With the world still in the midst of dealing with COVID-19, another crisis was pushed to the foreground again. On August 9, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their 6th report. This United Nations body was created to provide scientific assessments of climate change and for this report, a total of 234 scientists from 66 countries contributed, incorporating findings from more than 14,000 papers. The overall message was the most alarming yet, climate change is here and massive interventions are needed.

In the discussion of climate change, and the more broader topic of sustainability, data and visualization play a crucial role. The systems and data behind this are hugely complex, but to drive action we need to share understanding and insights beyond the experts.

Due to increasing urgency and insights, how data is used with sustainability topics has evolved. From the minimal scientific plots in The Limits of Growth by the Club of Rome to the complex interactive graphics that are part of news articles like in The New York Times. Who views and uses it is expanding. Where initially the focus was on scientists and experts, now broader audiences are targeted. And, the presentation has evolved from passive information to interactive and participatory.

Charts from The Limits of Growth report from 1972

5 Approaches

Based on our experience, we see 5 approaches that illustrate how Data Design for sustainability has evolved and will continue to evolve. These are in a way sequential, as the nature of the category and means to communicate evolved from scientific research to active public participation. But also with how the means have evolved from crude graphs in the Limits to Growth report, to fully interactive global wildlife spotting in Unseen Empire.

When thinking about data and design for sustainability, it is good to keep these approaches in mind.

1. Reflective — understanding the world

The first approach is reflective. The primary goal is to reflect on past data and models and predictions based on this data. Data and visualizations are applied to understand, explore and share insights with peers, for example through scientific papers and reports like the IPCC released. In the last decade we’ve gathered more data, we’re able to more analyses and improved our modelling to enable us to have more detailed insights on different levels and areas.

For these applications, the focus is on providing as much detail as possible. Not only in the data itself but also how it was acquired, assumptions and accuracy. The audiences are researchers and other domain experts who appreciate (and need) this level of detail.

A good example of this is the IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas. This technical tool provides different ways to explore and plot observed and projected climate data underlying the IPCC report at great depth.

Clockwise from top left: IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas, Allen Coral Atlas, Climate Spirals and the Half-Earth Project

• IPCC Interactive Atlas — Extensive tool to explore and compare the data sets and models underlying the 2021 report.
• Allen Coral Atlas — Tool to map and monitor the world’s coral reefs using satellite image data.
• Climate Spirals —Visualizations correlating rising temperatures with atmospheric CO2 concentration.
• Half-Earth Project — Data-driven decision-support tool for species conservation activities.

2. Aware — reaching a broad audience

To reach beyond the experts and raise awareness with a broader audience, the complex scientific stories need to be simplified. In comparison with the Reflective approach, this approach lays the focus on clear straightforward communication without compromise of details or accuracy.

The Hockey Stick graph is an example of this. The science behind it is complex, but the iconic graph has a very clear message that can be understood without a degree; the current increase in global mean temperature is unprecedented. Although not without controversies, the graph has stood the test of time since it was first published in 1999. Data has been refined and added, extending the length of the plotted timeline.

The global surface temperature (aka Hockey stick graph) as it is included in 2021 IPCC report

Similarly it helps to place abstract data in a familiar context for the viewer. For example National Geographic is making climate change tangible by showing how the climate in your city might be like current climates in other locations.

Clockwise from top left: CLEVER°FRANKE Weather Charts, Climate Stripes, National Geographic and Wired Magazine illustration by CLEVER°FRANKE

• Weather charts by CLEVER°FRANKE — Series of posters that provide new perspectives on weather data.
• Climate Stripes — Climate change captured in a single minimal visualization.
• National Geographic —Imagining the climate in your home city in 2070.
• Wired Magazine by CLEVER°FRANKE — Data illustration showing the carbon emission sources in Indianapolis.

3. Real-time — seeing change as it happens

With increased urgency, also came technology improvements, the creation of global data networks, data acquisition and analysis has sped up to become near real-time in some cases. Changes in polar ice caps can be tracked as they happen. Satellites are observing ocean temperatures and deforestation 24/7.

Compared to the Reflective and Aware approaches, this results in a better understanding of what is happening (which at times is shocking), and also enables new tools and ways to share insights. Still the challenge is that many changes (both good and bad) can happen on very different time scales, ranging from hours to centuries. So the design of these visualizations will have to take that into account.

An example of this is the Global Fishing Watch map, which shows the activity of fishing fleets as they move across the world’s oceans. The fact that the data is near real-time adds another layer of urgency.

Clockwise from top left: Deforestation monitor by CLEVER°FRANKE, Bloomberg Data Dash, Global Fishing Watch and Carbonmapper

• Satelligence by CLEVER°FRANKE — Using satellite imagery to track deforestation and other forest activity.
• Bloomberg Data Dash — Continuously updated climate change data dashboard.
• Global Fishing Watch — Platform monitoring fishing activity across the world.
• Carbonmapper — Monitoring emissions in real-time from satellite data.

