The carbon trading marketplace
emsTradepoint (EMS) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Transpower and launched NZ’s first carbon trading marketplace in March 2020. Extending on EMS’s successful energy commodity marketplace, the goal is to have an established carbon trading marketplace in operation ahead of the auction process that the Ministry for the Environment has indicated will be introduced in early 2021.
Understanding the market
We kicked things off with market research, which included understanding the Emissions Trading Scheme, reviewing competitor offerings and interviewing key players in the market. This provided valuable insight into the market and an understanding of the products and features of the marketplace that were likely to resonate with the target audience. In a series of workshops, we brought the findings together with EMS to create a Lean Canvas for the new marketplace.
“The team at Octave quickly demonstrated their ability to pick up a new industry and immediately added value to our carbon trading exchange. Using tools such as a lean canvas to drive market research they helped shape how we saw our target market.”
Quintin Tahau, General Manager, emsTradepoint Limited
Refreshing EMS’s online presence
With the launch of the carbon trading marketplace, EMS took the opportunity to refresh its wider online presence. We kicked off this project by expanding our knowledge from the carbon marketplace research and reviewing EMS’s product and service offerings. This enabled us to understand how to communicate core messages to their audiences and explore effective design styles that would educate their audience on their critical offerings in a simple, clear way.
Sprint finish
We launched EMS’s new online presence alongside the new carbon trading marketplace. We established a clear hierarchy within the site to distinguish between EMS’s wide range of products and services, using themes and illustrations to bring alive somewhat abstract information. Templates were designed to bring consistency to the site's information architecture, providing a more effortless experience for customers navigating the site.
The site was built on Wagtail, our preferred CMS, which means the new site is now easy for EMS to maintain content and test their messaging as they grow awareness of their offering.
“The result was stunning a website that delivers targeted information to our market in a meaningful way. The really exciting thing for me is that we now realise how much more value we can provide to our customers – all thanks to the innovative folks at Octave.”
Quintin Tahau, General Manager, emsTradepoint Limited
