The Overview
About
Designing a multi-module enterprise platform that helps organisations measure, track, and act on their carbon emissions and ESG performance — from data discovery through to target setting and simulation.
COMPANY:
PwC
ROLE:
Senior UX Lead
SECTOR:
Enterprise
TIMELINE:
16 weeks
TOOLS:
Figma
The Challenge
Organisations needed a single platform to move from ESG reporting to ESG action
As ESG regulation and stakeholder pressure intensified globally, organisations were struggling to move beyond basic compliance reporting. Data was siloed across systems, carbon targets were set without actionable pathways, and sustainability teams had no way to simulate or prioritise initiatives.
PwC was engaged to design an ESG Insights Platform — a comprehensive enterprise tool that would take organisations from raw data ingestion all the way through to carbon target simulation. The platform needed to serve a wide range of users, from sustainability analysts uploading data to Chief Sustainability Officers making strategic decisions.
The business problem
Organisations lacked a unified view of their ESG data. Carbon emissions, energy use, and sustainability metrics lived in separate systems with no centralised way to report, analyse, or act on them.
The design challenge
Designing for 5 different user types — from data-focused auditors to executive decision-makers — each with very different needs, technical comfort levels, and goals within the same platform.
USERS
Designing for a multi-stakeholder enterprise audience
Sustainability Analyst
Uploads and integrates data, tracks metric accuracy, creates custom reports. Heaviest day-to-day user of the platform.
Business Function Leads
Explores initiative options and tracks the progress of implemented carbon reduction strategies at a business unit level.
Chief Risk Officer
Reviews ESG risk exposure, monitors transition risks, and tracks progress against regulatory requirements.
Chief Sustainability Officer
Sets carbon targets, explores reduction initiatives, communicates ESG performance to the board. Needs strategic-level views.
Chief Data Officer / Auditor
Ensures data quality, traces metrics from source to calculation, validates compliance with GHG protocol & NGER frameworks.
Suppliers
Uploads supply chain data required for scope 3 emissions calculation and sustainability reporting.
Platform Architecture and Design Process
A 5-module journey from data to decision
How I approached the design
The Design Work
Key choices and trade-offs
Nature photography as brand identity
I used aerial forest and nature photography as the platform's visual language — forests, roads through trees, green canopies — to ground the abstract concept of ESG data in tangible environmental impact. This created an immediate emotional connection between the data and what it represents.
Scope separation in charts
Early designs showed total emissions as one number. I pushed to separate Scope 1, 2, and 3 in the trajectory charts — making regulatory accountability clearer and enabling teams to identify which emissions category to prioritise for reduction.
Recommendations alongside data
Instead of just showing targets, I designed the ESG Target module to surface actionable recommendations alongside the chart — "You can lower your carbon footprint by 2.98 CO2 KTe by following these recommendations." This shifted the platform from reporting to decision support.
Journey-driven navigation
The left-rail navigation mirrors the ESG workflow — from Data Discovery at the top to Quality & Assurance at the bottom. New users can follow it sequentially; experienced users jump directly. This removed the need for onboarding tutorials.
Selected screens
SCREEN 1
Homepage — personalised dashboard
Personalised by user role, with 6 module cards giving equal visual weight and fast access to each capability. Designed to reduce cognitive load for new users while serving power users efficiently.
SCREEN 2
ESG Targets — emission trajectory
Scope 1, 2 and 3 cumulative emission trajectory chart with a 20-year horizon, paired with an AI-generated recommendation engine surfacing actionable reduction opportunities.
SCREEN 3
Data Discovery & Integration
Tabbed interface allowing sustainability analysts to discover existing data, integrate new sources, and manage pending integrations — designed to reduce the complexity of ESG data onboarding.
SCREEN 4
Sign-in flow — two-step authentication
A progressive two-step sign-in — email first, then password — with remembered session state reducing daily friction for returning users. The aerial forest photography reinforces the ESG / sustainability brand identity.
The Outcomes
Impact at a glance
5
Platform modules designed end-to-end
6
User types across the journey
4
Analytics maturity levels supported
GHG
Protocol & NGER framework aligned
What we delivered
01
Full platform UI designed
End-to-end UI/UX design across all 5 platform modules — Data Discovery, Quality & Assurance, My Reports, ESG Targets, and Let's Simulate — covering the complete user journey from data ingestion to strategic simulation.
02
Multi-persona experience unified
A single platform serving 5 distinct user types — from sustainability analysts to C-suite executives — each with different goals, without requiring separate interfaces or duplicated workflows.
03
Compliance-aligned reporting
Designed reporting flows aligned to GHG Protocol and NGER frameworks, enabling organisations to prepare compliance reports automatically at a monthly cadence with drill-down diagnostic capability.
04
From reporting to action
Shifted the platform beyond static ESG reporting into active decision support — with target-setting glidepaths, scenario simulation, and AI-surfaced recommendations that give sustainability teams a clear path to reduce emissions.
Skills Demonstrated
Enterprise UX design
User journey mapping
Compliance-aligned UX
Information architecture
ESG / sustainability domain
Data visualisation
Cross-functional collaboration
Multi-persona design
Visual design systems
