A founder has turned supply chain sustainability into a card game designed to stop theme park projects from collapsing under hidden risks. M. Verónica Celis Vergara, who built the European supply chain intelligence platform Valumia, has launched Paper Trail, a facilitated workshop for the attractions industry.
The sector faces mounting pressure from regulators, investors, and the public to account for environmental and social risks buried deep in supplier networks. Traditional training methods rarely capture how one bad decision cascades through an entire operation. Paper Trail replaces lecture-style learning with a simulation where actions produce immediate consequences.
Participants take on roles as investors, park operators, suppliers, and public voices. Their joint mission involves financing and developing a new amusement park while keeping the system stable. Players negotiate deals, react to external shocks, and juggle personal objectives against the project’s long-term survival. Structural decisions can strengthen the whole system. Meanwhile, tactical shortcuts may accelerate progress but quietly introduce vulnerabilities. Push fragility too high and the entire investment collapses.
The game mechanic reveals dependencies that presentations often miss. An investment choice affects procurement. Procurement introduces operational risk. Short-term gains spawn reputational or financial crises. As a result, collaboration emerges as a practical survival tool rather than a vague corporate value.
Paper Trail initially ran with students at Breda University of Applied Sciences, then evolved through sessions with startup founders, managers, and industry professionals. Each round sharpened the format around negotiation dynamics, hidden weaknesses, and how different roles respond to identical pressures. Attractions industry participants tested the workshop during IAAPA Sustainability Day in London on 21 September 2026, drawing strong praise and sparking debate about trade-offs and the fallout from rushed decisions.
The simulation draws on the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, particularly its Principal Adverse Impacts framework. However, the regulatory concepts appear as gameplay scenarios, not theory. Players must manage capital allocation, supplier relationships, operating costs, public scrutiny, and guest experience simultaneously.
Paper Trail now runs as a customized workshop led by Celis Vergara. Companies, leadership teams, procurement groups, sustainability departments, trade associations, and universities can book sessions. The game gives attractions businesses a way to experience how sustainability, supply chain risk, and cross-functional decisions collide. Complex concepts become choices teams can negotiate, test, and learn from together.
