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Bridging the ESG Purpose Gap

Project Overview

Project Overview

Enterprise SaaS

Concept

Web Application

Location

Savannah, GA

Role

UX Designer / UX Researcher

Year

2021

Duration

~4 months

Users

Zillennial employees at large US tech companies

Designing the missing layer between corporate sustainability ambition and employee participation.

Designing the missing layer between corporate sustainability ambition and employee participation.

Problem
ESG strategy was failing at the last mile.

ESG strategy was failing at the last mile. Organizations had the reports and the commitments. What they lacked was a participation layer — a way for employees to see how their daily work connected to sustainability goals. ESG lived at the executive level. Employees never felt it.

Solution
A system designed for participation, not just compliance.

An intranet platform built on three modules: Progress for ESG visibility; My Contribution to make individual impact tangible; and Connect to give employees a direct voice in ESG prioritization.

Impact
Validated by employees. Built for the majority who weren't asking for help yet

Concept testing rated the prototype 4–5/5 across clarity, purpose alignment, and motivation to contribute. A WAMI survey of 50+ employees — where "Greater Good Motivations" scored just 49% — made the case for why the system needed to exist.

Research

Research

What happens when ESG strategy exists at the top — but not in everyday work?

Organizations are investing heavily in ESG. Metrics are tracked. Reports are published. Public commitments are made. Yet internally, sustainability often feels distant. Employees struggle to see how corporate goals translate into their daily decisions.

Organizations are investing heavily in ESG. Metrics are tracked. Reports are published. Public commitments are made. Yet internally, sustainability often feels distant. Employees struggle to see how corporate goals translate into their daily decisions.

The ambition exists.
The execution framework exists.
The connection does not.

The ambition exists.
The execution framework exists.
The connection does not.

Purpose Is Simply Not "Tickling Down" Through The Layers Of U.S. Companies

Three Reasons Why This Is Happening

Purpose, Job Satisfaction & Employee Engagement Are Correlated

Secondary Research Findings

"When organizations face ESG-related challenges, engaged employees will be innovators and problem solvers on the front line."

"When organizations face ESG-related challenges, engaged employees will be innovators and problem solvers on the front line."

-StrawberryFrog & Dyanata, 2022

If ESG is everywhere… why don’t employees feel it?

If ESG is everywhere… why don’t employees feel it?

Because ESG was communicated strategically — not experienced operationally. Organizations defined impact through goals and reports. Employees interacted with systems optimized for execution, not meaning. The two layers rarely intersected.

This created what I defined as the ESG Purpose Gap — the disconnect between organizational intent and individual experience.

This reframed the challenge:

How might employees experience ESG as part of their daily work?

How might employees experience ESG as part of their daily work?

How do you investigate something as abstract as purpose?

I ran a WAMI (Work and Meaning Inventory) survey with 50+ Zillennial employees, conducted 9 in-depth interviews across ESG leads, HR directors, managers, and individual contributors, and affinitized ~1,000 data points into 12 key insights. The goal wasn't to confirm the problem — it was to find out what was actually causing it.

"Greater Good Motivations" scored lowest — fewer than half of employees felt their work contributed to something beyond themselves. That became the design target.

"Greater Good Motivations" scored lowest — fewer than half of employees felt their work contributed to something beyond themselves. That became the design target.

Key Insights

What does the market optimize for?

Before ideation, I conducted a competitive positioning analysis to understand where existing solutions focused their energy.

Enterprise ESG platforms are built for compliance and executive dashboards. Employee engagement platforms focus on culture but ignore sustainability. No system closed the loop between corporate intent, employee behavior, and measurable impact — that was the gap.

Design Process

Design Process

Who am I designing for?

Research revealed three distinct employee types — each with completely different barriers to participation. Designing one system for all three meant understanding which archetype held the most untapped potential.

Designing for Activists would have improved an experience people already had. The Neutral majority — "I'd join if my manager led the effort" — were where real behavior change lived.

Designing for Activists would have improved an experience people already had. The Neutral majority — "I'd join if my manager led the effort" — were where real behavior change lived.

The Activists

Engaged, but unheard. Want recognition and direct leadership access.

The Neutrals

Designed for this archetype The majority. Care but feel overwhelmed, under-informed, and unsupported.

The Laggards

Checked out. Only move when they see collective momentum.

What does the system look like?

It wasn’t awareness. It wasn’t values. It wasn’t effort. Rather than designing isolated screens, I mapped the entire ecosystem.

Employees are onboarded into sustainability goals in a way that contextualizes their role. Micro-actions are surfaced in alignment with company objectives. Personal dashboards visualize contribution in tangible terms. Team-level metrics create collective accountability. Leadership retains visibility without dominating the experience.

The architecture connects intent to action and action to impact. It is a system designed for participation at scale.

How did the design evolve?

Early explorations leaned toward familiar enterprise UI patterns. The structure was logical but felt distant. Feedback revealed that the experience still centered leadership more than employees.

The pivot was intentional. The visual language softened. The hierarchy prioritized individual agency. Micro-contributions became visible. Progress felt cumulative and shared rather than abstract and corporate.

The interface became less about tracking ESG and more about experiencing contribution.

