CALS 501

Our MA in Climate Action Leadership cohort recently completed a course titled CALS 504: Modelling the Business Case for Climate Action. This was the last course before the completion of our Design Thinking Challenge for our year-long CALS 501: Leading Climate Action in Society course. 

The CALS 504 course made me think about our Design Thinking Challenge prototype in the context of the business case. If we were to build out a business case for our prototype, what would the conclusions be? I think one of the weaker aspects of our prototype is that we did not consider how it would be funded. The financial inputs would be significant. However, through the different phases of prototype development, we spent our time exploring software development, the school system and its curriculum, and cultural sensitivity. We did not, unfortunately, have time to interview business experts or potential funders.

In the absence of figuring out the costing and funding of our prototype, I decided to explore how we might have gone about this, given more time and resources for prototype development. After all, a business case can be viewed as a “guiding light” (Siegelaub & Herman, 2009, section 4) as a project moves forward over time. A business case is an important aspect of project development. Without a business case, an organization may waste resources on a project that does not aid the organization in fulfilling its objectives (Siegelaub & Herman, 2009, section 3)

We would need funds for software development, curriculum development, outreach to the school system, legal expertise, and administration and overhead. We would need to figure out an approximate dollar value for each of these budget items before bringing our prototype to potential funders. This would take a significant upfront effort, most likely inputs of time and energy which would not be compensated.

For a business case, we would also need to provide values for the potential benefits that our prototype would bring. This, I think, would prove more challenging than providing values for the costs of the prototype. In our CALS 504 course, we completed a business case analysis that looked at adaptation actions that could be implemented during heat waves to help the homeless population of Colwood, BC. In my project, I found that figuring out a dollar value for the benefits of the adaptation actions was much more difficult than assigning dollar values to the costs of the actions.

I think the most obvious funding mechanism would be through a foundation. We would need to find a foundation whose values aligned with that of our prototype, and who would be willing to invest a significant amount of money into its development. One consideration would be to find seed funding to develop a small pilot project, and then seek and secure further funding once the pilot has (hopefully) shown promise and success.

Another potential source of funding for development could be through a MITACS Accelerate internship. For this, we would need to find an organization willing to host an employee (who would be partially funded through MITACS) who would use their time to develop the prototype further, and ready it for market. Though there would likely need to be further funding to get the prototype fully to market, this pathway would provide a good start.

Lastly, we could consider crowdfunding as a way to fund the initial costs of development. Again, this could provide the money to test the prototype in a pilot phase before trying to secure further funding through a foundation.

A business case would help guide the vision of our prototype and would help us bring it to potential funders. It is an important component of bringing a project to fruition. We were not able to explore this aspect during the Design Thinking Challenge, but I am glad that I gained tools and insights into business case planning from the CALS 504 course that can be applied in my student and work life in the future.

References

Herman, B., & Siegelaub, J. M. (2009). Is this really worth the effort? The need for a business case. Project Management Institute. https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/need-business-case-6730

When I think about glaciers receding up mountainsides, losing ground slowly and yet much too fast, I feel a visceral sense of panic (Sander-Green, 2021). I worry that the water supply will suddenly dry up in the small town where I live, our aquifer dwindling alongside the glaciers. I dwell on the fish in nearby streams, deprived of the cool flush of glacier water. I envision the view changing dramatically, new rocky outcrops exposed, as I leave my home and head east through the mountains of Glacier National Park. After all, glaciers are an intensely local phenomenon here in Golden, British Columbia – they sit atop the Purcell Mountains to the west and blanket much of the Rocky Mountains to the east. And, yes, they are melting (in fact, under a medium emissions pathway, the glaciers of Western Canada are predicted to lose 74% – 96% of their volume by the end of this century; Bush et al., 2019, p. 12). 

In our Masters of Arts in Climate Action Leadership program (MACAL), we recently completed a course titled Communication for Climate Action (CALS 502).  In CALS 502, we learned about tailoring climate communications to specific audiences or segments of the population (Hine et al., 2016). One way we can do this is to bring up specific, local examples of climate change (Maibach et al., 2011). To put this another way, we should talk about rising seas in coastal regions, droughts in agricultural areas, and – indeed – melting glaciers where they exist (Sander-Green, 2021). It may seem like an obvious idea, but sometimes seemingly obvious ideas can remain hidden until they are explicitly introduced. It is a learning that I will bring forward with me into coursework and beyond.

