At the 2023 Wisconsin Envirothon, teams of high school students were given a prompt for their problem-solving and presentation. The prompt was to propose an adaptation and mitigation strategy for a Wisconsin town facing the challenges of climate change. The theoretical town needed to balance an agricultural sector and world-class fishing industry that produced tourism as part of their response to increasing flood damage.
As a judge, I was able to work with students to increase their understanding of the triple bottom line, helping them to connect the dots between the economic, environmental, and social impacts of their proposed solutions. We talked about the need to study the environmental justice of their solutions, community buy-in and engagement, how they could quantify the environmental co-benefits of their proposals, and the economic benefits of protecting the natural resources in this imaginary town.
This was my first opportunity to work in an educational role, sharing the knowledge that I gained in my study of environmental economics and sustainability. It was an extremely rewarding experience and I hope to continue engaging with young minds for similar two-way knowledge transfers.