Learning about carbon offset can initially be complicated. That’s why the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative (DCOI) has developed an educational card game to teach students about how carbon offsets work and how they contribute to climate neutrality goals. The game is a simulation of how schools can meet their climate neutrality commitments. In the game, each school has a climate goal, and it is up to the players to determine the best strategy to achieve zero emissions, whether it’s through investing in internal reduction projects and/or purchasing offsets.
The game was piloted in Fall 2014 in Duke's undergraduate sustainability class. The game has since undergone many rounds of evaluation and edits. In 2016, the game was presented at the AASHE Conference and received positive responses from attendees and many schools expressed interest in using the game in their classes.
Now, the offset game is in its final editing stage and will become available as an open resource to any institutions and companies that wish to educate their students/staff on offsets in an engaging way.