Specifically, this learning is helpful in informing my thinking about our team’s design challenge project. The design challenge project is a year-long project in which MACAL teams come up with a concept for a climate action project that is based on principles of open learning. Our team is working through a project that would see the creation of a piece of software that connects students on the topic of climate change. Using the software, students would be able to read about local impacts of climate change. They would also be prompted to undertake a climate action project of their own and then upload a summary of the project to share. Learning about the importance of local framing for climate change communication in CALS 502, I feel confidence in the direction of our team’s design challenge project.

Additionally, through readings in the MACAL program, I have deepened my appreciation for the role Indigenous knowledge has to play in addressing climate change. As an example, Menzies and Butler (2006) wrote about how the site-specific ecological knowledge that many Indigenous people hold can be a critical aspect in seeking long-term sustainability in an ecosystem (p. 1). Although the authors were writing about resource conservation, I believe the concept can be applied to climate change, as well. With this in mind, our team has decided to incorporate Indigenous knowledge directly into our prototype. Local examples of Indigenous knowledge and storytelling will be made available alongside climate science. Our hope is that this will give students access to information across disciplines and world views, providing them with more tools and ideas to help address climate change. 

References

Bush, E, Gilett, N., Bonsal, B., Cohen, S., Derksen, C., Flato, G., Greenan, B., Shepherd, M., & Zhang, X. (2019). Canada’s changing climate report – executive summary. Environment and Climate Change Canada. https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/energy/Climate-change/pdf/CCCR_ExecSumm-EN-040419-FINAL.pdf

Hine, D. W., Phillips, W. J., Cooksey, R., Reser, J. P., Nunn, P., Marks, A. D., Loi, N., & Watt, S. E. (2016). Preaching to different choirs: How to motivate dismissive, uncommitted, and alarmed audiences to adapt to climate change?. Global Environmental Change, 36, 1-11. ttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.11.002

Maibach, E., Nisbet, M., & Weathers, M. (2011). Conveying the human implications of climate change: A climate change communication primer for public health professionals. George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Climate-Communication-Primer-for-Public-Health-Professionals-1.pdf

Menzies, C. & Butler, C. (2006). Introduction: Understanding ecological knowledge. In Butler, C. (Ed.), Traditional Ecological Knowledge and natural resource management (pp 1-17). University of Nebraska Press. 

Sander-Green, H. (2021). Glaciers in my backyard, the ocean in yours [Unmarked reflection for CALS 502]. Royal Roads University. https://moodle.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=822213

When I entered the MA in Climate Action Leadership (MACAL) program, I did not have a good sense of the importance of adaptation. I thought that we, as a global society, should be focusing the vast majority of our efforts on mitigation in order to reduce the future effects of climate change. I thought that it was too early to focus on adaptation, and that such a focus would be akin to giving up on mitigation efforts. 

Over the summer of 2021, I was taught otherwise. First, the course that our MACAL cohort recently completed (CALS 500 – Climate Science, Impacts, & Services) had a focus on the importance of adaptation. Second, the unprecedented heat wave that hit Western Canada and the United States this summer was a lesson in itself.

In CALS 500, we learned just how much warming the earth – and Canada specifically –  have already experienced. Here are a few key takeaways. During the years 2011-2020, global surface temperature was an estimated 1.09°C higher than the years 1850–1900. However, it is important to note that increases over land surfaces were even higher. Over the same period, temperatures increased an estimated 1.59°C over land surfaces worldwide (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2021). Meanwhile, in Canada, the warming experienced to date has been about double that of the global average. In Canada’s northern regions, the rate of warming has been even larger (Bush and Lemmen, 2019).  These statistics showed me  – unequivocally –  that we are already dealing with the effects of global climate change. Climate change is not a far-off event and it is not something that only future generations will have to deal with. We are experiencing climate change now. The IPCC notes that anthropogenic climate change is currently affecting the weather and climate in every area of the earth (2021). 

