Tracking Corporate Sustainability
XCELab | Xcel Energy | 2022
Challenge
The former sustainability data tracking and management process, which relied on manual entry and manual correction, was leading to gaps and inefficiencies in the legally-required reporting process. This was leading to confusion, at best, and fines and possible sanctions, at worst. The XCELab team was engaged to support our business partners in solving: How might we create a scalable, cost-efficient platform [of systems] to accurately track + report sustainability measures?
Download the full case study presentation here: Sustainability Tracking_Case Study
Phase One: Understanding the Current Process
I engaged in an eight-week user research approach to understand the current roles, teams, processes, and data streams involved in the sustainability tracking process at Xcel Energy
I completed a total of 28 internal employee interviews with both those responsible for contributing to the current process and those who would likely be the user of the new tracking platform.
After synthesizing the interview data, I hosted an online ideation session via Mural.co with a set of stakeholders from across the organization. During this session we:
Reviewed and discussed the research insights and initial opportunity areas
Evaluated and marked the up the documented sustainability tracking process map (see above in image slide show) in real-time, including identifying/validating pain points and adding steps
Prioritized the pain points and ideated short-term and long-term actions to improve the process and the user experience for the stakeholders involved (most of whom were present)
Outcomes
Accurate documentation of the current sustainability metric tracking process, including pain points and ownership
Identification of potential immediate-term opportunities to address major deficiencies that could lead to fines or sanctions
A deeper understanding of the current process, longer-term gaps, and desired end-state
Creation of a data glossary and data flow chart for the sustainability tracking process
A broader definition of sustainability to bring into the next round of ideation and requirements definition
Phase Two: Defining User + Platform Requirements
With a new lens on sustainability tracking - which included Environmental, Social and Governance metrics - my colleague and I designed a 2-day, in-person, requirements gathering session. The attendees included employees from across the enterprise including our corporate strategy office, energy plant operations (transmission), human resources and investor relations.
Activities included:
Outcomes
Created champions for new Sustainability definition and corporate strategy
Established ownership of data for disclosures (people, process, and technology) for each: “E,” “S,” and “G”
Outlined requirements and parameters around for a flexible, future-state sustainability tracking platform
Support for the launch of Sustainability as a Business strategy at Xcel Energy
Handed off to our digital strategy team - including interaction design and development- to refine, build and deploy the solution