Driving Sustainable Behavior Through Experience Design

Context

The Challenge

Baseline Indicators

The Intervention

The Impact

Context

A national utilities provider was under increasing regulatory and societal pressure to reduce household energy and water consumption. While ambitious sustainability targets were in place, customer behavior had not changed meaningfully. Digital self-service adoption remained below 35%, and sustainability communications were largely ignored or misunderstood by customers. The organization recognized that the issue was not awareness, but experience. Sustainability was communicated as an obligation, not as a value customers could easily act on.

The Challenge

Sustainability initiatives focused on campaigns, not customer behavior

Low adoption of digital channels critical to demand management

Customers lacked visibility into how their actions impacted consumption

Sustainability KPIs were disconnected from customer experience metrics

Baseline Indicators

Digital adoption: <35%

Year-on-year consumption reduction: <2%

High call volumes driven by basic usage and billing inquiries

The Intervention

New Metrics reframed sustainability as an experience challenge, not a communications problem. We redesigned priority customer journeys to make sustainable choices intuitive and actionable. This included: •Redesigning digital touchpoints to surface real-time usage insights •Introducing behavioral nudges tied to moments that influence consumption •Simplifying sustainability messages into clear, customer-relevant actions •Aligning CX, digital, and sustainability teams around shared performance metrics Sustainability objectives were embedded directly into service design, measurement, and governance — ensuring accountability beyond reporting.

The Impact

Within 12 months:

+20–25% increase in digital channel adoption

3–5% reduction in average household consumption across priority segments

Lower inbound call volumes, driven by improved self-service clarity

Improved customer understanding of sustainability programs, reflected in feedback and engagement scores

Context

A regional financial institution had made strong public commitments to ESG and financial inclusion. However, these efforts were largely confined to reporting and compliance. Underserved customer segments continued to face barriers to access, and ESG initiatives were not clearly linked to growth or customer outcomes. Leadership sought to move ESG from a reputational requirement to a strategic driver of sustainable growth.

The Challenge

ESG positioned primarily as reporting and compliance

Limited access and adoption among underserved segments

Low trust and engagement in complex or opaque financial journeys

No clear linkage between ESG investments and commercial outcomes

Baseline Indicators

Low adoption among priority inclusion segments

Below-average trust and transparency scores

ESG impact measured qualitatively rather than operationally

The Intervention

New Metrics embedded ESG objectives directly into service design and decision-making. We redesigned priority journeys to improve accessibility, transparency, and trust, focusing on moments that disproportionately excluded vulnerable segments. This included:

Simplifying onboarding and service flows
Redesigning communications in clear, customer-friendly language
Embedding trust, fairness, and inclusion metrics into CX dashboards
Aligning ESG, CX, and commercial teams around shared success measures Rather than treating ESG as a parallel stream, it became part of how services were designed, delivered, and measured.

The Impact

Within 12 months:

15–20% increase in adoption among targeted underserved segments

Improvement in trust and transparency scores across redesigned journeys

Clear evidence linking inclusive design to customer growth and retention

Stronger brand credibility supported by measurable, customer-level impact