Carbon City Zero World Edition Game

Sam Illingworth, Paul Wake, North American Association for Environmental Education

In this interactive game, players develop a sustainable city by greening transport, transforming industries, getting citizens on board, and showing world leaders how it's done. Players will need to bring together governments, industries, and the public to bring carbon levels to zero before it's too late.

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Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

In order to put the game together, teachers need time to print out the cards, paste them together, cut them out, and organize them into decks. If a teacher wants to do this for the whole class, students could be involved in this process so a game is made for each group. 4 people per game is recommended, but players can play with a partner to have 8 people per game. It may be helpful to model the gameplay before the start. This game is an engaging and interesting way to introduce a pathway to net carbon. It will likely be a good starting place for class discussions about the topic. This would be a fun game to have on hand in the classroom, but teachers should note it will take some work to make this part of a full lesson. The game requires background knowledge around net-zero carbon, renewable energies, policy decision process, and educators may want to introduce these concepts before playing the game. Cards can also be given to groups of students to have them research what is on the card, create a poster, and share that information with the class. This activity would not involve playing the game, but the game could be played a different day.
This game explores the journey toward net-zero emissions with numerous policy decision steps. The resource is focused on policy and decision making, so it doesn't include many scientific concepts, but the underlying science is grounded in official climate reports. Game play is based on examples from the UK, US-based educators may reference the IPCC or US policy documents. Comments from expert scientist: This game is based off of the Paris Agreement and represents a very simplified version of "Net Zero". There is little scientific information presented, which was stated as one of the goals in the "Design Notes". Overall, the general concepts are scientifically sound (i.e., there is a focus on climate discussion and policy surrounding energy efficiency etc.) This is a large generalization and simplification of the Net Zero movement.
This is a board game where players work to develop a sustainable city. The design notes include some ways to use the game in the classroom. It is recommended to have a pre-game discussion, time to play the game, and a post-game discussion. There are recommended questions for the pre-game and post-game dialogue to have as a class. Teachers can use comments in the design notes to help build a lesson plan. In the alternative modes section of the design notes, facilitators are encouraged to give a team of players a single card with a subject the students will then research, prepare a poster about, and present to the rest of the class. Because students love to play games, this may be a good addition to the classroom for students to play during lunch, after school, or as part of a classroom game day.
This game is free to download, though teachers need to provide some personal information in order to download the PDF that has the game materials. Please note that it looks like you have to pay for it - you do not, the "purchase" is free. Game pieces can be downloaded for free but need to be printed. Note that full game instructions are on the downloadable game and not in the teaching notes.