fully owned by Sphaira Innovation AG ( sphaira-innovation.com), a Not-for-Profit organisation incorporated in Switzerland and governed under Swiss law by its independent Board of Directors.

Sphaira Innovation AG covers all PlanetPlay's operational costs, which means 100% of PlanetPlay's profit after publisher revenue share and transaction costs are donated to certified green projects. These include initiatives like tree planting, reforestation, and clean cookstoves, all verified through theGold Standard for environmental impact.

Our finances are independently audited by EY, ensuring full accountability and transparency. (EY's audit covers financial operations, while environmental verification is conducted separately by Gold Standard).

Yes! Sphaira Innovation AG elected to operate as a Not-For-Profit entity (corporation) as opposed to registered charity status so that we can run a self-sustaining business model. This means we don’t need to rely on grants and donations from wealthy individuals, which can sometimes be unsustainable. We share the same mission-driven values as charities, yet our structure means:

No dividends or private gain: all surplus is reinvested into planet-positive work, governed by our board.

Our simple structure means we can run PlanetPlay sustainably and work closely with game studios and other partners. It also lets us act quickly on opportunities, without the delays on approvals and process that charities often face.

A proven sustainable model: we fund our impact work through game sales and campaigns, delivering value to customers and partners rather than relying on grants or donations. This keeps our long-term mission secure, regardless of political shifts or major donor changes. In short, we are a business that behaves like a charity but runs with startup speed.

Refunds are always based on what you actually paid with your card. If your order used discounts, coupons or store credits, those parts aren't refunded since they weren't charged in cash.

For multi-item orders, we split discounts, store credits and taxes fairly across everything, so a refund for one item might look a little lower than its listed price. Don't worry, you'll never get back less than you truly paid, and taxes are always included in the refund.

We aim to process refunds promptly, which means within 3 working days and no later than 14 days following our confirmation that the refund will be processed.

After making a purchase, you will need to claim your key before it’s revealed and sent to you. Check the “My Orders” section under your account, all your games hang out there.

If you used guest checkout or something looks off, drop us a note at help@sphaira-i.com and we'll track it down.