The Green Energy Valley

Ultimately, the main challenge of the project resided in finding the right balance between accurately, rigorously communicating the large amount of technical information we received, and synthesizing it all in an intrinsically interesting, modern, and appealing format - as we wanted to move away from the more conventional type of reports that are usually adopted in public funding contexts. This is what led us to produce a transparency website, which showed how public funds could be spent by a government, into a more didactic and comprehensive experience.

Working with SIRIS, a Barcelona-based higher education & research consulting company, our goal was to craft a narrative which would effectively communicate this use of funds, past achievements and upcoming goals towards renewable energy, an accessible experience adapted for a large audience, from policymakers to the general public. We decided to opt for the scrolly-telling format - in which the narrative experience unfolds as the user scrolls down in the webpage, providing a component of interactivity, while fitting everything within a more timeline-based narrative. The main narrative consisted in weaving in the idea of the “Green Energy Valley” within the identity of the Emilia-Romagna region, playing on the reputation of the region as the “Data Valley”, the “Motor Valley”, or even the “Food Valley” as a result of its technological industrial and gastronomical weight within Italy. As such, the key idea was thus to develop a new identity for the region based on its aspiration to producing and using greener and more sustainable energy sources.

To clearly frame the process by which Emilia-Romagna has been pivoting towards greener energy sources, we shaped the narrative around the timeline of an innovation process, as a somewhat standardized process that the targeted audience of the website would be very familiar with. Indeed, the webpage was intended, especially, both for policy-makers - who would be acquainted with the general processes but not necessarily experts from the energy-sector - or, on the other hand, for people involved or interested in the energy transition (for instance, companies investing in renewable energy, educational organizations that offer courses in photovoltaic practices…) As such, the webpage needed to speak to and resonate with both of these kinds of viewers - whether through the topic in question, or through the narrative format.

The webpage narrative first begins with providing some necessary context into the region’s industrial and energy ecosystem, and explaining its crucial need to turn to more sustainable energy sources. Then, thus adopting the framework of an innovation process, we defined the 4 key parts to the overall process narrative: 

1. Strategic Goals, where we presented the 3 main goals of the plan:
   1. Reducing the greenhouse effect
   2. Increasing the use of renewable resources
   3. Increasing energy efficiency. 
       
2. Prototyping & Launch, which explained how much funds were deployed, and how they were used for the different aspects of the energy sector. 
    
3. Results, where we highlighted the most relevant results of the 2014-2020 period, and how the strategic goals came along over that period. 
    
4. Iteration, which went over the upcoming plan for the 2021-2027 period, emphasizing the aspiration to aim for climate neutrality in 2050. 

The overall look & feel of the web experience also played on the idea of an innovation process, as it was based on a visual system with “Post-its”, collage elements, pen and paper diagrams and notes, folders and dossiers… Our idea was to emulate the materiality within workshops and brainstorming sessions at heart within such processes.