The new Catan game and the real-world issue it illuminates

At this time last year, Rewiring America founder Saul Griffith joined Aria and me on Possible to talk about the path to a clean energy future. I appreciate innovators like Saul who use their entrepreneurial skills to seek solutions to one of the greatest challenges of our time: climate change.?

Separately, it’s no secret that I love board games. I’ve talked about how games have influenced and inspired me, personally and in business. So I was doubly excited when I learned that another founder I admire—Catan creator Klaus Teuber, who passed away last year—had, before he died, teamed up with his sons to design a new game. The result is Catan — New Energies, a board game that aims to combine classic Catan elements with a 21st-century twist and themes of “strategy, sustainability, and social progress.”?

It transplants many elements of the original Catan, set on a fictional, uninhabited island in the year 900, to a modern, overpopulated land where energy is in short supply. In New Energies, players are tasked with deciding how to allocate sustainable energy and fossil fuels, weighing the costs and benefits of using, for example, a relatively cheap, non-renewable source of energy like coal, or alternative sources like wind.?

Due out this summer, New Energies is currently available for pre-order in the United States. (Note: I’ve got no affiliation with Catan; I’m just a long-time fan.)

The thoughtfulness appears to extend beyond New Energies’ premise and rules; the game’s physical materials—from the packaging to the board to the trademark resource cards—are made of sustainably-sourced paper and wood.?

I’ve long maintained that board games can help us hone our strategy and challenge us to think about how we navigate the world. And given there are big issues like climate change in the world right now that deserve our attention, it's great to see that the newest game coming from the Catan team gets us thinking about energy and how to allocate and conserve it.?

I hope a lot of people check out Catan — New Energies in the coming months, and that when you do, you’ll share your thoughts—around the game and the issues it gets you thinking more about. I plan to do the same.?