Overview
Team
Business analyst
UI/UX designer
QA engineer
Full-stack developer
Front-end developer
Solution
Web application
Country
Italy
Industry
Environmental consulting, Carbon accounting, Sustainability reporting, ESG
Services used
Discovery phase, UI/UX design, MVP development
Time
August, 2023 - ongoing
About the client
EcoSphera, an esteemed environmental consulting firm, offers superior services to companies and organizations striving to achieve and maintain exceptional management standards for environmental protection and workplace safety. By standing at the forefront of sustainable business transformation, EcoSphera possesses extensive knowledge in emerging technologies and the evolving demands faced by the firms they serve.Project idea
The EcoSphera team understands the pressing need for sustainable solutions in today's corporate landscape. As an environmental consultancy catering to companies of different sizes and fields, they have observed some significant gaps and challenges that hinder the net zero transition. Many companies still rely on manual data processing to collect their environmental metrics, primarily due to the lack of immediate regulatory pressures to adopt more advanced practices. While this approach may serve as a temporary measure, it is not a consistent or future-proof strategy for the long run. The forthcoming regulations will likely require mandatory reporting on sustainability data.
To lay a solid foundation for a smooth and hassle-free sustainable transformation, it is essential to track, process, and analyze carbon emissions data properly. In order to maintain a data-driven approach, EcoSphera has taken the initiative to develop a Corporate Sustainability Management System. This system automates scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions tracking, reporting, and calculations.
Their ESG software conception and ideas have garnered great interest from main clients, affirming a consensus on the high demand for such solutions across diverse industries and countries. The trend is crystal clear - now is the ideal time to anticipate a shift towards increased awareness and adoption of sustainable practices in the corporate landscape.
Together with EcoSphera, you can proactively address the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities presented by sustainable transformation. By embracing their custom carbon calculation tool, companies can streamline processes, ensure compliance with future regulations, and contribute to a greener and more prosperous future.
Story
While companies might be slowly embracing sustainability, it's clear that ESG considerations will become significant for all business sectors. Our client's SaaS solution idea emerged with the objective to ease major challenges:
- Transitioning from spreadsheets to a dedicated, centralized ESG data platform poses a significant challenge, demanding extensive coordination and management efforts from sustainability managers.
- A critical task for Sustainability Managers is pinpointing and managing all potential emission sources throughout a company’s operations.
- The collection of ESG data, both internally and externally, is demanding. The process is notably time-consuming, compounded by the high volume of data requests.
- For businesses, especially in the fast-moving consumer goods sector with complex supply chains, gathering ESG data from the supply chain and other Scope 3 areas is enormously challenging.
- Variability in ESG ratings, due to differing methodologies among ratings agencies, poses a concern. Despite these inconsistencies, organizations highly value ratings. However, a poor rating can detrimentally affect their reputation.
To mitigate risks and navigate through challenges, we opted for MVP development. This strategy allows our client to efficiently manage their budget, showcase their concept to potential clients, gather and analyze feedback, pinpoint and address issues promptly, and make necessary adjustments to prevent budget overruns.
Discovery Phase for EcoSphera: Challenges & Solutions
- Market research analysis: In close collaboration with our client, we dove into market research findings to gain deep insights.
- Core feature definition: Identified essential features of the product, laying the foundation for development.
- Business and technical challenge resolution: Tackled potential hurdles in the development journey, ensuring a smooth process.
- End-user and business objective insights: Delved into the needs and goals of the end users and aligned them with business objectives.
- Scope and methodology determination: Established the project's scope and the approach for achieving objectives.
- Prototype and documentation development: Built a prototype to visualize the concept, accompanied by detailed documentation.
This structured process ensures that our client can wisely allocate their budget, effectively present their concept, gather crucial feedback early on, and make timely adjustments to steer clear of financial wastes.
What our client says
Check out what our clients think of usAt our company, where we specialize in providing environmental consultancy services to firms, we recognize the growing significance of carbon accounting and sustainable digitalization. Many companies currently rely on manual data collection, as there are no immediate regulatory pressures driving them to adopt more advanced practices.
However, we understand that regulations will likely necessitate reporting on sustainability data in the future. To proactively address this, we've initiated the development of a Corporate Sustainability Management System. Teaming up with Apiko, we conducted a thorough Discovery process, leading to the creation of a beta version. Our goal is to present this solution to our clients and investors, showcasing its potential to enhance sustainability practices. Our roadmap involves progressing to the development of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and beyond.
Apiko is fully committed to our project on an emotional level, giving 100% at all times. Their technical expertise is truly exceptional. They not only excel in their role as contractors but genuinely care about the product and being an integral part of our team—something that's rare to find. What sets Apiko apart is their profound industry knowledge, particularly in sustainable digitalization. They proved themselves not just as technical partners but as true industry experts.
We found common ground easily, and their team often went beyond our expectations, presenting ideas and solutions that seemed to anticipate our thoughts. The Apiko team doesn't just create high-quality software; they craft solutions that not only meet but exceed the needs of our target audience. They have a knack for delivering software that resonates with and addresses the specific issues our audience faces, providing them with everything they need and a little extra.
The Discovery Phase for EcoSphera: Custom carbon calculation tool
- Develop a user-friendly questionnaire module for organizations to evaluate sustainability practices
- Offer templates or customizable questions for specific sustainability frameworks or standards
- Ensure users stay updated with key notifications, task reminders, and report statuses
- Set up alerts for crucial personnel like sustainability managers or department leads
- Create a centralized database for customer and stakeholder information
- Facilitate tracking interactions and managing communication efficiently
- Support segmentation for personalized engagement strategies
- Simplify gathering sustainability data from various sources
- Provide easy-to-use interfaces for data entry and monitoring
- Implement an intelligent system to automate recurring sustainability tasks
- Design an engaging dashboard showing real-time sustainability insights
- Allow customization to display key indicators, trends, and benchmarks
- Generate reports that analyze the collected data with metrics, charts, and graphs
- Enable report exportation in multiple formats for internal use or external sharing
