I'm confident everyone reading this has participated in some version of a corporate training exercise.
I've certainly had my fair share. Security and Compliance, Harassment, Communications — during all of which everyone was thinking: when can we get back my real job? This was not the case with the Climate Fresk we conducted just last week. And here's why:
- It's a topic near and dear to our hearts and Revaia, one that is serious and seriously integrated into our philosophy
- The workshop was executed flawlessly by Anais, our Sustainability Manager, which plays a huge role in running an effective and engaging session
So what is a Climate Fresk? How does it work? What did we learn? We'll cover all that and more in today's piece.
Climate Fresk: History
Climate Fresk is an NGO with a mission to get individuals and organizations on board with the climate transition since 2018. In short, they've gamified the learning experience around climate science, the global impact of greenhouse gas emissions and the necessary steps towards a sustainable future. It's the brainchild of Cédric Ringenbach, who previously ran The Shift Project (a French think tank advocating for the post-carbon economy) and teaches about energy and climate issues at the grandes écoles universities around France. He started the Climate Fresk game in 2015 but it has evolved over the years to include certified game facilitators with the number of workshop participants doubling every 5 months! Their stated goal is to reach 1 million "players" by the end of 2022. Despite its humble start in France, Climate Fresk is now a worldwide phenomenon with facilitators in over 80 countries.
Climate Fresk: Practice
The core activity is consistent across teams, but good facilitators add some personal flair to the exercise. Our Climate Fresk went as follows:
- Ice Breaker
- The Fresk
- Evaluating Climate Solutions (from a VC perspective — because, well, we're investors!)
The Ice Breaker came in the form of a simple question: what two things would you bring to Mars? The answers ranged from the practical (water filtration, seeds for planting) to creature comforts (chocolate, romantic partner) to downright genius (Matt Damon from the movie The Martian). This intro not only warmed us up to participate, but got us thinking, intentionally perhaps, about the cold, desolate life we would have to endure on Mars should our planet one day become uninhabitable. A thought-provoking start.
Then it was time to get down to business: The Fresk. The game consists of 40 cards broken down into 7 categories, all tied together by causal relationships. Our objective was to pick a card (one by one), explain what we saw on the cards and then place in the appropriate spot on the "map" — let's run through an example.
Let's say you are given this card. What would you say? You might not be a climate expert, but you likely know how to read a chart!
We can see the graph plots C02 emissions over time with a split starting roughly at 2010. The splits, we can infer, represent different scenarios based on our effectiveness at emissions reduction. The red line represents the worst case scenario, the light blue, best case (dipping below zero emissions around 2050).
This falls squarely into the "human activity category" and so we place it early in the timeline. And so on and so forth. Through discussion, debate and dialogue we learn as we go, guided by our trusty facilitator (Sustainability Manager) to walk us through some of the harder science. And by the time we get to the final card, we've achieved something that looks like am modern day Fresco (hence the name, Fresk i.e. Fresque). Have a look:
Naturally, as investors, we followed up our traditional exercise with a little one of our own: ranking climate tech by impact and return. With an extensive map at hand, we got to work exploring where we felt the ever-expanding web of climate oriented tech products fall within the chart.
Climate Fresk: Lessons
The feedback was largely positive. Many of us here have a high-level grasp of climate issues, but diving into the science, timelines and outcomes provided a deeper understanding that's practical for personal advocacy as well as investor-grade knowledge.
"As responsible investors at Revaia, we had a minimum understanding of the mechanisms of Climate Change. But to grasp the systemic aspect and get to IPCC-report-level knowledge is another topic. The Climate Fresk is a powerful tool to understand all the implications and where are the possible action fields as investors. A recommended workshop for all!"
– Anais Blarel, Sustainability Manager
If environmental impact is important to you, I recommend setting aside a couple of hours for an exercise that is equally fun and impactful. In the meantime, if you're looking for more resources to share amongst your team or to up-level your own climate knowledge, check out the links below!
For more resources:
- Video Climate Change Courses by Jean Marc Jancovici (FR)
- Zopeful Climate: a free 14-day email course that compacts everything you need to know into 5–10 minute easy-to-read bursts
- Investing in a Climate Neutral world: a great guide for investors and their role in climate change (FR) from Magelan.tech
- Everything you need to know on Carbon Footprint Assessments, an article by Sami
- Climate Strategies for Private Equity, another article by Sami