This summer, Western North America’s unprecedented heat wave grounded this fact in reality for those of us living in the region. Many areas were exposed to record-breaking temperatures. A new temperature record was set for Canada as a whole, with the town of Lytton posting a temperature reading of 49.6°C. Sadly, the town of Lytton was mostly destroyed by a wildfire shortly after setting this new temperature record (World Weather Attribution, 2021). This heatwave was assessed by scientists as being “virtually impossible” (World Weather Attribution, 2021) without the contribution of anthropogenic climate change.

In Golden, BC, where I live, the summer of 2021 brought the heatwave, wildfire smoke, and local wildfires. These weather events, which are all projected to become more likely in Canada in the future (Bush and Lemmen, 2019), made the learning we were doing in CALS 500 all the more relevant and urgent.

In CALS 500, I also learned that the earth is going to continue to warm until at least the middle of the century, no matter how quickly humans are able to reduce emissions (IPCC, 2021). Changes to the climate system will occur concurrently. There will be more heat waves, droughts, periods of heavy precipitation, and cyclones, among other effects (IPCC, 2021). 

Climate change is happening, and I’ve come to realize that adaptation is a very important part of keeping humans as safe as possible both now and as we move forward into new temperature and weather extremes. We need to retrofit libraries so that they can act as effective cooling centres. We need to plant trees in our towns and cities to provide more shade and respite from the heat. We need to construct new buildings so that they provide ample cooling during heat waves. In short, we all – including myself – need to take the work of adaptation seriously.

My new appreciation for the necessary work of adaptation has helped inform my thinking for the design challenge, which is a component of a year-long course in our MACAL program (CALS 501 – Leading Climate Action in Society Part 1). I will ensure that both mitigation and adaptation work are highlighted in our team’s project. Specifically, I will attempt to persuade others, who may also think like I did prior to this summer, that adaptation work is an integral part of climate action in the present and future.

References

Bush, E. and Lemmen, D.S. (Eds.). (2019). Canada’s changing climate report. Environment and Climate Change Canada. https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/energy/Climate-change/pdf/CCCR_FULLREPORT-EN-FINAL.pdf

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2021). Climate change 2021: The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Summary for Policymakers. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM.pdf

World Weather Attribution. (2021, July 7). Western North American extreme heat virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/western-north-american-extreme-heat-virtually-impossible-without-human-caused-climate-change/

Over the last two weeks, I had the privilege of taking part in an intensive course called CALS 501  (Leading Climate Action in Society) as part of the inaugural Masters of Arts in Climate Action Leadership cohort at Royal Roads University. The course will continue in short, one week sessions spread over the next year. As I take a big breath, and process what I’ve learned so far, I’d like to focus on two aspects of the learning from the intensive course: transdisciplinarity and design thinking.

First, let me define these terms. As per Nicolescu (2014, as quoted in PYP in Practice, n.d.), the goal of transdisciplinarity is to “unite knowledge for the understanding of the present world” (para. 4). Transdisciplinary thinking can be thought of like cake. The original disciplines are the ingredients. Once combined and baked, they are no longer distinguishable from each other; rather, they make up a new entity with its own emergent properties (PYP in Practice, n.d., para. 4).  

Design thinking provides a way to approach problems which is at once creative, focussed on the end user, iterative, and open to failure (Cankurtaran & Beverland, 2020). At its most basic, it is a mode of thinking that borrows its methods from the discipline of design.

The design thinking challenge that our cohort is working through is transdisciplinary in nature. Each team member is bringing ideas from their lived experience, their education, and their work to collaborate on the issue of climate action in society. At its most basic level, then, the project is about “unit[ing] knowledge for the understanding of the present world”. The ideas are flipped inside out, interrogated, and inspected by the team. Then, they are re-worked to come up with a single concept. Through an iterative process, this concept is further modified and developed. To bring it back to the baking metaphor, the team members’ individual ideas are the ingredients. The ideas are then whipped, emulsified, sifted and baked into a single concept – the cake. 

But transdisciplinarity is more than just a dessert. As Corman & Cox wrote (2020) “it is a process of inquiry. Mutual learning, exploration between and beyond disciplines, social responsibility, emergent knowledge, and possibility are all aspects of transdisciplinarity” (p. 2). Let’s take a step back and a deeper look at this in the context of the design thinking challenge we are undertaking.

