GreenShoes: Project Development Process

The problem:

• What: On a global scale, humanity shares many problems. We not only suffer together but we also feed the flames together. It sounds a bit dramatic, but these issues—otherwise known as global megatrends—build the foundation of this project synopsis: aging population, climate change, a growing technological divide, and urbanisation. These issues are massive.
• Who: Not to exaggerate, but the global megatrends are in fact global. Even if it doesn’t feel like one is being affected directly, there are still direct and indirect consequences of these issues. From here it’s a matter of selecting the problem and niching into an audience. I battled with this a lot due to heavy politicisation of these issues but eventually whittled it down to a subcategory of climate change; habitat destruction.
• When, Where, & Why: The destruction of habitats is commonly a result of human intervention in some capacity. It takes form in the expansion of our own habitats and need for resources. Alas, this too is a global constant. Humans will continue to populate, grow, and expand. It’s what we do and it’s nothing to take shame in. We’re animals, too. Even so, there are things we can do to ensure a more inclusive habitat for the very creatures we continue to boot out.

Identifying an Angle

To start, it’s good to identify a strong foundational pain point. In researching habitat destruction, I found that niching down further was called for. I was trying very hard to separate habitat destruction from its root category of climate change. They are not one and the same. In this process, I stumbled across a video discussing climate change and absolutely shredding humans; drumming up the shame factor, the blame, and the disappointment. It felt…bad. I didn’t like how personal the attack felt. Humans make silly decisions with negative impacts all the time. It’s in us to experiment and figure out what works…and what very much does not work. However, none of us want to be pinned for the consequences of our actions, especially when those consequences are on such a massive scale that no individual can be tacked down for it in the first place. This made me wonder if this was why so many people absolutely resent vegans. The loud ones that bring that community into a negative light are the same anti-human ones being nothing but negative Nancies and driving people away from alleged good that veganism does. This realisation of the amount shunning happening within the climate change community began to steer my direction. It needed to pro-animal and pro-people. This brings me to invasive species.

Invasive species are one of humanity’s gravest recurring mistakes. Whether it be the release of a pet into the wild or the intentional introduction of one species to counteract another, humans keep messing this up over and over again which leads to destruction of ecosystems everywhere. Mitigation efforts for many plant and animal species are ongoing in many countries with little to no results and little to no support. This is the issue I decided to tackle.

Therefore:
After some secondary research, I learned the parameters I needed to work within. My issue was invasive species control. My solution needed to scaleable, moveable, and empowering to people whilst focusing on protecting the environment.

How Might We statement:
Practice invasive species prevention, control, and awareness across varying ecosystems in a way that empowers individuals to play a part?

Survey Data:

A survey was needed at this point to aid in solution development. I was very unsure how to meet my own parameters in such a way that didn’t default to being a charity or invasive species control initiative. Even so, that’s where I started with my survey questions.

Invasive Species Control Survey (21 Responses)

1. How old are you?
   • 86% were 18–24 years old. The remainder were 25+
2. Where are you currently living?
   • About 50% were in Mexico. The other 50% were living in Texas.
3. How familiar are you with invasive species (plants and animals) local to your area?
   • 9% were familiar or very familiar. 24% were in the middle, and 66% were unfamiliar or not familiar at all.
4. How familiar are you with local environmental authorities?
   • 9% were very familiar with 6% being in the middle and 85% being unfamiliar.
5. How interested would you be in learning more about your local environment and ecosystems?
   • 62% were interested or very interested with the remainder being in the middle or uninterested.
6. What 3 words might you attribute to the phrase “invasive species”?
   • Most of the replies here were in this vein: “unwelcomed, accident, disruptive” but a one person wasn’t completely familiar with what an invasive species is, leading to this response: “Foreign, rare, special”
7. Have you ever done any environmental volunteer work in the past?
   • 52% had not, and 48% had.
8. If you have done environmental volunteer work, please briefly elaborate.
   • Only half of the survey takers answered this one, as indicated by the response to the previous question. Those that had either planted trees, cleaned up garbage, or worked with animals.
9. If given the opportunity to do volunteer work regarding invasive species control, how likely would you be to participate?
   • 33% would be unlikely to participate, 33% were unsure and 34% would be likely to.
10. What kind of volunteer work — regarding invasive species control — would you be most likely to partake in?
    • Lecture/information session: 52%
    • Event for species removal or addition: 47%
    • Charity event/fair: 47%
    • I don’t like volunteer work: 5%
    • Other: 10% (“raising awareness,” and “I believe the state/city entities should be responsible for the removal and control of the invasive species depending on the area, unless you own the land.”

Empathy Maps

Common Individual: Figgis

Thinks: “There’s a lot of this one plant, dang…I wonder why it’s everywhere”

Says: “Is it bad Is it good? Meh, what can I do? I’m just one person”

Feels: Pretty uncertain about the plant and hopeful that it’s helpful though he loses interest pretty quickly when the tiniest inkling of not being able to help sets in.

