Introduction
EnergyCAP is a powerful portfolio level energy and utility bill management reporting tool that helps users across various industries streamline their energy and accounting workflows. With its accurate and reliable data, EnergyCAP has been a go-to tool for managing energy, utility, and resource consumption across entire portfolios.
In line with their commitment to innovation, EnergyCAP has decided to expand into the sustainability market, by leveraging their current capabilities and introducing new features catered to sustainability.
As a UX/UI designer, I was tasked with the excited challenge of researching sustainability, gathering insights from our existing clients, and designing new functionality to meet the evolving needs of our users. This case study details my process, insights, and the solutions we created to ensure EnergyCAP continues to lead in the energy management industry.
Research
Our research process for EnergyCAP’s expansion into the sustainability market involved several crucial steps:
We started by conducting a competitor analysis to identify successful players in the market and understand their offerings.
We delved into GHG Protocol, various ESG frameworks, and governmental reporting requirements to develop a deep understanding of the sustainability space.
We conducted eight interviews with a diverse range of EnergyCAP clients, which included bottling facilities, energy management and consulting firms, college universities, and a government transit agency.
Our findings revealed that:
Users wanted more control over their emissions factors.
They wanted access to a diverse range of factor libraries.
They also wanted to be able to create custom emissions factors.
Fleet emissions and REC procurement are becoming increasingly important
It is important to be able to allocate emissions to specific scope categories.
Scope 3 categories were becoming increasingly important for ESG frameworks and governmental reporting requirements.
After researching we understood metrics being used and how our users wanted their data to be organized and presented.
Additionally reporting on GHG emissions has become increasingly vital for companies as they report to multiple stakeholders.
Design
EnergyCAP maps energy, utility, and resource consumption based on utility bills. In short, a EnergyCAP user uploads a utility bill and assigns it to a meter in EnergyCAP that represents one of their physical meters. To help users, we designed functionality to select an emissions factor and scope category at the meter level, which would allow EnergyCAP to use their existing data and any new data to calculate emissions.
We started by creating user flows and working in Miro for low-fidelity wire-frames. We moved to Figma for high-fidelity and prototyping and designed or updated several new interfaces:
Default Settings for New Meters
In EnergyCAP each meter is assigned a commodity. We created a new dialogue that allows users to establish a default scope category and default emissions factor per commodity. This way any new meter a user creates will inherit this information.
With this we can take the amount of usage from their uploaded utility bill and generate emissions based on their selected factor and map it to their chosen scope category.
This allows us to create an automated process for generating emissions data based on an uploaded utility bill.
From this dialogue users can also learn about scope categories (another new dialogue previewed below) and update custom factors.
Scope Category Information
During our client interviews it become apparent that everyone is at different levels on their sustainability journey. We wanted to create an informational dialogue to help guide users on which scope category to select. It was important that we linked to The Greenhouse Gas Protocol to show users where we got our information and that our information aligns with accepted standards.
Meter Properties
The Default Settings for New Meters dialogue allows users to assign inheritable information for new meters. We still needed a way for users to edit their emissions per meter and after its initial creation. After all a user might have different emissions factors for a single commodity.
For example, if they have facilities at different states, their electricity provider may be different, or they might be receiving electricity through solar.
Linked Factors History
This dialogue allows users to see the details of the factor they selected for their meter. Typically factors update every few years but lately we’ve been seeing the time between updates shorten.
CarbonHub Tab
In EnergyCAP we provide different tabs which are essentially different ways to view data. We created a CarbonHub tab for users to see all their emissions data for the relevant building, organization or meter. Widgets shown are dependent on the hierarchy level.
We also provided an empty state for when users have not configured their emissions settings.
Custom Emissions Factors
Utilizing Excel spreadsheets a user can download this template and fill it out to update or provide new custom emissions factors for their database.
To limit scope we decided not to include other factor libraries (coming later).
If a user needed a specific factor from a particular library, they could find that information and upload it as a custom factor.
Creation and Updates to Widgets
EnergyCAP already had widgets that displayed utility data but not emissions data. A portion of this project was dedicated to creating variants of our widgets that displayed emissions data that our users wanted to see.
We used Maze as our tool for testing our designs. Discoverability of the new functionality was the primary feedback we received. We iterated on ways to increase discoverability, but couldn’t proceed due to scope.
Hand Off
After finalizing our designs we prepared all of the designs to be handed off to the developers. Below is a preview of how we approach that process.
We take all of our frames and note how they should behave and function. We detail everything in regards to functionality.
Results
The initial response to EnergyCAP’s expansion into the sustainability market was overwhelmingly positive, with both stakeholders and users expressing satisfaction with our efforts. Users, in particular, appreciated the ability to create their own emissions factors, freeing them from the limitations of government-provided factors, a feature that was especially useful for current EnergyCAP users who purchase solar or wind energy for their operations.
The success of this project has convinced EnergyCAP to invest further in the sustainability market, with plans to develop a stand-alone sustainability software that will be built on the research and findings from this project.
Reflection
Reflecting on this project, if scope were not a concern, I would have been interested in addressing discoverability in EnergyCAP. However, given the complexity and capabilities of the software, this would have been a major undertaking. Despite this challenge, I am proud of the progress we made in expanding EnergyCAP’s offerings to include sustainability capabilities.
One of the main challenges for me was learning about sustainability, as I had little prior knowledge about calculating emissions, GHG Protocol, or the importance of these concepts to companies. This project allowed me to expand my skillset and knowledge base.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I was tasked with researching, designing, and implementing new functionality for the company's expansion into the sustainability market.
This project involved conducting a competitor analysis, researching GHG Protocol and reporting requirements, interviewing users and industry experts, and designing new functionality to allow users to calculate their emissions and allocate them to specific scope categories.
The response to this initial step into the sustainability market was overwhelmingly positive, with EnergyCAP even deciding to invest further in sustainability by developing a stand-alone sustainability software. Despite challenges in learning about sustainability and addressing discoverability in the application, I am proud of the progress we made and the contribution we have made to EnergyCAP's growth in this important area.
Introduction
After implementing GHG emissions tracking in EnergyCAP’s UtilityManagement, it was decided to develop a stand-alone emissions tracking software. With the idea that utility bills uploaded in UtilityManagement would automatically record emissions data in CarbonHub.
As sustainability becomes a priority for businesses, EnergyCAP created a comprehensive solution that addresses the growing demand for emissions tracking.
Role: UI/UX Designer
Introduction
Import formats allows users to map columns of an Excel spreadsheets as a way to import bulk emissions records. Each informational field from an emissions record can be mapped to a column in spreadsheet.
Role: UI/UX Designer
