Do you know the boundaries of the planet we call “home”? The Planetary Boundaries Fresco is a 3 to 3.5-hour interactive and collaborative workshop in which you will discover the nine Planetary Boundaries (or deepen your understanding of them) and find out which Earth systems make our planet habitable and the actions we can take to avoid planetary overshoot.
The Planetary Boundaries workshop is designed by Arthur de Lassus and is based on the Planetary Boundaries Framework, which was first introduced by former Stockholm Resilience Center director Johan Rockström and a group of 28 internationally renowned scientists in 2009. The workshop uses a collaborative card game, based on the Climate Fresk workshop, to guide you through the findings from various Planetary Boundary studies and reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the global authorities on climate science and biodiversity. The workshop makes daunting topics, such as Earth system science, more accessible and raises awareness of the global interconnected challenges humanity faces. No previous knowledge or skills are necessary, the workshop is open to all, and it’s fun!
The first half of the workshop is an interactive card game. With 42 cards containing the planetary boundaries themselves and causes and effects of their transgression, you will co-construct a fresco that reveals how human activity leads to major impacts on our human systems and the planet as a whole.
Afterwards, you will make the fresco your own by illustrating it and giving it a title – free your artistic soul!
Learning about all the interconnected and complex challenges facing human and planetary systems, is incredibly important, but the story can be a difficult one to hear and evokes emotions. Therefore, it is important to sit with that difficulty and share the impact of what we’ve discovered. This will help us overcome despair and overwhelm, get into motion, and move towards action.
The final part of the workshop is a group action brainstorm and in introduction to planetary accounting, to collectively work towards systemic and impactful solutions to avoid planetary overshoot – think big! This part can be tailored to your business/sector or community context so you can find the most relevant and specific paths to take.
The Planetary Boundaries workshop is not a lecture; we, as facilitators, will guide everyone on the journey and offer new insights and a broad perspective on the state of the planet we call home and the actions we can take to protect it. The goal is that you will feel empowered and leave with a new energy and commitment to make sustainable change.
So, what’s needed? At least 3 hours of your time, and 4-7 participants per group. Depending on the setting and context, we can facilitate several groups simultaneously and work towards actions collectively.
3 — 3.5 hours
in-person or online
4 — 28 participants
English
Join us for a collaborative experience designed to raise awareness, foster systems thinking, and inspire meaningful action on today’s global challenges. From universities to corporate settings, we’ve facilitated sessions that dive into the interconnectedness of social and ecological issues, helping participants see the bigger picture of our planet’s state and understand what each of us can do to protect our shared home.
We’ve already brought the Planetary Boundaries workshop to community events and piloted a new version of the workshop at the renowned Stockholm Resilience Centre. We’ve selected some highlights to show what a session can look like and the benefits it brings to teams and events. For more inspiration, take a scroll through our full highlights archive.
Our workshops, whether online or in person, public or private, are crafted to be interactive, insightful, and impactful. Ready to discover the Planetary Boundaries Framework or gain a fresh perspective? Sign up for a Planetary Boundaries workshop or get in touch to explore the impact it could have in your team, class or community! We can facilitate in-person in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries.
We’ve got you covered. Below, we have listed some of the upcoming general public Planetary Boundaries workshops that you can join. Check our events page for the whole list of upcoming collaborative workshops where creativity, learning, and system thinking come together. Whether you’re looking to deepen your understanding of certain topics, connect with like-minded individuals, or discover something new, the workshops we facilitate have something for everyone. Some of the general public workshops we facilitate require a small fee. For the Planetary Boundaries workshops this fee goes directly to the association that makes the tools available to spread global climate and planetary literacy. We don’t receive any payment for general public workshops like these – we facilitate them voluntarily. If the fee withholds you from joining one of our general public workshops, please message us, and we will work something out! Climate and planetary education should be available to all!
The events below will direct you to the event-page providing more information on the event and the registration link.
