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Greetings All,

I am in the process of developing an eco-industrial park role play
activity for my graduate students.
I have come up with the following roles of policy makers, researchers,
engineers, green chemists,
business leaders, and environmental managers. I have begun to define
these roles but was wondering
if any of you had experience with similar type simulations for students.
They do not have an engineering
or chemical background necessarily. What , can,do they bring to the
exercise if they are somewhat naive
of the role and/or don't have the requisite expertise to understand what
they
should/would focus upon?
Also, how would you see this exercise develop in regards to specific
objectives/instructions for the students and how they interact. In other
word, what are the mechanics of the exercise? I was wondering if any of
you had experience developing
similar type role plays and could provide me some assistance.
I see us using industrial data from Keene, NH a small city in the heart
of New England.

Tony Sarkis

Dear Anthony,

interesting question about the eco-industrial park role play.

The critical questions in my view are what is the purpose of the
game/simulation and what context do you establish?

Say it is a policy initiative to set up such a Park where there are
already established companies (some of which might be able to fit together
and others that do not). And, in addition there are some gaps in the flow
of materials and energy that might be used to attract other companies in.
That would be very different than if the policy makers were designing a
park ab initio but say already were planning to build a CHP plant.

The first would be an exercise in defining what is there, identifying what
is missing and developing a method to structure collaboration and also
attract new park occupants.

This would require significant background detail about products/services
and processes. And provide an exercise in collaboration, where the
interests of the park might well deviate from the interests of the
existing park occupants.

The second might be a market development exercise for the planners to
attract occupants of a particular type.

There might also be other clear context and interest scenarios that would
frame the game and influnce its orientation.

Nigel Roome








> Greetings All,
>
> I am in the process of developing an eco-industrial park role play
> activity for my graduate students.
> I have come up with the following roles of policy makers, researchers,
> engineers, green chemists,
> business leaders, and environmental managers. I have begun to define
> these roles but was wondering
> if any of you had experience with similar type simulations for students.
> They do not have an engineering
> or chemical background necessarily. What , can,do they bring to the
> exercise if they are somewhat naive
> of the role and/or don't have the requisite expertise to understand what
> they
> should/would focus upon?
> Also, how would you see this exercise develop in regards to specific
> objectives/instructions for the students and how they interact. In other
> word, what are the mechanics of the exercise? I was wondering if any of
> you had experience developing
> similar type role plays and could provide me some assistance.
> I see us using industrial data from Keene, NH a small city in the heart
> of New England.
>
> Tony Sarkis
>
>



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Tony,

I think this would be a great exercise if you can get it working. I
have used a role playing exercise or two in my classes. The one I have
used most recently is actually from Mike Russo's book (Environmental
Management Readings and Cases) and is the Oil in the Ecuadorean
Rainforest case. The notes with this case essentially set up a
multiparty negotiation exercise with a variety of stakeholder. In your
situation, it may not be as pure a negotiation exercise, but some
negotiation, depending on how you frame the exercise will definitely be
required.

The nice thing about this exercise is that it includes a relatively good
set of notes and overview for each of the stakeholder groups identifying
their negotiation positions and with some history and background. I
only mention this as a structural issue where you should develop a
relatively rich scenario for each of the players with their objectives,
requirements, expertise, and other items, that will allow each of the
players something to use. Typically, students will then develop their
own personas and characteristics (maybe even using stereotypes and
biases). Stakeholder and multiparty literature and background may be
worthwhile.

You should also have a clear objective of the whole exercise in mind.
At what stage of the project life cycle process is the exercise, early
planning, design, implementation, improvement (maintenance)? Then the
roles may change over time. The issues will probably need to include
items such as economic, operational and technical feasibility. Project
management literature might be valuable from that perspective.

In addition, maybe you should look into some urban planning and
development literature and cases to determine how they have designed
communities in general and identify the differences between general
urban and industrial park planning. Clearly, managerial aspects will
come into play, but broader issues could play a predominant role. I am
not sure how much management students work with community and urban
planning type issues, but in my operations classes we do deal with
location analysis and planning.

Clearly, with enough thought there are many dimensions and a large
number of players, as Nigel pointed out as well.

Good luck. Hope these comments help.

-Joe S.



-----Original Message-----
From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
[mailto:ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Anthony M Sarkis
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:52 AM
To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Eco-Industrial Park Role Play

Greetings All,

I am in the process of developing an eco-industrial park role play
activity for my graduate students.
I have come up with the following roles of policy makers, researchers,
engineers, green chemists,
business leaders, and environmental managers. I have begun to define
these roles but was wondering
if any of you had experience with similar type simulations for students.

They do not have an engineering
or chemical background necessarily. What , can,do they bring to the
exercise if they are somewhat naive
of the role and/or don't have the requisite expertise to understand what

they
should/would focus upon?
Also, how would you see this exercise develop in regards to specific
objectives/instructions for the students and how they interact. In other
word, what are the mechanics of the exercise? I was wondering if any of
you had experience developing
similar type role plays and could provide me some assistance.
I see us using industrial data from Keene, NH a small city in the heart
of New England.

