Resources from The Presidio Center for Sustainable Solutions at the University of Redlands

About the Author: Marsha Willard is Faculty Chair at the Presidio Center for Sustainable Solutions at the University of Redlands. She is also principal of AXIS, a sustainability consulting firm founded in 1990. Marsha applies her management consulting, training and facilitation skills to help students and client organizations find responsible solutions that meet all stakeholder needs: owners, customers, employees, the community and the environment. Marsha has co-authored six popular business books including, The Business Guide to Sustainability and A Step by Step Guide to Sustainability Planning. Marsha is co-founder and former Executive Director of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals. 

Climate Solutions Simulation

Climate change is a complex issue and one that can leave people feeling overwhelmed and helpless.  This simulation was created by Marsha Willard and is designed to expose participants to the variety of strategies available to address climate change, and compare and contrast them on several criteria including effectiveness, cost and feasibility.  The overall message of the simulation is that we have the technology to solve this problem and that it is cost effective to do so.

The simulation draws upon the highly acclaimed book Drawdown ¹ which is a compilation of the 100 most impactful carbon reduction or sequestering strategies along with their costs and benefits.  Working with this information, participants are asked to create a package, or legislative bill, of strategies designed to meet specific carbon reduction goals within a pre-established budget. The exercise tests their strategic thinking on the subject while revealing to them the most impactful strategies.

The simulation is appropriate to use in a variety of contexts in support of multiple learning disciplines. It has been implemented in graduate classes, conferences and in community settings.  The simulation is flexibly designed to fit into sessions ranging from 1.5-3 hours in length. It works with audiences of any size, but works best where participants can be broken into groups of 3-5 people. 

Objectives

Upon completion of the simulation, participants will be able to …

1. Identify the strategies and actions most effective at reducing atmospheric carbon.

2. Assess the political and social feasibility of those strategies.

3. Become familiar with new and emerging carbon reduction strategies and products.

Materials

All materials necessary can be downloaded for free from the Presidio Center’s web site. https://www.presidio.edu/resources/climate-solutions-simulation/

Included are the following four files:

1. Facilitator guide with instructions for implementing the simulation

2. Strategy cards which represent the top 40 strategy identified in Drawdown.

3. An Excel worksheet in which participants record the strategy packages and rate them on feasibility

4. A deck of supporting PowerPoint slides to use during the simulation