Reporting on the State of Campus Sustainability

Ever Wondered How Green Your School Is?

Perhaps you have, and perhaps you haven’t, but you’ll likely agree that such concerns are becoming increasingly relevant. Mark Orlowski and his colleagues at The Sustainable Endowments Institute (SEI) have invested considerably in examining just how sustainable universities and colleges in North America are. In 2007, they came to smashLAB looking to extend their influence and simplify workflow.

The hope was to take their (then printed) sustainability report card to the web to extend its usefulness and reach. This new property would need to be framed in a clear method that would make multiple years of data easily accessible—and comprehensible—to site visitors. They also felt a deep need to be transparent with regards to how their grading system works, in order to continue to reinforce the credibility and value of their findings.

In spite of funding from groups including the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, The Green Report Card remains a grassroots effort. Therefore, finding expedient methods of data collection were a key concern. SEI needed to find a way to use the web to streamline data collection for the report.

Information Architecture is Like a Puzzle

It would be nice to say that after a decade of building websites, a project like this would be a walk in the park. Unfortunately, that is rarely ever the case. To make the system workable online, our team needed to draw out enough wireframes and structural documents to drive one rather “bonkers.”

Part of this relates to the sheer amount of data needing to be showcased and compared, coupled with the application components of the website. Nevertheless, in working closely with SEI to accurately translate their report card to the web, the massive amount of data was made easier to browse, examine, and compare. This iterative design process worked out on an incredibly aggressive timeline of under 3 months.

Shaping the Brand and Technology

smashLAB assisted SEI with suggestions on how to frame the organization (or their brand), coupled with the site’s concept and visual design. We also provided complete development of the front and back-end of the property and all of the associated functionality. The final product is a fully content managed property that integrates powerful filtering, sorting, and compare tools, as well as automated grade calculation.

Throughout the site a great deal of weight is lent to educating visitors on the methods SEI uses to compute the grades. We also relied on the reputation of SEI’s key backing organizations in order to underscore the institute’s credibility.

Sustainability Data Proves Compelling

SEI has successfully transitioned their printed resource to the web, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The site outfits visitors with tools that facilitate easy “slicing and dicing” of research findings while a comparison tool allows for examination of how selected schools stack up against one another. The carefully executed information design process results in a user experience that leaves website visitors with a clear understanding of how the grading system works.

Contributors also benefit from new tools developed specifically to meet their needs. Now, they can readily enter findings while they are in the field, collecting data. This sort of functionality can make a huge difference for auditors who are too busy to be held back by cumbersome methods that get in their way.

The mainstream media is paying attention to the Green Report Card and the site continues to attract greater interest and involvement. All of the people at smashLAB are happy to be working with a group that has such a huge opportunity to impact positive change.