Tony Sarkis

Anthony M Sarkis wrote:

> Greetings All,
>
> I am in the process of developing an eco-industrial park role play
> activity for my graduate students.
> I have come up with the following roles of policy makers, researchers,
> engineers, green chemists,
> business leaders, and environmental managers. I have begun to define
> these roles but was wondering
> if any of you had experience with similar type simulations for
> students. They do not have an engineering
> or chemical background necessarily. What , can,do they bring to the
> exercise if they are somewhat naive
> of the role and/or don't have the requisite expertise to understand
> what they
> should/would focus upon?
> Also, how would you see this exercise develop in regards to specific
> objectives/instructions for the students and how they interact. In other
> word, what are the mechanics of the exercise? I was wondering if any
> of you had experience developing
> similar type role plays and could provide me some assistance.
> I see us using industrial data from Keene, NH a small city in the
> heart of New England.
>
> Tony Sarkis
>

Hi Tony

I think Joe has covered this excellently and I just wanted to add that
I've tried a similar type of exercise a few times with environmental
engineering students. I found it fell apart when roles and objectives were
not clearly defined for each type of stakeholder. It worked most
effectively when this was pre-determined and I asked them to take an
extreme stand on the chosen issue (we used the Kyoto Protocol). Once they
were all passionately opposed to one another, I then asked them to reach
an equitable resolution. It neatly represented various perspectives and
took them to the limits of what a stakeholder confrontation and management
scanario could look like.

Good luck!

Dayna

> Tony,
>
> I think this would be a great exercise if you can get it working. I
> have used a role playing exercise or two in my classes. The one I have
> used most recently is actually from Mike Russo's book (Environmental
> Management Readings and Cases) and is the Oil in the Ecuadorean
> Rainforest case. The notes with this case essentially set up a
> multiparty negotiation exercise with a variety of stakeholder. In your
> situation, it may not be as pure a negotiation exercise, but some
> negotiation, depending on how you frame the exercise will definitely be
> required.
>
> The nice thing about this exercise is that it includes a relatively good
> set of notes and overview for each of the stakeholder groups identifying
> their negotiation positions and with some history and background. I
> only mention this as a structural issue where you should develop a
> relatively rich scenario for each of the players with their objectives,
> requirements, expertise, and other items, that will allow each of the
> players something to use. Typically, students will then develop their
> own personas and characteristics (maybe even using stereotypes and
> biases). Stakeholder and multiparty literature and background may be
> worthwhile.
>
> You should also have a clear objective of the whole exercise in mind.
> At what stage of the project life cycle process is the exercise, early
> planning, design, implementation, improvement (maintenance)? Then the
> roles may change over time. The issues will probably need to include
> items such as economic, operational and technical feasibility. Project
> management literature might be valuable from that perspective.
>
> In addition, maybe you should look into some urban planning and
> development literature and cases to determine how they have designed
> communities in general and identify the differences between general
> urban and industrial park planning. Clearly, managerial aspects will
> come into play, but broader issues could play a predominant role. I am
> not sure how much management students work with community and urban
> planning type issues, but in my operations classes we do deal with
> location analysis and planning.
>
> Clearly, with enough thought there are many dimensions and a large
> number of players, as Nigel pointed out as well.
>
> Good luck. Hope these comments help.
>
> -Joe S.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
> [mailto:ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Anthony M Sarkis
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:52 AM
> To: ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: Eco-Industrial Park Role Play
>
> Greetings All,
>
> I am in the process of developing an eco-industrial park role play
> activity for my graduate students.
> I have come up with the following roles of policy makers, researchers,
> engineers, green chemists,
> business leaders, and environmental managers. I have begun to define
> these roles but was wondering
> if any of you had experience with similar type simulations for students.
>
> They do not have an engineering
> or chemical background necessarily. What , can,do they bring to the
> exercise if they are somewhat naive
> of the role and/or don't have the requisite expertise to understand what
>
> they
> should/would focus upon?
> Also, how would you see this exercise develop in regards to specific
> objectives/instructions for the students and how they interact. In other
> word, what are the mechanics of the exercise? I was wondering if any of
> you had experience developing
> similar type role plays and could provide me some assistance.
> I see us using industrial data from Keene, NH a small city in the heart
> of New England.
>
> Tony Sarkis
>


**** Please note that I am currently working at the University of Idaho
until May 2007. Please email me there (daynas@uidaho.edu) and update your
address book. Phone: +1 208 885 7006.

Dear Tony et al,

I just did a Multistakeholder Simulation on the role of salmon aquaculture
in British Columbia last week with my students of Environmental Politics
and Policy. The way I did it is - I assigned a few students to each group
and then advised them that they were a particular stakeholder. They were to
research the role of their constituency and the others. I did not indicate
that they were scientists or not, I left it to them to find the scientific
information. I myself am a chemical engineer, and my PhD training has been
in Resource Management and Environmental Studies, so I have gone from
engineering to social science/interdisciplinary studies. However, they are
political scientists in their vast majority. What they did, and I applaud
them for doing so, they did an extremely thorough research on the
scientific issues surrounding salmon aquaculture, even if they weren't
scientists. Thus, at the negotiation table, they were able to discuss the
technical aspects at the same time as the political and socio-economic
factors.

I would say from my very positive experience, trust your students. It is
amazing what they can and will do, particularly when their mark is at
stake. I just set a high bar and they did it.

Hope this helps, I'll be happy to answer more detailed questions if you need.

Best,
Raul

At 09:51 AM 10/17/2006 -0400, Anthony M Sarkis wrote:
>Greetings All,
>
>I am in the process of developing an eco-industrial park role play
>activity for my graduate students.
>I have come up with the following roles of policy makers, researchers,
>engineers, green chemists,
>business leaders, and environmental managers. I have begun to define these
>roles but was wondering
>if any of you had experience with similar type simulations for students.
>They do not have an engineering
>or chemical background necessarily. What , can,do they bring to the
>exercise if they are somewhat naive
>of the role and/or don't have the requisite expertise to understand what they
>should/would focus upon?
>Also, how would you see this exercise develop in regards to specific
>objectives/instructions for the students and how they interact. In other
>word, what are the mechanics of the exercise? I was wondering if any of
>you had experience developing
>similar type role plays and could provide me some assistance.
>I see us using industrial data from Keene, NH a small city in the heart of
>New England.
>
>Tony Sarkis
>
>
>