Carbon reduction simulation: cut emissions 30% in three years
A promise to investors, a retailer with a scorecard, a budget that never stretches far enough and a carbon levy that keeps rising. Build the plan before the board asks for one.
- Seven levers on a live abatement cost curve, plus offsets
- Some levers take a year to bite: commit early or miss the target
- Costs are estimates until a lever has run for a year
- End with the claim: verified cut, net zero pledge or carbon neutral
Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first: no sign-up, about five minutes.
What is a good simulation for learning how a company plans its emissions cuts?
Carbon Budget is a 20-minute Bodhih Arena simulation in which you must cut a manufacturer’s emissions 30% in three years on a fixed yearly budget. You commit to seven levers on an abatement cost curve, buy offsets if you choose, face a rising carbon levy and finally decide what the company claims.
What is Carbon Budget?
Carbon Budget is a single-player sustainability simulation from Bodhih Arena. You are Head of Sustainability at an invented maker of cleaning products, Tidewell Home, which emitted 120,000 tonnes of CO2e last year. The board has promised a 30% cut in three years, and the biggest retailer checks verified cuts. You commit money to levers whose true costs, supplier uptake and customer reactions are hidden, then write the annual report claim. It teaches the marginal abatement cost curve.
Carbon Budget at a glance
| Format | Micro-sim, single player |
|---|---|
| Length | About 20 minutes per play |
| Players | One person; every play is a new seeded scenario |
| Devices | Any modern browser on a laptop, tablet or phone |
| Scoring | Scored on the server out of 100, with sub-scores and a debrief |
| Credential | Open Badges 3.0 micro-sim credential at a score of 80 or more, with a public verification page |
| Competencies | Planning and Prioritisation (SPN.5.1), Commercial Acumen (SPN.4.5), Systems Thinking (SPN.4.4), Stakeholder Management (SPN.2.2) |
| LMS | LTI 1.3 launch from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L, with grade passback; usable as a Bodhih pathway stage |
| Price for one person | $12 |
| Price per seat | $12 per seat, volume pricing by seat count |
Targets are easy to announce. Cutting real tonnes on a real budget is not.
The target was set before the plan
Boards commit to a percentage cut, then sustainability teams discover that half the emissions sit with suppliers, trucks and packaging they do not control.
Every estimate is wrong, and you only find out later
A lever that looked cheap on a consultant’s slide turns out dear, and the one everyone ignored saves money. Plans rarely adapt fast enough.
Offsets look like a shortcut until someone checks
Buying credits is quick, but retailers, investors and watchdogs increasingly ask what was actually cut. Weak credits can turn a claim into a headline.
Here is the situation you walk into
You are Head of Sustainability at Tidewell Home, a maker of household cleaning products. Last year it emitted 120,000 tonnes of CO2e: half from its own fuel and power, half from trucks, packaging and suppliers. The business is growing about 2% a year, so standing still means emissions rise.
The board has promised a 30% cut in three years. Kestrel Stores, 35% of your sales, scores suppliers on verified cuts: it wants 15% by the end of year 2 and 30% by year 3, and offsets do not count. The board gives you a fixed yearly budget for climate measures; overspend and next year shrinks.
Each year you commit shares of seven levers, from factory efficiency to a renewable power contract, a supplier programme and a rebuild of the mixing lines. A carbon levy on your own fuel and power starts in year 2, and its level is only announced year by year. After year 3, you decide what Tidewell says in its annual report.
4 decisions, one debrief
- STEP 1
Year 1: plan
Commit each lever in 25% steps within your budget: energy efficiency, renewable power, logistics, lighter bottles, a supplier programme, concentrated refills and a low-temperature process. Add offsets if you wish.
- STEP 2
Year 2: learn and shift
Real costs appear for levers that have run. Customers react to new packaging and refills. The levy arrives. You cannot un-commit, but you can add to what is proving cheap.
