What is a Scenario Simulator?

Scenario simulators allow organizations to explore different strategies for reducing emissions and understand their long-term impact. However, most tools today are difficult to use, making it hard for teams to quickly compare options and make informed decisions.

What is Climaro?

Climaro is designed for professionals involved in environmental planning, strategy, and decision-making within large organizations. These users rely on scenario simulations to explore different pathways, understand their impact, and make informed choices toward emission reduction goals.

How does Climaro work?

Climaro lets teams explore how different strategies might affect their emissions by adjusting future production levels and expected activities. They can apply various emission reduction measures and immediately see how those choices influence energy use and greenhouse gas output.

Results are shown at both the overall company level and based on their share in joint operations, making it easier to understand the potential impact of each scenario over time.

Design Objective

The goal was to design a system that’s easy to use and interpret, making it simple for users to explore different strategies without getting confused or making mistakes.

My Role

I worked on this project as the product designer, in collaboration with developers and researchers. My responsibilities included designing the core simulation interface, contributing to the design system, defining the information architecture, and creating wireframes and high-fidelity visuals. I also helped shape how the product communicates complex outputs in a way that’s easy to understand and act on.

Approach & Limitations

As the product was still in early development, direct access to end users was not possible. To move forward, we relied on desk research, existing domain knowledge, and internal collaboration to define user needs.

Understanding the climate impact assessment space was a challenge in itself, as navigating a complex industry filled with technical terms, domain-specific workflows, and evolving practices required deep research and careful interpretation.

Laying the Groundwork

The process began by reviewing internal materials and notes from the company’s research and engineering teams. This helped identify the most commonly asked questions during sustainability planning discussions, such as:

What will our emissions look like if we continue with this plan?
How does a specific activity like drilling or water injection impact our net zero goals?
What if we adjust this variable and will it help us reach targets sooner?
Which operations or assets contribute most to our emissions?

These questions served as anchors for understanding the decisions users need to make, bringing clarity to what the system should enable and communicate. Detailed inputs were also provided, including key variables, influencing factors, and preferred ways of visualizing forecasts. These standards, shaped by prior research and modeling efforts within the company, offered a clear foundation to build on.

Core Simulation Flow

To enable users to explore the impact of operational and mitigation strategies on emissions, we designed a streamlined simulation flow:

Setting Up Activities and Measures

We began by defining Activities and Mitigation Measures, the core elements that shape a scenario. Activities capture operational processes that produce emissions, such as drilling or water injection, and are linked to specific assets, timelines, and quantified impacts. Mitigation Measures outline targeted actions such as technology upgrades or efficiency improvements, applied to activities to reduce their output. Configuring these provided the foundation for the simulator’s projections, enabling users to see how different combinations influence emissions over time.