My Role
Alibaba Cloud is a cloud computing company that provides services to global clients as well as Alibaba’s own e-commerce ecosystem. As a Product Manager on the Energy Product Team, I led user research and client interviews to establish a system for monitoring and managing the carbon footprints of large-scale events, developing the SaaS tool, Carbon Core, from 0 to 1. I took on product design responsibilities, collaborating closely with UI designers on prototyping. I also managed the development process through roadmaps and meetings to ensure alignment between stakeholders, product, engineer, and design teams.
Goal
With no historical data or standardized best practices for carbon emission management at large events, our team aims to create a comprehensive solution for monitoring, optimizing, and reporting event emissions.
Research Findings
There is no historical data for many of the largest sporting events, including the Olympics.
The team aims to start monitoring carbon emissions and energy data with the Paris 2024 and Milan 2026.
Large events are complex systems with multiple sources of carbon emissions, including catering, transportation, construction, and more.
Managing these diverse data sources is challenging due to the accessibility and ownership of different data set.
The guidelines for large events outline general goals and objectives related to carbon emission requirements but offer limited guidance on achieving these targets.
According to ICF, local event committees have consistently failed to submit the required carbon reports.
Research & Literature Review
IOC Sustainability Strategy
Olympic Games Impact (OGI) Studies
ISO 20121 / ISO 14064
Carbon Management Guidelines by the IOC
Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront by World Green Building Council
Carbon Core
(02)
Product Management, Design
Alibaba Cloud (Product Manager)
2024
A new SaaS tool for managing carbon emissions at large-scale events, developed and led from concept to launch. The MVP was released in summer 2024 in collaboration with the Paris Olympics and the International Canoe Federation, providing organizers with a data-driven solution to monitor, report, and reduce their environmental impact.
Strategies
1 Streamline complex information structures with natural language and collapsible design.
When collecting carbon emission data, the lengthy questionnaire can feel overwhelming, even if the questions are categorized. Drawing on Entropy/Bandwidth theory, it's essential to strategically hide and reveal information to ensure clarity and ease of navigation. It also translated technical jargon into simple questions to improve the experience and efficiency of interdisciplinary communication.
2 Seamless collaboration, without logging in.
The ownership and accessibility of the data sets are fragmented. To streamline collaboration between different entities, the project owner can assign tasks to users outside their organization, eliminating the need for an Alibaba Cloud account to participate.
3 Automatic report generation and integrated Gen-AI.
Integrated with Energy Expert, another product from Alibaba Cloud, each project will automatically generate a carbon report based on the embedded carbon emission factor database. However, a fixed-format report may not always meet users' needs.
To better serve users, a specialized generative AI bot is integrated to answer questions, prepare ESG report paragraphs as needed, and search for historical data.
Launch
The MVP launched in the summer of 2024 and was integrated into the Paris Olympics as part of the energy management system. Additionally, the Alibaba Team built a pavilion on Champs-Élysées Avenue to showcase its achievements in sustainability at the Olympics, including this particular project.