Challenge

The carbon management market is full of technically complex, enterprise-focused tools like Watershed and Persefoni. These platforms often require lengthy onboarding, deliver slow pricing quotes, and can be inaccessible for companies without dedicated sustainability teams.

Upstream’s challenge was to:

• Deliver instant quotes for multiple global carbon markets.
• Provide a clear, approachable interface for manufacturing clients who may not have deep ESG expertise.
• Launch a fully functional MVP by early Q4 2023 with both branding and platform design ready for market.
• Build API integrations to enable in-platform renewable certification management, particularly through the I-REC international registry via the Evident API.

Solution

Our work covered both branding and product development, ensuring a consistent experience from first impression to in-platform interaction.

Brand Identity

We modernized the recognizable carbon bubbles into a scalable visual system, supported by a professional color palette and typography designed to balance technical credibility with accessibility. This identity worked across digital and offline applications, from dashboards to marketing assets.

UI/UX Design

We carried out a full-cycle UX research and design process, ensuring the product was not only functional but also easy to adopt in real-world enterprise settings:

• Stakeholder interviews to clarify business requirements and expectations.
• Proto-personas to capture user types and their core needs.
• Competitive analysis to identify pain points in existing ESG platforms.
• User journeys and process-experience mapping, paired with an object-oriented UX (OOUX) approach, to align system architecture with real-world user tasks.
• Competitive analysis to identify pain points in existing ESG platforms.
• User journeys and process-experience mapping, paired with an object-oriented UX (OOUX) approach, to align system architecture with real-world user tasks.
• Competitive analysis to identify pain points in existing ESG platforms.
• User journeys and process-experience mapping, paired with an object-oriented UX (OOUX) approach, to align system architecture with real-world user tasks.

Product Development & Integrations

Our team handled both frontend and backend development to keep the MVP on track and aligned across all layers of the product. A highlight was the Evident API integration for I-REC Registry management, allowing users to register, edit, and remove renewable energy devices without leaving the platform. We resolved API quirks, handled error states, and stabilized performance through robust QA and tight technical collaboration.

Outcome

The collaboration delivered measurable results:

• MVP launched on schedule in Q4 2023.
• A streamlined user journey that shortened the time from emissions calculation to offset procurement.
• Instant quotes available in multiple carbon markets—cutting down multi-week wait times common in the industry.
• Built-in I-REC management, removing manual certification workflows.
• A scalable design system, ensuring the platform could grow without visual or UX inconsistency.
• A brand identity that balanced modern sustainability messaging with enterprise professionalism, resonating with both operational teams and Fortune 500 decision-makers.