Resilience game prepares city leaders for future scenarios

At the second in a series of resilience and sustainability workshops hosted by the School of Sustainability's Executive and Professional Education program with the City of Tempe, municipal leaders discussed visions of the city in 2040 – from recreation to shade structures.

Attracted to ASU because of its reputation in Chinese academia for research leadership, 16 students from Beijing's Beihang University attended a two-week School of Sustainability workshop and learned a new way of systems thinking to analyze complex sustainability problems.

A game called “Future Shocks and City Resilience” – created by Senior Sustainability Scientist Lauren Withycombe Keeler – taught participants at a November 2016 City of Tempe Resilience Workshop to think about sustainability in terms much broader than recycling.

With programming support from the School of Sustainability, two ASU professors presented a two-week seminar on the renewable energy potential of Kosovo – currently powered by coal – to university faculty members in that country.

Concerned about the effects climate change will have on its infrastructure projects, the World Bank asked ASU's School of Sustainability to design and deliver a "how-to" on inventorying carbon emissions, which was presented in Washington, D.C. to officials from around the world.

To determine how investment in the developing world can impact and be impacted by climate change, 30 members of the World Bank Group and its private sector arm - the International Finance Corporation - traveled to ASU for a custom workshop delivered in part by sustainability scientists.