CEO2: The Climate Business Game - a sneak preview of the challenges (towards a greener ecwithin an industry together with stakeholders, environmentalists and the public.
Ever dreamt of becoming a company CEO? Ever dreamt being an advocate of a greener environment and a green economy? Well, dream no more because you can now do both with World Wildlife Federation (WWF) and financial services provider, Allianz’s straightforward, highly researched and knowledgeably devised industry game, CEO2: The Climate Business Game.
Having existed for more than 45 years, the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) has continues to live on to its mission, the conservation of nature. On the other hand, Allianz doesn’t remain to be one of the world’s leading integrated financial services provider as it has made sustainable homes and businesses an integral part of their core business. Together, WWF and Allianz collaborated with each other and cam up with a fun and informative game, CEO2: The Climate Business Game.
CEO2’s tagline is, “Can you successfully run a company while reducing CO2 emissions? Choose Your Industry!”. Yes, CEO2 gives you a chance to be a CEO, run a company, make it successful, but at the same time, you also need to ensure that environmentalists and the public could benefit from your corporate decisions. CEO2 lets you determine the possibility of: running a green company and make it progressive; making an impact on stakeholders, environmentalists, researchers and customers all at the same time; increasing the company’s revenues and at the same time, reducing carbon emissions by as close to 100 percent as possible within 20 years; maintaining a good image that green customers will admire; and lastly, keeping pace with the latest technological trends and innovations.
In the 21st century, climate change puts both nature and humanity at greater risks. Based on CEO2’s profile, “CEO2 is designed to raise awareness about the need for business leaders to balance their concerns for profit and climate change, and the options available to them”. In short, the game emphasizes that in today’s generation, CEO’s should not only focus on profitability but also on making the world a better place to live in.
So, how does CEO2 work? First, players must choose an industry: Insurance, Auto, Chemical or Utility. Second, a CEO name and company name have to be chosen as well.
CEO2 can be played with ease because it’s simple to navigate. As the CEO player, you’ll be sitting in your charming corporate office where you can find a stack of folders on the left of your clean desk. These folders represent your options or the list of business options which you would like your chosen company to take on.
You are given 2 rounds which represent 10 years each until 2030. Within these years, you need to do three things: make your company profitable so you’ll get to keep your job, but at the same time it must be sustainable enough to make an impression on environmentalists as well as to do something that leads you and your company to significantly reduce CO2 emissions.
For every round, you have to make choose from the stacks of folders or the list of options. With every option, you are also given an overview of what these options mean, its benefits and its risks. After you’ve finalized your choices, figures, scenarios and stakeholder opinions are revealed based on feedback from experts.
So, basically that’s what happens in CEO2. It’s informational but it does not make a successful CEO out of you. What it does offer is a sort of a “sneak preview” on the various challenges that a global industry is facing together with inflexible and avid stakeholders and environmentalists who have varying opinions. At the middle of all this, lies your customers and the people in the developing world who are most likely affected by climate change-related disasters.
But the most attention-grabbing part is that most of us playing the game are not actually CEOs. We are just the ordinary citizens and the direct customers of these industries. At least, through CEO2, we’ll have ideas on how: to put our money in good use; to make ourselves become future CEOs equipped with green business skills; and to help make Mother Earth a greener planet than ever!