Does: Nothing. He goes about his day and lets the invasive plant go about its day.

Environmental Authority Figure: Anne

• Thinks: “There’s a lot of this animal around. Holy cow it’s running amok and eating all of the food that this other animal needs”
• Says: “I need to do something to control this invasion”
• Feels: Passionate about helping and concerned for the ecosystem that this animal has invaded.
• Does: Her Job.

Invasive Animal: Zebra Mussel

Thinks: “This marimo moss is great. I love being invisible to the human eye and hitching a ride on this fuzzy and protective plant.”

Says: “I think I’ll reproduce like crazy because there’s no predators around.”

Feels: Awesome, well fed, and doesn’t care that it ended up some random person’s aquarium.

Does: Reproduces and ends up clogging pipes as the thousands of babies reach adulthood then ends up invading local water sources because some babies got washed into them through the sewer system.

Personas

Figgis Audsley

• Age: 21
• Caucasian
• Male
• Career: Donut shop owner
• Loves: The aquarium hobby, miniature phone books, and lizards
• Hates: Litterbugs, regular sized phone books, and cats
• Personality: Figgis is the type of person that loves to learn and help when he can, but too often he’s faced with the world’s recent passion for doomification; the practice of spreading the ideas of death and destruction whilst simultaneously eliminating all hope and goodness from the equation. He feels like he can help when the problem is bite-sized, but larger scale things he tends to avoid.
• His experience: Lately, Figgis has been hearing a lot about invasive Zebra Mussels in Medina Lake, which is a common place he goes to swim because it’s near his house. Apparently, the species hitched a ride on aquarium marimo moss balls that were shipped from Asia, but went entirely unnoticed until someone working at a pet store found a more developed mussel inside one of the moss balls. This spelled bad news. Zebra mussels are invasive, nearly microscopic as babies, and no one knows which brand of moss they hitched a ride on. All over YouTube, Figgis heard aquarium keeper after aquarium keeper deeply emphasising the need for everyone that has purchased moss balls within the last 6 months to remove them from their aquarium, let them dry out, burn them and then to do a full deep clean of the aquarium itself. It was a lot, but Figgis felt like he had to help so he did it all, but part of him still felt like it wasn’t enough. At this point, the zebra mussels had invaded his local lake and were causing problems for the ecosystem within it…Even though people were being fined for zebra mussels sticking to their boats, there wasn’t much being done and he felt helpless…and eventually, was forced to stop caring. Why put time and energy into something with no light at the end?

Anne Noying

• Age: 32
• African American
• Female
• Career: Zoologist
• Loves: Rattling off animal facts, helping the environment, and her job as a park ranger
• Hates: Clueless people, PETA, and surprise environmental disturbances.
• Her experience: Recently, the spotted lantern fly has become a serious nuisance to the East Coast. People were pretty hesitant at first to kill those beautiful flies until they realised the havoc they wrought on trees; essentially draining the life force from them. Anne was a part of the team leading the effort to find a solution that would rip the invasive status from their tiny, fibrous, non-hands. She came up with the idea of having middle school and high school kids compete to kill the most lantern flies, and the best method would win an award and become the widely accepted method for taking that species out. She got so much joy from giving young people the power to help their community and could only wish there were more events or opportunities like that of the lantern fly contest to generate interest in zoology and environmental protection. She felt her passion was shared and validated by a younger audience which only made her more passionate for her work.

Solution Development

Throughout my process, I used a lot of ChatGPT for word listing and optimisation of content; however, upon reaching the solution development phase I realised I had nothing and was going to need more help than basic commands such as “take this information and write a paragraph on it” or “write me a word list with these 5 categories”. So, I started feeding the language model more info. I gave it my parameters, goals, and the problem then asked for a list of possible solutions for the problem. It responded with a lot of terrible, half-baked ideas with “environmentally friendly” slapped across each one.

This is the list:

1. Invasive Species Art Installations: Combine the creation of interactive art installations with educational information about invasive species. Use art to convey the message and educate the community on the importance of control efforts.
2. Eco-Friendly Escape Room with Invasive Species Theme: Design an escape room that incorporates invasive species challenges, where participants must solve puzzles related to identifying and controlling invasive species to “escape.”
3. Biodegradable Invasive Species Sculptures at Community Workdays: Incorporate biodegradable sculptures into community workdays focused on invasive species removal. These sculptures can serve as visual reminders of the mission.
4. Wildlife Camouflage Workshops in Invasive Species Control Training: Include wildlife camouflage workshops as part of invasive species control training sessions to help volunteers understand how native species adapt to their environments.
5. Invasive Species Music Jam at Post-Work Event: Host an invasive species music jam as a social event after a day of invasive species control work, allowing participants to relax and bond over music.
6. Eco-Friendly Farm-to-Table Dinners with Invasive Species Talks: Organize farm-to-table dinners where participants enjoy locally sourced food while listening to talks about invasive species and their impact on agriculture.
7. Geocaching for Conservation with Invasive Species Education: Integrate geocaching challenges into invasive species education programs, so participants can learn about local ecosystems while participating in the search for hidden caches.
8. Eco-Scavenger Hunts for Invasive Species Identification: Combine eco-scavenger hunts with the task of identifying and reporting invasive species, turning the activity into a proactive effort to document and control invasives.
9. Invasive Species Storytime for Kids at Family-Focused Events: Include storytime sessions for children during family-focused invasive species control events, educating kids and their parents about the issue in a family-friendly context.
10. Environmental Escape Challenges at Invasive Species Awareness Days: Set up environmental escape challenges as part of invasive species awareness events, encouraging participants to engage with educational challenges.

