This is the challenge – can you survive 100 days in Minecraft? It may sound easy to those with some experience of the game but there’s a catch. You are going to live your best “sustainable” life in Minecraft by trying to have the least impact on the world you inhabit.
How do we live sustainably in Minecraft?
This means we need to survive and hopefully even thrive by using only renewable resources. Survival will require us to provide shelter and maybe self defence from the hostile elements of the world. We will need to eat food to generate energy. And eventually when we have achieved the basics, we can maybe explore, build more function into our existence and create a sustainable city. Who knows what is possible?
In Minecraft this will be challenging because lots of game functionality is built around mining non renewable resources such as stone, metal and coal (hence the name!). Lots of items are only available after the player crafts a furnace from cobblestone. But are these a necessity for fun gameplay? We will find out! I have previously played through this scenario whilst allowing myself to craft a furnace, but this time around I’m being a strict sustainable superstar.
Here are the rules I am going to follow (so far):
🟩I can only harvest renewable resources which I must replenish. So, if I cut down a tree, I need to replace it by planting a sapling to grow another tree.
⬛I can farm from the land by using a hoe to till the soil. I am going to try to find a forever home near a good water source so that I can grow crops.
🟫I can kill wild animals for food and resources as they are renewable, but only as a necessity and I will keep a log of all animals killed for this purpose. I am not allowed to keep and farm animals.
🟩Hostile mobs can be killed freely.
⬛If I happen to stumble across non renewable resources (in a village or chest) then I will not keep the items.
Take on the challenge!
You can make up your own rules, but keep it as sustainable as possible. Let me know if you think of anything interesting that I should add to my world lore.
I will post each week to show my progress and explain how the game mechanics work, and how this exercise can raise some great discussions around environmental sustainability in day to day life. Check out my progress using the Be Minecrafty tag!
I will also post some shorter updates on my Be_Sciencey Bluesky social media account – follow these updates here. If you are joining in the challenge and have a world to show then please tag me in and use #Minecraft100Days #MinecraftSustainableChallenge #BeMinecrafty – I would love to see your progress.
This Minecraft education project doesn’t require any set-up but does need some knowledge of Minecraft lore. It would be useful to complete the Minecraft Education tutorials that are located in the library of worlds located in the game start menu.
And here’s a sneak peek at how it started…
