Designing Climate Action - Introductions

DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

DESIGNING

CLIMATE ACTIONWE’RE DOING THIS BECAUSE IT’S HARD

Class 1 | September 10, 2015


CLIMATE CHANGE & PUBLIC OPINION

Increasing severity

Disinformation

Obfuscation and confusion

DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

A CONCISE EXPLANATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE

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- Source: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-tesla-will-change-your-life.html


TEMPERATURES HAVE ALREADY INCREASED BY 1°C

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- Comic: XKCD; Title statistic: Climate Change, The Science of Global Warming and Our Energy Future.


THE U.S. IS IN THEIR OWN LEAGUE ON CO2 EMISSIONS

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- Google, WRI


BUT THE U.S. PUBLIC IS CONFUSED & DISINFORMED

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- Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, http://environment.yale.edu/poe/v2014/


AND GLOBAL INTEREST HAS WANED OVER TIME

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- Google Trends

global warming climate change An Inconvenient

Truthclimategate cap & trade


THE MEDIA IS FEEDING THIS CONFUSION

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg


POLITICIANS ARE OUR LEADING SKEPTICS

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http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/2i8i0f/grumpy-cold-men

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/2i8i0f/grumpy-cold-men


OUR STORIES

Jen van der Meer

Rebecca Silver


JEN VAN DER MEER

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TECH ANALYST

MBA – HEC

MOM

ITP PITCHFEST

OPEN DATA

LUMINARY

LABS

DRILLTEAM

DACHIS

WEST VILLAGE

DESIGNERS

ACCORD

SYSTEMS

THINKING

SUBURBAN

CHILDHOOD

FROG DESIGN

ORGANIC INC.

SUSTAINABILITY BA COMP

RELIGION

REASON STREET

ECONOMIST

JEN VAN DER MEER


REBECCA SILVER: I am a Michigander

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Digging in the weeds with product & supply chain

sustainability

BFA in ID from RISD | o2 | HauteGreen | MBA, MS – The University of Michigan

| The Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise | Design+Business |

Walmart | Environmental Defense Fund | Adidas | Natural Resources Defense

Council | The Council of Fashion Designers of America | Institutional

change is slow13

DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 1414DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

REBECCA SILVER: I see the forest for the trees

Focusing on where I can have the biggest impact

Leveraging technology to scale action on climate change

Co-founding a (fledgling) clean-web startup

Teaching sustainability at SVA & Parsons

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DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION

Disrupting Dominant Logic

Empowering Individuals

Building Coalitions

Accelerating Action


IT’S TIME FOR CLIMATE ACTION

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Game changing climate change events are taking place:

• At COP21 in Paris in December, members of the UNFCCC will negotiate a binding

climate agreement (or fail in their attempt)

• The Whitehouse & EPA have recently proposed a Clean Power Plan and carbon

reduction goals (INDC)

• The 2016 US Presidential Election will foment the conversation



WE CAN DESIGN A MOVEMENT

We live in the center of the action on Climate Change:

• The UN is convening to double down on its Sustainable Development goals

• The Pope will address climate change in his visit to NYC

• New York Climate Week 2015 will offer a stage for our class


The People’s Climate March during NY Climate Week ‘14

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WE’RE DOING THIS BECAUSE IT’S HARD

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How might we accelerate stakeholder action, in order to

avoid the worst effects of climate change?

• What leverage points should we focus our attention on?

• What tools, services, campaigns, activities, educational solutions, and/or

platforms might we create to incite key actors and influencers to take action?

• How can we build a community of engaged experts to help us scale our

ideas?

• How can we measure or model the potential effects of the solutions we

develop?


HARNESS YOUR AMBITION – YOU’LL NEED IT

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Part 1 | September 10 – 30 | Designing Climate Action event design

• Goals: Become masters of the climate change conversation, harvest ideas for Part 2 of class

• Activities: Research, roleplaying, event planning, workshop design, web design

• Core Deliverable: Public event on “Designing Climate Action,” and online forum

Part 2 | October 8 - November 5 | Lean as a tool for action

• Goals: Develop concepts which accelerate climate action; elevate conversation with experts

• Activities: Lean customer discovery, quantitative research, concept development

• Core Deliverable: Final concept and prototype

Part 3 | November 12 - December 17 | Taking action

• Goals: Design successful pilots, launch/handoff projects

• Activities: Running pilots, measuring impact, event planning, developing partnerships

• Core Deliverable: Final concepts, pilot results, public demonstration of projects


FIRST MAJOR PROJECT: NYC CLIMATE WEEK EVENT

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WHAT: Designing Climate Action Event, a New York Climate Week 2015 event, hosted

by you!

FOR WHO: The NYC climate change community

WHEN: September 30th (Wednesday), 6:30-9:00pm

WHERE: Products of Design

DESCRIPTION: Designing Climate Action is an open-innovation forum for designers,

scientists and entrepreneurs to collaborate to accelerate climate action. Through an

iterative and participatory workshop hosted by the Products of Design community, the

event will bring together industry leaders with activists to foster inter-disciplinary

partnerships and seed endeavors. Select ideas generated during the event will be

developed by Products of Design masters students throughout the fall semester, and

publically presented in December 2015 to align with with COP21 proceedings.


NEXT WEEK’S HOMEWORK

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“It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure”- Clay Shirky

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT | Design your own media bubble, to effectively filter for the

climate change conversation; Infuse yourself with both optimistic & pessimistic views (start

with the video & readings)

• Watch: Climate of Doubt, PBS – Frontline, October 23, 2012

• Read: What we Think when we Try Not to Think About Climate Change,

http://www.vice.com/read/a-psychologist-explains-why-people-dont-really-give-a-shit-

about-climate-change-608

• Read: How Tesla will Change Your Life, http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-tesla-will-

change-your-life.html

• Create: Design your media bubble

• Document: Document the best sources you found, and post to Google docs

• Demo: Be prepared to give a demo of your media bubble in class

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/climate-of-doubt/

http://www.vice.com/read/a-psychologist-explains-why-people-dont-really-give-a-shit-about-climate-change-608

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-tesla-will-change-your-life.html


NEXT WEEK’S HOMEWORK

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“It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure”- Clay Shirky

GROUP ASSIGNMENT | Research & synthesize who the key influencers in the climate

change conversation are (U.S. centric)

• Select a group of influencers (we’ll do this for you): The media, U.S. politics/policy

(state and national), the scientific community, the business community, NGOs and

activists

• Identify: Who are the dominant voices? What is their thesis? What is their motivation?

How are they broadcasting their message? Who is listening? How influential are they?

What voices are absent from this influencer group?

• Document: Concisely synthesize your research for the class; Document it in Google

Docs, and make sure your research is searchable; This assignment will contribute to a

class-wide research repository to help you in your assignments (Access to Google

Folder should be in your inbox)


SELECTING THE DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION LOGO

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HEADS DOWN VOTE


NOW TO 350.ORGOBSERVE. DOCUMENT. ASK QUESTIONS.

WHO’S THERE AND WHY?

WHAT OPPORTUNITIES TO TAKE ACTION ARISE?

MAKE FRIENDS. NETWORK.