The Climate Tech Map is a new destination for students, researchers, entrepreneurs, and funders hoping to contribute to the climate technology revolution. Part taxonomy, part market map, part North Star toward a better climate future, the information-rich website seeks to engage and educate a wide range of audiences — and give shape to the growing universe of climate technologies, both current and potential. Speed & Scale came to Pentagram to bring this vision, and that of their coalition of prominent climate organizations, to life. 

Before collaborating with Giorgia Lupi’s team, Speed & Scale spearheaded months of workshops with their coalition members: Breakthrough Energy, Elemental Impact, Energy Innovation, McKinsey Sustainability, and Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. These meetings resulted in a compendium of over 2,000 technologies on a massive Miro board, and a lot of unanswered questions. The content needed to be developed and shaped into a website, series of infographics, and companion poster to launch during New York’s Climate Week. 

As with any complex data or content challenge, the first step for Lupi and her team was to understand the structure and shape of the content, and the organizational and audience goals. What data do we have and where are the gaps? What innovations have the greatest potential to reduce greenhouse gasses? What are the areas of opportunity in each sector? Who are we trying to engage the most? Lupi’s team started with a robust discovery, information architecture, and content strategy phase, which led to deeper understanding of the available content and a conceptual framework that could bring it to life. 

Inspired by the space race, astronomical charts, and the optimism of an uncharted frontier, Lupi’s team then developed a vibrant design system that feels both energetic and highly organized. Using a blend of unconventional interactions and a rigorous type and graphic system, the site blends practicality with the excitement of innovation. Playful illustrations add a bit of world-building, rendering objects — trees, cows, solar panels, fire, electric vehicles, and smoke stacks — in a lightweight style made of perfect geometries, tonal color palettes, and distinctive details that emerge upon closer inspection.

The front door to the web experience is the “wheel:” a colorful array of six sectors, divided into twenty-four Opportunity Areas, each featuring simple icons representing their respective “Innovation Imperatives” and “Moonshots.” The wheel evokes a star chart, the rays of the sun, and a spotlight that guides users to areas of interest. Each of the twenty-five rich landing pages feature custom infographics, context for each opportunity, educational videos, and deeper information about the related Innovation Imperatives and Moonshots. An additional section of the site dives into the 100 categories of technologies that will be part of the energy transition. 

The intent is for Climate Tech Map to grow and change to reflect the inputs and needs of the audience over time, and incorporate more features and data as they become available.