Helping a London borough turn climate ambition into local action

Climate change can often feel like a problem that is too large or too distant for individuals to influence.

While Islington Council was making significant commitments towards becoming a Net Zero borough, achieving that ambition would require participation from residents and businesses across the community.

The challenge was creating a tool that helped people understand their personal contribution to carbon emissions while also showing them practical steps they could take to reduce it.

Just as importantly, the experience needed to be quick, accessible, and easy to understand. If the process felt too complicated or time-consuming, users would simply abandon it before reaching the results.

Our early research focused on understanding why many carbon calculators struggle to maintain user engagement.

The answer was usually the same: too many questions, too much jargon, and too little relevance.

We designed the experience around simplicity. The calculator guided users through a short series of questions designed to gather only the information necessary to generate meaningful results.

Rather than presenting generic recommendations, the platform tailored suggested actions to each user's circumstances. For example, users who rented their homes would not be encouraged to install a heat pump, while homeowners might see that recommendation as a potential pledge.

This personalised approach helped ensure suggested actions felt achievable rather than theoretical.

Understanding a carbon footprint is only useful if it leads to action.

To support long-term engagement, we designed the platform around pledges rather than simply displaying results. Users could commit to actions relevant to their lifestyle and circumstances, creating a clearer pathway between awareness and behaviour change.

The platform also allowed users to return and review their pledges over time, update progress, and take on additional commitments as their circumstances changed.

Importantly, we wanted this process to feel frictionless. Rather than requiring users to create yet another username and password, we developed a lightweight account system based on unique identifiers that could be retrieved via email if needed.

This reduced barriers to participation while still allowing users to maintain ownership of their progress.

The platform was built using a Node.js backend with a Nuxt.js and Vue.js frontend.

This architecture allowed calculations and interactions to happen instantly within the browser, creating a fast and responsive experience regardless of whether users accessed the tool on desktop, tablet, or mobile devices.

The interface was intentionally familiar and easy to navigate, with each question presented individually to minimise cognitive load and help users focus on one decision at a time.

The result was a lightweight, accessible platform capable of supporting large-scale public engagement without unnecessary complexity.

The platform provided Islington Council with a practical way to engage residents and businesses in its climate strategy while generating valuable insights into local behaviours and priorities.

By combining personalised carbon calculations with tailored climate pledges, the tool helped users better understand their environmental impact and identify realistic actions they could take to reduce it.

Beyond individual behaviour change, the data generated through the platform created opportunities for the council to better understand local challenges, inform future policy decisions, and track progress towards its Net Zero ambitions.

The project demonstrated how digital products can help bridge the gap between ambitious climate policy and meaningful action at a local level.