## Social Impact

### Play with purpose

Our initiatives build on our technology — encouraging people to get moving, make friends, and care for the sites, streets, and art in their communities.

### Enhancing public space

Healthy communities need public spaces that are accessible to everyone. We’re working with our global partners to create, rehabilitate, and protect the public spaces around us, for all of us.

### 200
#### tons of trash collected and responsibly disposed of

## Stepping up for sustainability

Every April during our annual Sustainability campaign, Niantic Explorers care for their local communities. In the past few years, hundreds of thousands of players across 41 countries and 6 continents have collected and responsibly disposed of nearly 200 tons of trash. They’ve also planted hundreds of thousands of trees.

[Read the story](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/earthday2019recap?hl=th)

## Our players turned trash into ecobricks

Alongside [Pure Earth](https://www.pureearth.org/), our players in the Philippines joined their community for an educational workshop, creating ecobricks out of trash to use as insulation and build durable walls.

[Learn more](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/earthday2019recap?hl=th)

## More footsteps. Less footprint.

We’re partnering with the UNWTO to encourage global exploration and travel in a sustainable and universally accessible manner.

[Read the post](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/unwto2018?hl=th)

### Exploring Urban Parks

In partnership with the National Park Foundation, we've helped restore and reinvigorate urban parks like the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington D.C. Through the ParkVentures program at the NPF, organizations like Niantic are working to ensure everyone has equitable and inclusive access to green space.

[Read more](https://nianticlabs.com/news/npf-update/?hl=en)

### Empowering people

Both through our technology and the initiatives we support, we hope to encourage the explorer and changemaker in all of us.

### 38B+
#### kilometers covered by 
Niantic players

## Helping local businesses in hard times

In response to the challenges of the pandemic, we’ve supported over 1,000 small businesses through the Local Business Recovery Initiative.

[Learn more](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/local-business-recovery-initiative?hl=th)

## Connecting players to history

We enabled 17,000 people to curate over 120 points of interest in the 2,000-year-old city of Chester, England with Big Heritage.

[Get the details](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/bigheritage013118?hl=th)

## We donated $7M to support Black communities

In 2020, we donated $7 million to hyperlocal nonprofits focused on supporting Black communities in the United States. See the full list of donees in our Social Impact report.

[Read the report](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/sireport20?hl=th)

### Creating community

In partnership with city governments, foundations, and nonprofits, we’re seeking to build stronger, more equitable communities.

### 190K+
#### players who have participated in Niantic Impact Events to support local communities

## Using games for good

Students rewrote their community’s historic locations in a more meaningful way at our AR Stories Hack Day in Boston.

[Read the post](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/rwgamesforgood?hl=th)

## Our inaugural augmenting cities conference

In collaboration with the [Knight Foundation](https://knightfoundation.org/), we hosted a symposium called “Augmenting Cities: A Playful Path to Community,” bringing together 150 attendees of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to reflect on how the future of people, cities, and technology will be shaped by and evolve through AR.

[Get the story](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/augmenting-cities-recap?hl=th)

## Encouraging civic engagement

Our inaugural group of Niantic/Knight Fellows in four cities across the US found creative ways to increase civic engagement and positively impact their local communities through real-world events.

[Meet the Fellows](https://www.nianticlabs.com/news/knightfellowsrecap?hl=th)

### 700+
#### Niantic Impact Events held since the social impact team launched

## Come build with us

The real-world metaverse requires as many perspectives as possible. Let’s build it together.