Climate Fresk Workshop 2025

by Kohwoon Shim (IB-1) and Wenwen Liu (IB-1)

On Saturday, 16 August, students from GESM were invited to the Climate Fresk Workshop held by the ISM Sustainability Council. Grades 11 and 12 participated in the workshop to further extend their understanding of climate change and sustainability.

The Climate Fresk is a nonprofit organization that establishes collaborative workshops to teach the principal science behind climate change and encourage people to take action. This time, they collaborated with local organizers, inviting us to join the workshop as members of PESA (Philippines Eco Schools Alliance), of which our school is currently a member alongside the International School Manila and The Beacon School.

In this event, we had the opportunity to hear from facilitators of Climate Fresk. Their presentation addressed the core reasons behind climate change and their connections. Moreover, as this workshop emphasized collaboration, between their presentations they prepared activities encouraging students to share their knowledge with each other. The main activity we did was categorizing and identifying the various causes and effects of climate-change-related topics using cards. Towards the end, each group’s table was full of cards. We drew arrows to show their connections, which at first were only one-way arrows, but the facilitators guided us to make feedback loops — cycles of events. Thus, even though each group had different arrangements of cards, we were all able to conclude that all the topics are intertwined with each other and that behind them all, there is human activity.

At the end of the program, we were able to hear about other activities related to sustainability, such as KULTIBADO, from Ms. Razel Suansing, a facilitator of Climate Fresk and currently serving as Chief Political Affairs Officer at the Philippine Senate. She further spoke about taking action, whether small or big, that we could do to improve sustainability in the Philippines. As a simple action, the members in the workshop all promised not to eat meat the next day — a meatless Sunday!

It was an eye-opening experience that not only encouraged us to reflect deeply on our everyday choices but also inspired us to recognize the urgent need for change and to take meaningful first steps toward living more consciously and embracing a sustainable lifestyle.