Climate Crisis (Polycrisis) Fundamentals

Overview

This workshop is fundamental to Climate Paradigm’s overall process and mission. To maximizes meaningful social impact, we must first hold a baseline understanding of what the climate crisis currently entails. This workshop will provide an overview of modern climate terminology, an index of tipping points, climate initiatives relevant to your organization, reasons to have hope, and common myths / fallacies which stifle positive change.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Create a uniform understanding of the climate crisis (polycrisis) which allows room for a diverse array of opinions and perspectives to co-exist in harmony.

   2. Clarify the significance of our global net-zero targets, summarize what our trajectory is, and identify the limitations of this framework.

   3. Foster a sense of urgency and hope in the face of the climate crisis (polycrisis)

   4. Equip participants with methods to manage eco-anxiety when engaging with emotionally challenging content.

Participant Profile – General / All

Level of Emotional Depth – Moderate

This workshop covers content that can be challenging to be with and has the potential to evoke strong emotions, such as eco-grief, particularly for those already burdened by environmental concerns.

Duration – 1.5 hours

Group Size

• Ideal: 12

• Maximum: 20

Climate Narratives & Embodied Strength

Overview

It is rare for us to take pause in the corporate world and use story to identify interpersonal commonalities and strengths. This workshop encourages participants to share their personal climate narratives—stories of how they have come to understand the climate crisis and their connection to nature. By expressing these narratives, participants will discover collective strengths and develop a shared sense of purpose and capability to drive meaningful change.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Enhance acceptance and connection among participants through sharing climate narratives.

   2. Identify collective team strengths and capabilities that make your team uniquely positioned to address climate and social issues.

   3. Identify soft areas where we may be personally lacking or capable of teaching, mentoring, and supporting each other in growth.

Participant Profile – General / All – Ideally a cohesive close-working team.

Level of Emotional Depth – Light

Focuses on sharing stories and building collective strength, expanding tolerance for discussing challenging topics like climate change.

Duration – 1.5 – 2.5 hours (depending on number of participants)

Group Size

• Ideal: 6

• Maximum: 12

Science Fiction and Corporate Adaptation

Overview

Leveraging creative writing and our artistic capacity is a potent but under-utilized technical development tool. This workshop adopts techniques from science fiction and place writing as a mechanism for  breaking conventional thinking and inspiring innovative solutions. Participants will conceptualizing dystopian futures and explore how their organization might adapt (or help humanity adapt) to this world in a way that allows humanity and the interconnected web of life to thrive.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Learn to use creative writing techniques to inform technical and economic decision making within a corporate environment.

   2. Develop of a list of backlog projects and eco-gestures which can serve to future-proof your organization or bolster your meaningful social impact.

   3. Develop a list of ways in which your organization can leverage it’s talent, position, and industrial knowledge to help humanity adapt to climate change both today and long into the future.

Participant Profile – Operational staff and leadership of any organization.

Level of Emotional Depth – Light / moderate

Engages creative thinking with some emotional exploration.

Duration – 2 hours

Group Size

• Ideal: 12

• Maximum: 20 (with co-facilitation)

Climate Coaching Techniques

Overview

Skills from the field of climate coaching (the art of empowering and equipping others to maximize their positive impact on existential issues like climate change) are directly applicable to skilled leadership and management. This workshop covers the fundamentals of climate coaching and highlights select concepts that are ideal for generating empowerment within a team. During the workshop, participants will be given opportunity to practice with these new techniques.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Equip participants with modern coaching tools which can be used to empower their peers, teams, and personal connections towards actions supporting positive social change.

   2. Practice with coaching tools such as acceptance, trust, compassion, curiousity, active listening, presence, and pace.

   3. Equip participants with methods for addressing common economic dilemmas a philosophical fallacies related to the climate crisis (polycrisis).

Participant Profile – Management and Leadership of any organization

Level of Emotional Depth – Light

Focuses on practical coaching skills with less emotional intensity.

Duration – 1.5 – 2 hours depending on number of participants

Group Size

• Ideal: 4 – 6

• Maximum: 12 (with co-facilitation)

Hope, Resilience, and Self Care

Overview

Burnout, a diluted sense purpose, and climate anxiety are increasingly impacting our work and interpersonal relationships. This workshop will equip participants with core concepts from the field of climate psychology including radical transformative hope, resilience, self-care as activism, and community-care. Participants will leave better equipped to manage their own climate-anxiety and support their peers ultimately leading to a more productive workforce.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Foster a sense of empowerment and grounded optimism related to climate change.

