Exploring Sustainable Futures Game

Exploring Sustainable Futures Game

About the Game

Recently showcased at COP26, as part of the Green Zone activity taking place during the summit. Audience members had the opportunity to take part in our Exploring Sustainable Futures Game, a role-playing learning experience used by the Sustainability group at Cranfield.

Since 2018, Cranfield have been using a Scenario Exploration board game to help Masters students think about strategic decision making in the context of four different pathways towards a sustainable future by 2050. Players representing established businesses interact with players representing entrepreneurs, policy makers, civil society organizations and ‘the public voice’ as they all react to changes in economy, technology, and society along these pathways. The ‘winners’ are judged not only by the amount of resources they have accumulated, but also by whether they have achieved their purpose, and the teams reflect on the nature of the world they have collectively created through their decisions.

The game concept was originally devised by the EU-Commission’s Joint Research Council (JCR), and this version of the game was developed in collaboration with Forum for the Future and the Academy of Business in Society (ABIS) as part of the EU-InnovatE project. Cranfield have since taken the lead in using and refining the game which has so far been played with over 200 students, with over 20 faculty and PhD students getting involved as ‘Game Hosts’ facilitating play at each table.

We are refining and improving the game with each use and have started to collect data on the effects on participants. Initial findings show that playing the game deepens students’ understanding of 1) the radically different, plausible futures that could unfold, 2) the role different actors play in societal change, 3) the interrelationship between business, society and the wider living world, 4) what might have to change in the world for sustainable development to happen and 5) the scope for business to both regenerate and degrade society.

Playing the game

There is open access to the visual assets required to print copies of the original game tools developed with EU-InnovatE that can be found here, for any other organisation wishing to use the innovative learning tool. Please note, we at Cranfield in collaboration with partners at Warwick University have since updated and further developed this learning game to its current iteration of ‘Exploring Sustainable Futures’.