- STEP 3
Year 3: close the gap
Slow levers committed late deliver nothing inside the window. Check the retailer’s scorecard, your budget and the levy, and decide how to finish.
- STEP 4
Annual report: make the claim
Claim carbon neutral, report a verified cut with offsets listed separately, add a net zero pledge with a plan, or say nothing. A neutral claim built on offsets may draw a watchdog report.
Who Carbon Budget is for
- Sustainability and ESG leads. A fast way to show finance, operations and procurement colleagues why sequencing, budgets and claims matter as much as the target.
- Operations, procurement and finance managers. The people who own most of the levers: energy, logistics, suppliers and capital spending. Practise trading tonnes against cost.
- Leadership and strategy teams. Understand what a public climate commitment means for budgets, customers and credibility before signing one.
- Business and environmental studies students. Puts the abatement cost curve, carbon pricing and the offsets debate into a short, scored decision exercise.
Who should skip it
It does not calculate your own company’s footprint or replace a carbon accounting tool; Tidewell and every number in it are invented for learning.
What you can do after Carbon Budget
You will be able to read a cost curve, sequence a plan over several years and make a climate claim you can stand behind.
Use an abatement cost curve
Take the cheapest tonnes first, including the ones that save money, and know when the dearer end of the curve starts to pay.
Sequence slow and fast levers
Commit early to levers that take a year to deliver, then top up with quick ones as true costs and customer reactions appear.
Update a plan when estimates prove wrong
Shift money towards what proves cheap and stop adding to what proves dear, within a budget that punishes overspending.
Read a carbon price into decisions
See how a levy on your own fuel and power changes which levers pay, and why its uncertain path matters.
Make a credible claim
Report verified cuts first and list offsets separately, and pledge only what your track record supports.
Learning goals
- Use an abatement cost curve: the cheapest tonnes first, within a budget
- Commit early to the levers that take time, and shift as true costs appear
- Make a climate claim you can prove: cuts first, offsets reported separately
Skills practised: Strategic thinking over a multi-year horizon, Decision making under uncertainty, Budgeting and cost per tonne reasoning, Sustainability strategy, Supplier and value-chain thinking, Avoiding greenwashing, Stakeholder communication.
Competencies scored
Sub-scores map to the open Bodhih Competency Spine, so results sit beside your other learning records.
What the debrief shows
- What happened: your emissions path against the 30% target, tonnes cut, offsets bought, net cost per tonne after the levy and customers kept.
- The reveal: the true cost of every lever, cheapest first, supplier uptake, customer reactions, the levy path and whether the offset project was over-credited.
- Why: the logic of the cost curve, timing of slow levers and why offsets are not cuts, plus what strong players do.
- Four sub-scores mapped to Competency Spine skills and the key concept: the marginal abatement cost curve.
Marginal abatement cost curve
A chart of the ways to cut emissions, each drawn as a bar: its width is the tonnes it removes, its height is the cost per tonne. Read it left to right to find the cheapest route to a target, and compare it with the carbon price to see what pays.
Use Carbon Budget with a team
Seats are $12 each. Buy up to 25 seats online and assign them from your company admin; above that, or for a facilitated programme or an institution licence, request a quote and we activate your seats after payment.
Cross-functional climate workshop
Have finance, operations, procurement and marketing play, then compare plans. Each function sees the levers it owns differently.
Before a target is set or announced
Ask the leadership team to play it so the target discussion starts with a shared sense of cost, timing and claim risk.
Onboarding for sustainability teams
A short, concrete introduction to cost curves, carbon pricing and claims for new joiners or graduate programmes.
A pathway or course stage
Add it to a Bodhih learning pathway or launch it from your LMS through LTI 1.3, with the score passed back.