Obviously, none of these work by themselves. The scavenger hunt sounded interesting, as did the environmental escape challenge (whatever that would entail). Even so, nothing worked by itself, and why would it? I failed to feed the AI enough information at this stage and only asked for possible solutions with no added requirements (such as measurability and impact). I was at a loss for a day or two at this point until I stumbled across a youtube video. This project was being developed back in October of 2023. A creator I watch frequently had dropped a new video titled “I Forced my Family to Solve Another Fake Murder”. It was a silly murder mystery game that had absolutely nothing to do with environmental protection, but it begged the question: what if it had everything to do with the environment?

GreenShoes

This solution revolves around the base concept of classic murder mystery role plays; however, instead of solving a murder, participants are set to determine the cause of an invasive species in their local area. Character roles (the research team) will be played by those hired by GreenShoes and the participants will be put on investigation teams. The event itself will take place in various locations, each one chosen dependent upon whether or not an invasive species has taken root there as well as the location’s capacity to hold an event. Within the location will be four or five places for teams to cycle through. The participants can interview the researchers, look for clues, and learn interesting things about the ecosystem within the event’s location. Once each team has had their opportunity to investigate each key place, it’ll be time for them to huddle up, develop their hypothesis based on the gathered evidence, then place their guess as to whodunnit.

Action Map

Action 1: Develop an understanding of the local ecosystem, native species, and the invaders.
• Practice Activity A: Investigate a series of places for clues. Some of the clues may be pamphlets or sheets of “research” in which the participant may read an interesting fact about the native and invasive species. Other clues may be more plot-driven and less factually informative, like dropped items.
—Essential Info: Relevant facts regarding native and invasive species or the ecosystem as a whole and what needs to be done in order to maintain it.
• Practice Activity B: Apply information gained from clues in order to create a hypothesis. E.g.: Connecting a type of a footprint to a local animal to determine where it went and/or why.
—Essential Info: Relevant facts regarding native and invasive species or the ecosystem as whole and information regarding plot progression.

Action 2: Educate on the impacts of invasive species on biodiversity, local ecosystems, and the economy.
• Practice Activity A: Investigate a location in which the invasive species had a major impact on a local person or persons (all situations will be fabricated and played by actors).
—Essential info: The negative and rippling impact an invasive plant or animal can directly have on people.

Action 3: Participate in current efforts to mitigate and control the spread of invasive species.
• Practice Activity A: Inform about current efforts and present the call to action to donate or volunteer.
—Essential Info: The existing efforts for invasive mitigation and how people can help push those efforts further.

Storyboard

Introduction

1. People arrive at event location. There’s free snacks sourced from a local vendor who places an emphasis on being environmentally friendly.
2. The team hosting each has a role to play as potential suspects. Everyone else is labeled as a camper (not a suspect) and given a cabin name so they know which group to be in
3. At the start time, the event host gathers everyone to explain the story and the game. There’s a blood curdling scream from person with crazy hair and a lab coat. “Oh no! There’s been an invasion!” She dramatically raises a clump of zebra mussels into the air. “Who could have done this?!”
4. The group, attention now gathered around the crazy marine biologist, takes a listen as gives an introductory spiel. She explains that zebra mussels have taken over the lake and divides the campers by cabin to help split up the investigation. Each group is given a location to investigate and each location has a motivated suspect to interview:

Locations

The docks

1. Dr. Olivia Ludwigia, Marine Biologist & head researcher
2. Dr. Clarence Shell, the assistant researcher
3. Emma Duckweed, the intern

The fishing spot

1. Max Fisher, a fisherman with a resentment for boats

The cabin

1. Claire Waters, a single mother of two kids and a recently dead pet fish

The Ranger Station

1. Alex Woods, a park ranger who’s pretty clumsy and new to the job

Activities

1. Participants find clues and interview the different suspects to get information about the invasion.
2. Each suspect has their own motive, whether on purpose or on accident.
3. Each area introduces information about the invasive species, the harm it can do, and how to control it
4. When every group has cycled through the different locations, they all meet back up to discuss the culprit.
5. Each group submits an answer, and when everyone has submitted their guess, the real culprit is finally revealed!
6. After the climax of the event, there’s discussion of charities, organisations, and sources of information for people to help contribute to the control of the invasive invaders