   2. Develop tools to care for each other in a complex, uncertain, and financially pressured world.

   3. Increase our capacity to be with challenging emotions related to the climate crisis, systemic inequity, and the ongoing effects of colonization.

Participant Profile – General / All

Level of Emotional Depth – Moderate

The workshop covers self-care and mental resilience, which may touch on societal pain and personal grief.

Duration – 1.5 hours (depending on number of participants)

Group Size

• Ideal: 12

• Maximum: 20 (with co-facilitation)

Earth Listening as a Design Principle

Overview

Great thinkers throughout recorded history have allowed nature and natural processes to inform their work, design, and thought. It is only in modern times that we have fallen away from this process of listening in favor of anthropocentric world views. Participants will learn techniques for integrating the practice of “earth listening” into their work, reconnecting with the natural world and bolstering their familiar rational decision making process’.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Provide participants with accessible methods for engaging in the practice of earth listening practice

   2. Increase understanding of how to incorporate nature’s voice into decision-making

   3. Increase our capacity to be with challenging emotions related to the climate crisis.

   4. Bring awareness to tools and resources for deepening the practice of earth listening.

Participant Profile – General / All – Participation should be optional for those uncomfortable with esoteric concepts.

Level of Emotional Depth – High

This workshop has the potential to open participant’s hearts to a wide range of challenging emotions depending on a persons history and life circumstance.

Duration – 1.5 hours (Extended 4 hour weekend session available)

Group Size

• Ideal: 8

• Maximum: 12-20 (with co-facilitation)

• Extended Session Maximum: 8

Engineering Micro-decisions

Overview

Engineers face an ever-increasing number of complex decisions where economics, social impact, and environmental considerations clash. The answers to these dilemmic decisions are often grey and time consuming to answer unless properly equipped. This workshop explores the process of making these micro-decisions and integrating environmental considerations into everyday engineering practices.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Articulate the common ethical dilemma of balancing economics, social well-being, and environmental impact when making technical decisions.

   2. Generate a sense of empowerment by embedding eco-gestures and a deepened understanding of environmental ethics into daily actions.

   3. Cultivate a culture of environmental accountability and a process of decision making which prioritizes regenerative systems within your team.

Participant Profile – General / All – Specifically tailored to engineering professionals.

Level of Emotional Depth – Light

Focuses on creating levity within decision making processes

Duration – 1.5 – 2 hours

Group Size

• Ideal: 8

• Maximum: 12-20 (with co-facilitation)

Climate Metrics – Beyond Sustainability

Overview

Traditionally, carbon emissions have been used as the primary and unified method for measuring climate impact. While carbon emissions are a useful and critical measuring tool, they miss some of the complexities of the climate crisis. Many technical professionals do not have the time or  academic background to confidently identify alternative metrics to measure environmental / social impact. This workshop will teach participants methods for going beyond traditional sustainability metrics to create a deeper sense of purpose in their work and measure of their project success.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Educate on the limitations of carbon emissions as a sole metric.

   2. Develop methods for creating alternative socio-environmental impact metrics.

   3. Strengthen your team’s sense of purpose and autonomy in addressing the climate crisis (polycrisis).

Participant Profile – General / All – Specifically tailored to engineering professionals.

Level of Emotional Depth – Light

Focuses on metrics and purpose without delving deeply into emotional aspects.

Duration – 1.5 – 2 hours

Group Size

• Ideal: 8

• Maximum: 12-20 (with co-facilitation)

Climate Ethics for Engineers

Overview

The EGBC Code of Ethics states that engineers must:

“Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public, including the protection of the environment and the promotion of health and safety in the workplace.”

This statement implicitly includes an ethical duty for engineers to understand and respond to the climate crisis (polycrisis). This workshop explores this ethical responsibility and discusses the nuanced process of balancing economic pressures with long-term environmental and societal impacts. It provides practical insights into integrating environmental ethics into everyday professional practices.

Workshop Aim

1. 1. Helps engineers to answer the question: “Where are the ethical lines between protecting the environment and well-being of future generations vs. working within the harsh economic realities of today and uncertain climate futures of tomorrow”?

   2. Develop a nuanced understanding of corporate responsibility which considers a more intense sense of environmental ethics.

   3. Use insights to reshape / embed company mission, vision, into daily practices.

Participant Profile – General / All – Specifically tailored to engineering professionals.

Level of Emotional Depth – Light / Moderate

Engages with ethical considerations and their impact on professional practice.

Duration – 1.5 hours

Group Size

• Ideal: 8

• Maximum: 12-20 (with co-facilitation)