Prior to “baking the cake” (or bringing all team members’ ideas together to come up with one concept), each team member creates five concept drawings to bring back to the team for the process described above.The drawings are based on the empathetic questioning of and listening to a partner. The five concept drawings are created based off of this engaged questioning and deep listening. So, they are based on mutual learning. But beyond that, team members tap into their creativity, and are less censored, when they are forced to draw (rather than write) and when they have to come up with five drawings (whether they thought  they had five ‘good’ ideas, or not). So, they are based on possibility and emergent knowledge. 

The premise of this particular design thinking challenge that we are undertaking is to find a way to engage the public, or a portion of the public, in climate action through an open learning resource (MACAL program, n.d.). So, there is the element of social responsibility. What’s left is the idea of an exploration between and beyond disciplines, which I think is threaded through the entire process: the questioning of a partner with different experiences and knowledge, the drawings which allow for creativity and playfulness, and the long, meandering, and sometimes challenging conversations about how to meld the ideas of a team into a single concept.

Moving forward through this program, and beyond, it is helpful to know that design thinking can be a powerful tool to unlock the transformative (Corman & Cox, 2020) power of transdisciplinarity. I look forward to learning about more ways to support transdisciplinary thinking as we explore it in the context of climate action.

References

Cankurtaran, P., & Beverland, M. B. (2020). Using design thinking to respond to crises: B2B lessons from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Industrial Marketing Management, 88, 255-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.05.030

Corman, I. & Cox, R. (2020). Transdisciplinary thinking in the context of the MACAL program. Written for the Master of Arts in Climate Action Leadership at Royal Roads University. Retrieved from commons.royalroads.ca/macal/wp-content/uploads/sites/88/2021/04/MACAL_Transdisciplinary_Thinking03-31-21-3.pdf

MACAL program (n.d.). CAL 501 – Course Design Challenge Worksheet. Retrieved from https://commons.royalroads.ca/cals501/wp-content/uploads/sites/97/2021/05/CAL-501-Design-Challenge-Worksheet-May-17-2021-Full-1-1.pdf

PYP in Practice (n.d.). Transdisciplinary learning: All mixed up! Retrieved from sites.google.com/isparis.net/conceptualinquiry/transdisciplinary-learning-all-mixed-up

Anthropogenic climate change is an “intensification of colonially-induced environmental change” (Whyte, 2017, as cited in Gram-Hanssen et al., 2021, p.2). As is illustrated by  the preceding quote, Gram-Hanssen et al. (2021) argued that climate change can be viewed as a function of colonialism. They asserted that to address the continuing oppression of Indigenous people under colonialism and to address climate change, society needs to undergo a transformation. Those who do not look at climate change as a problem stemming from colonialism are apt to come up with superficial – rather than transformational –  solutions. 

I think that framing climate change as a symptom of colonialism is the right way to look at the problem and will bring society to better solutions. In Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, Matthews (1999) introduced the idea of leverage points, which, as the title suggests, are places interventions can be made to effect changes in a system; the bigger the leverage point, the greater the effect. Matthews listed a hierarchy of leverage points. The second-most effective leverage point listed was “the mindset or paradigm out of which the system arises” (Matthews, 1999, p.17). In striving to make change, a highly-effective leverage point to exploit is a paradigm shift or, in other words, a transformation. 

I was excited to see Matthews’ (1999) ideas come to life in Gram-Hanssen et al.’s (2021) work, whether intentional or not. The confluence of these ideas can be summed up with a popular slogan on signs at climate protests: “System Change, not Climate Change”. We need to make a huge societal change – a transformation away from colonialism – to effectively deal with climate change. We need this decolonial transformation not just because it is a good thing in its own right, but because it is also a high-leverage point through which we can effect great change and steer ourselves towards a safer climate. Reading the two pieces, I could almost feel Matthews, Gram-Hanssen et al., and climate protestors around the world nodding their heads in agreement.

References

Gram-Hanssen, I., Schafenacker, N., & Bentz, J. (2021). Decolonizing transformations through ‘right relations.’ Sustainability Science, (20210507). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00960-9

Meadows, D. (1999). Leverage points: places to intervene in a system. The Sustainability Institute.