Solution

Solution

The final solution was anchored in three core pillars: clarity, relevance, and impact.

Clarity

The Progress Tab on the company intranet provides employees with clarity by first showing them how their company is performing in terms of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) at the global level. It then allows them to interact and find out more detail, but also educates them at every step and shows them how they can contribute towards these broader ESG goals, make an impact and help their company achieve these goals.

Clarity

This tab ensures that employees are aware of all of their company's ESG initiatives. Content on this tab is linked to the 'Learn' tab, which focuses on enhancing employees' knowledge and competency. 

Impact

My contribution tab employs relatable metric to illustrate the contribution that employees are making on society and the planet. It highlights their role in assisting the company in meeting its ESG goals. It also provides tips and personalized strategies for getting more involved in ESG initiatives. It motivates employees to contribute towards the ESG initiatives through positive reinforcement which includes recognition from leadership and peers, rewards, and ranking. They could also share their progress with other employees, as well as friends and family, to amplify the impact. 

Relevance

The Connect Tab allows employees to directly connect with leadership and share their concerns. It also allows both, employees as well as executive leaders to get a better understanding of which ESG issues have more support from employees. The size of the bubbles represents the number of employees who feel similarly about an issue and deem it important.

Relevance

This section allows employees at all levels to have a voice in their company's ESG endeavours, which in long-run will help in creating a sense of ownership and motivate them to engage more in these initiatives. 

The Home Page is a place where employees can view articles and posts related to ESG, and learn more about what is happening in the world around them. This can help them gain a better understanding of the issues that are important to people, and make more informed decisions. Parallelly there are also sections provided which allows them to take action by participating in the ESG initiatives that aligns with their purpose and join the Employee Resource Groups and Communities to connect with like-minded people. 

Clarity

The Progress Tab on the company intranet provides employees with clarity by first showing them how their company is performing in terms of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) at the global level. It then allows them to interact and find out more detail, but also educates them at every step and shows them how they can contribute towards these broader ESG goals, make an impact and help their company achieve these goals.

Clarity

This tab ensures that employees are aware of all of their company's ESG initiatives. Content on this tab is linked to the 'Learn' tab, which focuses on enhancing employees' knowledge and competency. 

Impact

My contribution tab employs relatable metric to illustrate the contribution that employees are making on society and the planet. It highlights their role in assisting the company in meeting its ESG goals. It also provides tips and personalized strategies for getting more involved in ESG initiatives. It motivates employees to contribute towards the ESG initiatives through positive reinforcement which includes recognition from leadership and peers, rewards, and ranking. They could also share their progress with other employees, as well as friends and family, to amplify the impact. 

Relevance

The Connect Tab allows employees to directly connect with leadership and share their concerns. It also allows both, employees as well as executive leaders to get a better understanding of which ESG issues have more support from employees. The size of the bubbles represents the number of employees who feel similarly about an issue and deem it important.

Relevance

This section allows employees at all levels to have a voice in their company's ESG endeavours, which in long-run will help in creating a sense of ownership and motivate them to engage more in these initiatives. 

The Home Page is a place where employees can view articles and posts related to ESG, and learn more about what is happening in the world around them. This can help them gain a better understanding of the issues that are important to people, and make more informed decisions. Parallelly there are also sections provided which allows them to take action by participating in the ESG initiatives that aligns with their purpose and join the Employee Resource Groups and Communities to connect with like-minded people. 

What impact does this create?

One finding changed the design: cognitive overload from a shared screen led directly to separating Progress and My Contribution into distinct modules.

The journey map shows measurable behavioral progression: Activists gain the visibility they lacked, Neutrals move from passive awareness to consistent participation, and Laggards engage when peer momentum and recognition become visible.

Reflections

Reflections

01 — The Real Problem Was Never Awareness

Most employees knew about ESG goals and still didn't act. Reframing from "communicate better" to "make it personally relevant" unlocked everything. The most valuable thing a designer can do is resist the obvious solution long enough to find the real one.

02 — Designing for the Middle Changes Everything

The Activists would engage regardless. The Neutrals — "I'd join if my manager led the effort" — were where real behavior change lived. The most impactful design decisions are made for the user who isn't asking for help yet.

02 — Designing for the Middle Changes Everything

The Activists would engage regardless. The Neutrals — "I'd join if my manager led the effort" — were where real behavior change lived. The most impactful design decisions are made for the user who isn't asking for help yet.

03 — Data Got Me to the Door. Users Let Me In

A PMI analysis pointed clearly to combining two concepts into one system. But concept testing revealed that merging them created cognitive overload — something no framework would have caught. Quantitative methods tell you what to pursue. Only real users tell you how it actually lands.

03 — Data Got Me to the Door. Users Let Me In

A PMI analysis pointed clearly to combining two concepts into one system. But concept testing revealed that merging them created cognitive overload — something no framework would have caught. Quantitative methods tell you what to pursue. Only real users tell you how it actually lands.

Let's Collaborate

2026 Shivani Patel

Designing at the intersection of people, systems, and scale.

Let's Collaborate

2026 Shivani Patel

Designing at the intersection of people, systems, and scale.