Empowering future leaders: Climate Fresk workshop at the Stockholm University

Written by Joy van Breda
Published on: September 7, 2024

This week, Elise van Breda and I were invited to co-facilitate a Climate Fresk workshop at Stockholm University. Our participants — 88 second-year students in the Business, Ethics, and Sustainability program — played a crucial role in the workshop, which was part of one of their ‘Science for a Sustainable Development’ modules.

While Elise and I have made a hobby out of reading scientific studies and reports together, we fully understand that for those new to sustainability, climate science or climate policy, the reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, the global authority on climate science) can feel overwhelming. There’s no “how to read the IPCC guide”, and when you decide to dive in, you’re greeted by a huge library filled with lengthy reports, summaries and enough supporting materials to keep you busy for a year. It can be hard to know where even to start.

Our aim with this workshop was to empower these students to feel confident about taking meaningful action. After reading through much of the IPCC materials ourselves, it’s really satisfying to bring that knowledge into a format that students can easily absorb and put into practical use. The Climate Fresk workshop helps us to do exactly that — offering new perspectives on the state of the planet and the actions we can take to protect it, all in just 3 hours, and in a fun and collaborative way.

What we love about the workshop is how it simplifies the complexity of climate change. It breaks down a challenging topic into a clear, structured framework that students can easily understand. This not only helps them process the information but also prepares them to continue building on it throughout their academic journey and beyond. As future leaders in business and sustainability, these students are stepping into a world where understanding the causes and consequences of climate change is crucial to driving meaningful change.

We all know that learning about global warming, the loss of nature, and their impacts on biodiversity and human well-being can feel overwhelming. But understanding these challenges more deeply also gives us a clearer idea of the actions we can take. While knowledge doesn’t change reality, it gives us the tools to navigate it — and helps us make informed, impactful decisions for a more sustainable future.

We are incredibly grateful to these students for their active participation and engagement, which was key to the workshop’s success. A big thank you to Tim Daw (Stockholm Resilience Centre) for making this workshop possible and to our fantastic co-facilitators Antoine Bonel, Maxime Cochet, and Blanca González García-Mon and Nanda Wijermans for their invaluable support. What a fantastic way to kick off the new academic year! 🎉

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Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University, Philosophy Department, Stockholm University

Joy van Breda

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