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The product

The Igloo space is a large, custom retrofitted room, capable of hosting workshop-sized groups of people at once. 

However, the journey that participants embark on begins outside the space, when they are taken into a separate room and shown a variety of everyday objects. They are then invited to reflect on the object in their hands, where it came from, the steps it took to get it to where it is, and what will happen to the object once it’s served its purpose. 

Once participants are in the space, they are shown an immersive film showing Paris in 2043, with sweltering heat, scarce medication, and civil unrest as a result of climate change. 

After this, EY Paris hosts its collaborative workshop, where C-Suite, middle management, and other organisational leaders analyse the issues climate change will cause to their companies and create an effective plan to create change. 

 

 

 

"Our idea is to create a shift in the mindset of people around three things. First thing is understanding that a company depends on its external environment. It is not the company on one side and the environment on the other side. The company is inside an economy that depends on the whole environment and the natural environment in particular. The second thing is how can we inspire and make people reflect. Finally, we want to be able to have concrete action we can start making tomorrow."

Valentin Worms

Director, EY Paris ImpACT Lab

The result

The space serves as a conduit for facilitating thoughtful and effective discussion. The content shown is unsettling and, at times, poignant, leading to highly engaged and focused participants. 

The immersive space has an effective synergy with the other elements of the workshop. The quiet reflection on everyday objects is a calmer experience, inviting quiet reflection, with the immersive space focusing minds in a more visceral manner. Internally, it is known as ‘the heartbeat’, because of its emotional impact. 

The film, which is based on deep-rooted scientific research using the latest projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), features actors playing the roles of business owners, government officials, and everyday people discussing climate change and finding ways to justify their own inaction, further grounding the film in reality and creating an emotional link to participants. 

The wraparound screen places you inside a central Parisian flat, with the surround sound simulating the hustle and bustle of a noisy and struggling city. In the corner, a baby cries due to fever, with medicine shortages meaning it is unable to get the help it needs. A mother and father frantically try to cool the flat and calm the baby, but to no avail. 

By viewing the film in an Igloo immersive space, participants can use the entirety of their mental bandwidth on the film, fully immersing themselves in the predicted reality of the future, as opposed to a two-dimensional screen, which does not create that barrier to the present.

Interestingly, the content is shot not using a 360 camera, but multiple two-dimensional viewpoints stitched together to immerse the viewer. This allows for more creativity in what is shown on the other screens. For example, actors' interviews are spoken on one side, with the other showing them in reflection at their own words.

The film ends with a final message of hope. The scene changes to a future Paris, where action was taken, change happened, and life continued to flourish. This air of optimism is then taken forward into the workshop, where participants undertake a series of tasks to help define the effect climate change will have on their own business, and draw up a robust plan of action to combat it.

   

  

"Because it is such a complex and multi-dimensional topic, we all see different things because of our culture, because of our level of understanding, our industry, our role, especially if you have a job that's not specifically related to this.

So you have to create the conditions for that transformation. You need to create a great narrative that is going to make all your employees proud to create that change. You have to showcase to everyone the benefits and onboard external stakeholders, partners, suppliers, distributors, and clients. This space contributes to that end."

Valentin Worms

Director, EY Paris ImpACT Lab

Going forward

The space at the time of writing is used for a single function, though there have been some discussions on future use cases for the environment. 

For example, having noted that slide decks, whilst good, can make it hard to project oneself into a case, EY has internally mooted ideas of other ways to use the immersive space to help understand and combat the challenges of climate change. 

These include immersive methods to help decipher some of the large-scale challenges that lie ahead, such as transforming to a circular economy, managing water, generating agriculture at scale, biodiversity impact, and more. 

Testimonials

"It does spark emotions. We know that a few emotions are very powerful; making people very angry is a powerful emotion. Making people a bit frustrated might be a powerful emotion. But we need to create hope as well. If you just create fear, fear is not a great emotion to push to action.

But if you combine fear with frustration, and then you show and prove that there are some ways forward, you combine that frustration with the tools that people are going to be able to use. That combination of emotion is very powerful to push into action."

Valentin Worms

Director, EY Paris ImpACT Lab

"The topic is not an easy topic, and is it's something that people tend to deny. We need them to feel different when they get out of there because they need to think about drastic changes in their companies.

So it needs to be a drastic effect on them, for them to be ready for that."

Charlotte Lopez

Marketing Coordinator, EY Paris ImpACT Lab

"When they [participants] leave the room, the reaction is way different. They're quieter, calmer; it's quite a strong transformation.

It's only a 25-minute film, but it's a very impactful film, and it's a good way to get them ready to take the next step."

Charlotte Lopez

Marketing Coordinator, EY Paris ImpACT Lab