Keep in mind following questions while you play the game

• What needs to be done in order to satisfy the interests of the stakeholders and the environmentalist?
• What was your most successful strategy to reduce CO₂ emissions (percent of CO₂ reduction by 2030) while keeping the stakeholders happy? Explain your chosen CO₂ reduction and business strategies, including new innovations, research or lobbying in which you invested.
• What are the challenges (technical, economical) each industry faces in terms of a greenhouse gas mitigation policy?
• What are the differences between the different industry sectors? In what sector, would you invest given a strict greenhouse gas mitigation policy?

Teaching Notes/Context for Use based upon a review of the game by Zachary Shahan:

So What's the Point?

Now 9. I'd made all the green decisions, focusing extensively on renewable energy production, but still couldn't meet the reduction targets experts say are necessary (although my 47-percent reduction would almost certainly satisfy government mandates, especially here in the U.S., where we don't even have any yet).

In the end, I played CEO in the other three industries as well (Auto, Insurance and Chemical), each with their own unique set of challenges and options, as well as unknown risks, changing government regulation and market changes. The utility sector was the most difficult in which to reduce emissions significantly while maximizing profit (in a later try, I managed 63-percent reductions while returning an only slightly smaller profit margin, primarily through carbon capture investment and balancing wind with solar power plants).

Of course, CEO₂ is over-simplified and it's not going to make a successful CEO out of all of us (but if only Tony Hayward had played three years ago!). It does, however, offer a unique glimpse into the challenges facing global industry, with adamant, nigh-insatiable stakeholders and environmentalists pulling and pushing on all sides. Caught in the middle will be your customers and the people — most likely in the developing world — to be first and most drastically affected by climate change-related catastrophes.

What's most interesting is that most of us playing the game are not actually CEOs, but the direct customers of corporations in these industries. We get a glimpse of the larger game, and hopefully some ideas of how and where to put our dollars to good use in the coming decades. The goal is to make leaders of green-minded CEOs and to help make the CEOs successful so that our planet can be successful.

Such, I believe, is the goal of CEO₂: The Climate Business Game, and in relaying that message informatively, aesthetically and palatably the game itself succeeds as well.

VIEW >> CEO2 Game

Introduction:

Atmospheric CO₂ concentration has increased from 280 ppm during pre-industrial times to 394 ppm today as a result of anthropogenic emissions, and this is thought to be causing enhanced global warming and ocean acidification. Between 2000 and 2005, global CO₂ emission from fossil fuel burning averaged 26.4 gigatons of CO₂/yr at or above the highest rates predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Leggett & Logan, 2008). Thus, the reduction of industrial CO₂ emissions and the stabilization of atmospheric CO₂ concentration are considered to be one of the main challenges of this century (e.g. Hoffert et al, 2002, Pacala and Socolow, 2004). For example, a stabilization of atmospheric CO₂below 450 ppm requires a 30 to 85% net reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2050 (Solomon et al. 2007).

Table 1. 2009 U.S. CO₂ emissions (gigagram) from fossil fuel combustion by sector (U.S EPA 2011)

As shown in Table 1, the main CO₂ emission sources from fossil fuel combustion are the electricity generation, transportation sector and industrial sources. There is a huge potential to reduce emissions from these sources. The question is if this can be done in an economical way.

What You Will Do in this activity:

Can you successfully run an insurance, an automotive, a chemical or a utility company while reducing their CO₂ emissions? Start with one of the four industries and then your big chance to get in the corporate sustainability game begins!

What is CEO₂?

CEO₂ https://www.allianz.com.au/home-insurance/building-and-contents/ is an interactive game that puts the player in charge of strategic decision making as the CEO of different companies. The game was developed by World Wildlife Federation (WWF) and Allianz (financial services provider). It is based on assessments and interpretation of scientific work and reports or other credible resources. However, the complexity has been reduced to allow an online game platform.

What for? Why play the game?

To see if it is really possible to run a green company profitably; to impress stakeholders, environmentalist, researchers and customers all at once; to increase profit enough to satisfy corporate interests while lowering emissions by as close to 100 percent as possible within 20 years from 2010 to 2030; all while maintaining positive image for customers and keeping up with the latest technological trends and innovations.

Tasks to Perform

1. Choose one of the four industry

2. Play one to two iterations of the game for the chosen industry.

3. While playing the iterations, research your chosen industry.

How do you research?

- Check the intelligence reports by dragging on option to the computer screen.

- Get advise from experts by dragging an option to the telephone.

4. Take screenshots of the 2 final graphs of the most successful iteration for the chosen industry.

5. Choose the next industry and repeat step 2-4.

Keep in mind following questions while you play the game >>

• What needs to be done in order to satisfy the interests of the stakeholders and the environmentalist?
• What was your most successful strategy to reduce CO₂ emissions (percent of CO₂ reduction by 2030) while keeping the stakeholders happy? Explain your chosen CO₂ reduction and business strategies, including new innovations, research or lobbying in which you invested.
• What are the challenges (technical, economical) each industry faces in terms of a greenhouse gas mitigation policy?
• What are the differences between the different industry sectors? In what sector, would you invest given a strict greenhouse gas mitigation policy?

CEO2: The Climate Business Game:

CEO2 (https://www.allianz.com.au/home-insurance/building-and-contents/) is an interactive game that puts the player in charge of strategic decision making as the CEO of different companies. The game was developed by World Wildlife Federation (WWF) and Allianz (financial services provider). It is based on assessments and interpretation of scientific work and reports or other credible resources. However, the complexity has been reduced to allow an online game platform.
CEO2Instructions.doc

Please post your responses to the following questions:

1) What did you learn from playing each of the 2 climate games?
2) Do you think that they were worth doing?
3) What emotions did you feel while playing and now later, when you have a chance to reflect on them?

Please include your screenshots from the CEO2 game in your response we have a sense of how your company fared