The understanding of the way in which collective phenomena emerge from the interaction between individual behaviors, environment and institutions, can play a crucial role in supporting the design of more contextualized policies. An apparently effective policy can easily fail if policy makers do not consider the interplay between individual decision making and social aggregate dynamics. This paper presents an ongoing research exploiting an agent-based simulation model to explore the core dynamics of the Tragedy of the Commons (ToC), a social dilemma known for being behind a series of societal problems spanning from pollution to resource depletion and climate change. The goal is twofold: capture the basic processes through which the ToC emerges and evolves; explore in an artificial society the effects of different strategies aiming to contrast the phenomenon. Our attention is focused on the interplay between different factors proven to be involved in the genesis of this dilemma: the selfish rationality of human beings, the temporal dimension of individual choices and the potential impact of sanctions.