As part of this year’s Welcome Week induction, Xiaolong Shui, director of the programme ‘Msc International Business and Strategy: Global Challenges’ in the Business School, invited the new cohort of students and fellow colleagues to take part in a Climate Fresk workshop.
The Climate Fresk is a collaborative workshop, designed to make climate science fun and digestible. In recent years, the game has gained popularity amongst schools and universities across the UK. At the University of Bristol, Climate Fresks have been conducted in several schools as part of the departments’ efforts to incorporate sustainability in the curriculum.
The Business School event marks the largest Climate Fresk organised by a School in the University 
, with over 30 participants forming five teams.
During the workshop, teams were encouraged to interact and connect the dots within the intricate web of the climate system, tracing causes and consequences. The format of the game did more than just educate; it provided a space to process the often negative emotions associated with the climate crisis, and it invited discussion on the discourses and attitudes that promote inaction, as well as on the pressing need to address the climate emergency to achieve broader sustainable development goals.
As the workshop progressed, the students engaged wholeheartedly with its content and expressed a strong interest in getting involved. Participants reported feeling more empowered to act and each person set themselves an action to take to have a positive impact.
Professor Xiaolong Shui also led students to critically discuss various business practices, linking the content of the workshop to the issues explored in the MSc programme.
Would you like to know more about holding a Climate Fresk in your School or department? Get in touch with Sustainability’s Climate Action Officer via this email address: uob-climateactionplans@bristol.ac.uk
Are you interested in becoming a Climate Fresk facilitator? The University is looking at training facilitators in different departments. If you are interested in being included in this, please contact the education for sustainability team: edu4sd-team@bristol.ac.uk .