We’re doing this because it’s hard. We need to move beyond eco design - greener materials, improved life cycle impact, designing for recyclability. We’re seizing the moment of Climate Action talks in Paris to think macro, and micro, and develop prototypes for building the change we want to see in the world. How can we use the tools of design, systems thinking, and business models, to move the bigger levers in the system? This course is a 2 year environmental science and startup MBA course packed into one semester, plus a boot camp in how to organize stakeholders and facilitate community involvement.

1. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
DESIGNING
CLIMATE ACTION
WE’RE DOING THIS BECAUSE IT’S HARD
Class 1 | September 10, 2015

2. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
CLIMATE CHANGE & PUBLIC OPINION
Increasing severity
Disinformation
Obfuscation and confusion

3. 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

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

5. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
THE U.S. IS IN THEIR OWN LEAGUE ON CO2 EMISSIONS
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- Google, WRI

6. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
BUT THE U.S. PUBLIC IS CONFUSED & DISINFORMED
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- Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, http://environment.yale.edu/poe/v2014/

7. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
AND GLOBAL INTEREST HAS WANED OVER TIME
7
- Google Trends
global warming climate change An Inconvenient
Truth
climategate cap & trade

8. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
THE MEDIA IS FEEDING THIS CONFUSION
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9. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
POLITICIANS ARE OUR LEADING SKEPTICS
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10. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
OUR STORIES
Jen van der Meer
Rebecca Silver

11. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
JEN VAN DER MEER
1111

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

13. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
REBECCA SILVER: I am a Michigander
1313
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 slow
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14. 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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15. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION
Disrupting Dominant Logic
Empowering Individuals
Building Coalitions
Accelerating Action

16. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
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
DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
16

17. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
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
DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
The People’s Climate March during NY Climate Week ‘14
17

18. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
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?

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

20. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
FIRST MAJOR PROJECT: NYC CLIMATE WEEK EVENT
20
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.

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

22. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
NEXT WEEK’S HOMEWORK
22
“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)

23. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
SELECTING THE DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION LOGO
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HEADS DOWN VOTE

24. DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015DESIGNING CLIMATE ACTION | WEEK 1: SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
NOW TO 350.ORG
OBSERVE. DOCUMENT. ASK QUESTIONS.
WHO’S THERE AND WHY?
WHAT OPPORTUNITIES TO TAKE ACTION ARISE?
MAKE FRIENDS. NETWORK.