London is a city of great economic, social and cultural diversity but one which is a major consumer of energy.
Cimex develops London Climate Change microsites
20 December 2007
London is a city of great economic, social and cultural diversity but one which is a major consumer of energy. It faces the threat of climate change but also has the opportunity to be a leading innovator in its prevention.
Cimex under contract to the London Development Agency (LDA) developed two microsites to communicate London initiatives - which help consolidate London’s position as an international role model and innovator through its response to the threat of climate change.
The digital agency was commissioned to develop the two microsites for the LDA entitled Green Homes and Green Organisations. Green Homes (www.londonclimatechange.co.uk/greenhomes focuses on changes that can be made in the home by the average London resident.
The website for Green Organisations (www.londonclimatechange.co.uk/greenorganisations) targets large property owners, small, medium and large private organisations and public organisations.
The main objective of the microsites is to provide information, advice and active support to help London homemakers and business make positive low carbon changes to their homes and businesses, focusing on personal behaviours in order to lower their carbon footprint and reduce impact on the environment.
Innovative features include a carbon calculator for each site - a Building and Energy Saving Tool which assesses how ‘carbon aware’ a business is and How Green Am I? which is directed at homeowners and residents. Green Homes is linked to a Green Concierge Service for personalised hands-on service and advice on how to become greener; real life stories of successful ‘greener living‘ and an exciting streaming video series called ‘Energy Makeover TV‘. The Green Organisations site also presents information for businesses that may want to become one of the Green 500, London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s pioneering carbon management scheme for London business.
The microsites are part of the LDA’s work to implement the Climate Change Action Plan - which was originally launched by the Mayor in February 2007. The plan established aggressive targets for CO2 reduction in London including a range of initiatives to support London residents and business to do their bit.
For Cimex, who are becoming known for their work around sustainability, user involvement and testing was central to the development process. The agency employed a user centred design method throughout, involving participation by Londoners at every stage.
Key challenges to the project included developing content that would personally appeal to the public and cause a call to action. The varied target audience presented an interesting opportunity to create content and a design look and feel that would appeal to a wide range of lifestyles and incomes including a mix of businesses and business people from Landlords to large corporations.
Cimex has already started to get Londoners actively involved in reducing the amount of energy they consume through our successful work on Planet DIY Repairs http://www.london.gov.uk/diy. The agency also partnered with the Energy Saving Trust to develop e-learning for EST advisors on the topics of Micro generation and developed the innovative sustainability video portal Big Picture TV which streams free video clips of leading experts, thinkers and activists in environmental and social sustainability http://www.big-picture.tv.
They are currently working on a number of e-learning projects with LEAD, a global not-for-profit organisation whose shared mission is to inspire leadership for a sustainable world.