How might we help companies get started in reducing their scope 3 emissions?
The Economist Group / 2022
Overview
Problem
Economist Impact entered its second year of a partnership with Infosys in 2022, its partner for The Sustainability Project. I was asked to concept, design & deliver a digital experience focusing on sustainability.
Initial research identified scope 3 emissions as a key area in need of attention in the industry and this was chosen as the focus.
Solution
The Value Chain Navigator (VCN) is a B2B data site that demystifies scope 3 emissions and helps businesses begin to engage with reducing them.
Outcome
My role: project lead
I led on the project from conception to delivery. The project was the first attempted by Economist Impact with UX design leading the process, rather than policy analysts.
Research
Exploratory
Research began to understand the scope of the scope 3 problem and to evaluate how sustainability professionals perceived the issue.
8 interviews were ran, alongside desk research and casual conversations at sustainability events.
The research uncovered 11 insights across 3 themes. A small selection of the outcome is below.
Competitor landscape
Competitor offerings were mapped, to look for opportunities to differentiate the experience.
Problem definition & audience
The research findings were distilled down to 4 key takeaways, which defined the problem.
01
Value chain emissions are complex. Just figuring out how to act (and how quickly) is challenging enough to stop action.
02
The environment is dynamic, with scrutiny and pressure from multiple sources (regulators, investors, media/public).
03
Benchmarking is impossible without huge investment. Figuring out who you should be learning from depends on many variables (including industry, country, size).
04
There is a strong need for better knowledge management, and a single source of truth (actionable, reliable intelligence).
Concept development
Ideation & refinement
A series of workshop generated ideas, the best of which were drafted into a 4 part proposal, each satisfying a core issue identified in the users.
Research
What is the market doing?
A large (n=1250) survey of companies and what they do in relation to scope 3 emissions.
The Innovation
Drawing the world's first line in the sand for what scope 3 engagement looks like.
Tracker
What are the regulations and innovations I need to know about?
A regularly updating tool, to help users navigate the constantly evolving world of scope 3 innovations and regulations.
The Innovation
Creating a single source of truth on the factors affecting the landscape.
Case studies
What are other people doing?
A series of success stories, highlighting what others have done to reduce their emissions, how they did it and the challenges they overcame.
The Innovation
Pulling together successful scope 3 examples for the first time.
Self assessment
Where do I set and what can I do next?
Using the survey data, users can take an assessment to benchmark against peers and find the next best things they should attempt to do.
The Innovation
Allowing people to understand
their scope 3 progress amongst
their peers.
Development
A series of wireframes were drafted to gain internal alignment.
Site wireframes
The user journey was laid out in rough, illustrating the content involved and how they addressed progressive user learning.
Design development & technical approach
UX / UI version 1
The screens were redrafted for user validation with 6 of the previous participants.
Phased technical approach
A phased approach was devised, to ensure progressive testing was possible and to divide the development work up.
UI version 2
The design were developed for user testing and client approval. Below are some animations created to communicate the proposed data exploration experience.
Tracker process and structure
A constantly updating web scraper presented content moderation challenges. I drafted a series of options that balanced technical feasibility with business processes to balance risks.
User testing
Final stage user testing with new participants to evaluate the design's success. Changes were made over two iteration breaks to resolve usability issues.
Social strategy
With the site's goal of fostering behaviour change, I pioneered a social retargeting strategy to increase the likelihood of success with our target audience.
Flat designs
Self Assessment
Scope 3 Tracker
Research Findings
Research Findings - interaction