4. Integral — sustainability becomes a feature

With pressure from customers, employees, shareholders and society, organizations can no longer ignore the topic of sustainability. While there are still ways to go for most organizations, some take a step beyond offsetting their impact and publishing reports, and make sustainability data an integral feature of their product and services. Data is presented in different ways, but the common goal is to support and promote more sustainable behavior and decisions.

Design for this needs to strike a tricky balance between brand, science and product design. But compared to the previous approaches there is an opportunity to affect change on a large scale.

Globalance World is an example from the world of finance. Whereas traditionally this industry is purely focused on profitability, Globalance places the future impact of investments front and center. Helping investors make more sustainable investment decisions.

Clockwise from top left: Globalance World by CLEVER°FRANKE, Oatly packaging, Organic Basics webshop and Google Maps directions

• Globalance World by CLEVER°FRANKE — Platform that helps make sustainable investment decisions based on economic, societal and environmental indicators.
• Oatly — Oatly dairy alternative packaging includes carbon footprint data.
• Organics Basics — Webshop with a low impact version that requires less data and energy.
• Google Maps — Google adds lower emission route suggestions to the Maps app.

5. Participatory — the audience as a partner

With common goals, a next logical approach is to have the audience participate and collaborate. We’re no longer passive observers but become providers of data, and even help analyze it. By doing this we become more committed and create new opportunities to accelerate research and change.

The gameplay of Unseen Empire centers around identifying wildlife on images from cameras placed in the forests of various south-east Asian countries. While initially the used images have already been seen by researchers, over time players can actually become the ones identifying the animals. This helps researchers process more images and accelerate research.

Clockwise from top left: Unseen Empire, Litterati, Climateprediction.net and 2050 Energy Calculator

• Unseen Empire by CLEVER°FRANKE — Mobile game where players can learn and collaborate on actual wildlife research data.
• Litterati — Crowd-sourced litter data platform for cities.
• Climateprediction.net — Global distributed computing project to improve climate models.
• 2050 Energy Calculator — Tool to explore and try models for the UK energy transition.

More examples

Because so many exciting things are happening in this domain, here are some other examples that we have come across, from all 5 approaches.

Clockwise from top left: Ecosia Search Engine, CoCo, Patch and OverstroomIk.nl

• Ecosia —Internet search engine that plants tree for searches done.
• CoGo — Personal carbon footprint tracker.
• Patch — API for carbon footprint calculation and offsetting.
• OverstroomIk.nl — Site to check flooding risk in your area and prepare for potential disasters.

Clockwise from top left: Global Forest Watch, Climate Action Tracker, Carbon Visuals and Resilience Atlas

• Climate Action Tracker — Up to date overview of country climate policies and actions.
• Carbon Visuals — Making data more tangible by placing it in the real world (here New York City’s daily carbon emissions).
• Resilience Atlas — Tools and stories to understand the impact of climate change on communities.
• Global Forest Watch —Track forest growth and loss across the world.

Recommendations

In a future article we’ll dive deeper into how to design to drive change on topics like sustainability, for now here are a couple of quick recommendations.

1. Know your audience — carefully consider the audience and the ‘approach’ you’re aiming for. Tailor to the level of understanding your audience has.

2. Simplify as much as you can — these are complex topics with many moving parts and uncertainties, but this can distract from the core message. So focus on that and then provide additional information for those who are interested.

3. Embrace the complexity — Contrary to the previous point, also don’t oversimplify. There are no simple answers and your audience is likely to know this. Hiding all the complexity can raise more questions and reduce trust. When information is presented and explained clearly, your audience will be able to understand more than you might think. And with that also appreciate the complexity of the topic.

4. Make it tangible — The global impact and long time frames makes it hard to appreciate the scale of these topics. This also goes for the effect any actions might have. Compared to the world, how much can I actually make a difference? So it is important to bring things back to a more human scale. What do values mean per person or per household? Or how big is the ice shelf compared to your home city? In reverse you can translate, otherwise seemingly small actions, to what would happen if everybody does this. What if everybody bikes to work once a week? This will help make data more meaningful and actions more impactful.

5. Polish your visuals — There is an abundance of content in our world, so you will need to grab people’s attention. Bring out the beauty in your data and put it in the spotlight. Putting thought into the design will show promise that your content is worth diving into.

In Closing

So, what’s next? What will be the next approaches that will come to existence? With the application of VR and AR, we imagine visualizations becoming even more immersive and interactive. This brings richer experiences and new ways to explore data. In combination with collaborative environments, it opens up more opportunities to explore data together and pool brainpower.

Whatever your data and story, with the right design, you might just help change the world.