Volume pricing
| Seats | Per seat | How to buy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12 | Online |
| 2 to 10 | $10.80 | Online |
| 11 to 50 | $9.60 | Online up to 25, then quote |
| 51+ | $8.40 | Quote |
Carbon Budget compared with a case study or slide-based course
| Compared on | A case study or slide-based course | Carbon Budget |
|---|---|---|
| The cost curve | A static chart on a slide | A live curve you commit money against, which changes as true costs appear |
| Time | One decision, frozen in time | Three years of decisions, with levers that take a year to deliver |
| Uncertainty | All numbers given | True costs, supplier uptake, customer reactions and the levy path are hidden |
| Claims and offsets | Discussed in principle | You write the claim, and an offset-based claim may be challenged by a watchdog |
| Practice | Read once | A new seeded scenario every play |
| Proof of learning | A completion record | Scored sub-skills and a credential at 80 or more |
What to pair with Carbon Budget
The Purchasing and Vendor Management System
Half of Tidewell’s emissions sat with suppliers; this kit gives you the supplier workbook and letters to run a real supplier programme.
See the kit →Pro KitThe Annual Budget and Variance Kit
For the budgeting side of a climate plan: committing spend, tracking variance and explaining overruns to the board.
See the kit →Pro KitSpreadsheet Superpowers
Build your own cost-per-tonne comparison and dashboard with confidence once you have used one in the simulation.
See the kit →AssessAll assessmentStakeholder Management and Influence (AssessAll)
Climate plans live or die on influence over people you do not control: suppliers, finance and the board.
Take the assessment →Bodhih TrainingCorporate training by Bodhih Training
Run Carbon Budget inside a facilitated workshop for your leadership or operations teams, in person or live online.
Talk to Bodhih Training →Related simulations
How much does Carbon Budget cost for one person?
You can buy Carbon Budget online for $12 for your own Bodhih account. Every simulation is sold separately. Try the free 3-round Price War first if you want to see how Bodhih Arena plays.
What is the price for a team or company?
Seats cost $12 each, with volume tiers by seat count. Buy up to 25 seats online; for more seats, a facilitated workshop or an institution licence, request a quote. Payment is offline and we activate your seats.
How long does it take?
About 20 minutes: three yearly plans and the annual report decision, followed by the debrief.
Do I need to be a sustainability expert?
No. Every lever, the levy and the retailer scorecard are explained on screen. Specialists will find the trade-offs realistic; newcomers learn the core ideas by using them.
What do I get?
Access to the simulation, a server-scored result with four sub-scores, a debrief with the reveal of all hidden numbers, what strong players do, and one key concept explained in plain words.
Can I replay it?
Yes. Every play is a new seeded scenario: lever costs, supplier uptake, customer reactions, the levy path and the quality of the offset project all change, so a second plan must be built on evidence, not memory.
Is there a credential?
Yes. A score of 80 or more earns an Open Badges 3.0 micro-sim credential with a public verification page and an Add to LinkedIn button.
Can we launch it from Moodle, Canvas or another LMS?
Yes. Bodhih Arena works as an LTI 1.3 tool with Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard and D2L Brightspace, including grade passback to the gradebook.
Does it use real emissions factors or real companies?
No. Tidewell Home, Kestrel Stores and every figure are invented so the exercise teaches the reasoning without pretending to be a carbon accounting tool.
How is it different from a sustainability case study?
A case study shows one company’s choices after the fact. Here you commit the budget yourself, discover true costs as you go, and then live with the claim you make.
Devices, data and refunds?
It runs in a web browser on a laptop, desktop or tablet, with nothing to install. Your results are stored on your Bodhih account, as explained at bodhih.org/privacy. Refund terms are at bodhih.org/refunds.
Cheapest tonnes first, slow levers early, claims you can prove
Three years, seven levers and one annual report. Plan your 30% before your next sustainability review, and walk in with a cost curve you have actually used.
Want a feel for Arena first? Play the free 3-round Price War.
- Play it as often as you like for 12 months: every play is a new scenario
- A debrief after each play: what happened, why, and what strong players do
- A verifiable credential when you score 80 or more
- Scored on the server, mapped to the Bodhih Competency Spine
Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first, no sign-up.
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