RIPPLES
Helping people contribute meaningfully to Climate solutions
As part of a fellowship at Climatebase, I worked on a capstone project to help people answer the question “what can I do to help stop climate change?”.
Role: Concept, Design, Naming + branding
Screenshots of the Ripples website
THE CHALLENGE
Do individual actions matter?
As more and more people are waking up to what is happening on our planet, a common question people ask is “what can I do to help stop climate change”. There are conflicting narratives around whether or not individual action can actually make a meaningful difference.
People are often told to reduce their carbon footprint by becoming vegan or flying less. What we realized is that these individual behavior changes won’t make a meaningful impact in time, especially considering they’re built on top of broken systems which make it difficult or sometimes even impossible for individuals to do the right thing.
This causes people lose hope and disengage from the problem entirely.
User flow chart for taking climate action
THE OPPORTUNITY
Help individuals change systems and inspire hope
We believe that while individual actions alone don’t make a meaningful impact, individuals are capable of changing systems around us, causing ripple effects that can move markets, change policies, and elect the right leaders.
When we show people how they as individuals can actually make a difference, we’re able to reengage people in the fight against climate change.
THE SOLUTION
A website that helps you find a personalized starting point to create systems changes
We created a website called Ripples, that helps people find a starting point on how they can make a meaningful contribution to climate solutions. Based on the Ikigai framework popularized in the climate space by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, people can select their skills, interests and a climate solution space, and the generator will produce an idea for how they could meaningfully create systemic change in that sector.
This focuses the user on a guided path, and streamlines the user experience to simplify the decsion making process.
Next steps
Coming out of the fellowship with tons of excitement around the idea, the team continues to meet to work on the building blocks of this website. We’re also reaching out to identify potential partners that can help amplify the message and help more people understand what they can do to help.