ICaN: How South Gloucestershire turned climate intent into action

Background

South Gloucestershire Council sought to develop a dedicated digital platform for its Investing in Communities, Climate and Nature (ICaN) scheme. This initiative provides a pipeline of investment-ready projects aimed at nature recovery, climate adaptation and resilience, and social value across local green spaces. 

While the council already provided climate information on its corporate website, it required a bespoke microsite to act as a sophisticated marketing and transactional asset.

The primary goal was to encourage philanthropy and environmental awareness among two distinct audiences: 

• individuals and local residents interested in "crowdfunding" style donations towards local projects, and 

• businesses looking to meet corporate social responsibility and environmental, social and governance commitments. 

The platform needed to bridge the gap between simple community giving and high-level corporate investment, featuring a natural capital accounting based valuation tool that provides a cost benefit analysis for every pound contributed.

Challenges

Dual-audience user journeys

The most significant UX challenge was catering to two demographics with vastly different motivations. Individuals and residents required a light-touch, uncomplicated journey to make small donations, while business investors needed access more technical information, such as how support could relate to UN sustainability goals and social value reporting. 

The solution required a strategic divergence in the user journey early on to provide relevant language and detail without alienating either group.

Technical integration and financial compliance

The site required a robust, secure-by-design architecture to handle monetary donations. The decision was made to use GOV.UK Pay, the UK government’s online payment platform for public sector organisations. It allows public-sector organisations to securely take payments online without building their own payment infrastructure from scratch.

Furthermore, the council required a real-time “totaliser” or infographic to display fundraising progress, which had to allow for manual overrides to account for external grants and other payments secured offline.

Functional complexity vs ease of use

The council needed a Drupal-based CMS that offered high-level functionality (including a blog, enquiry forms and a bespoke Cost benefit calculator) yet remained simple enough for council staff to manage independently. 

It was crucial that scheme managers could update content and manage project deadlines without ongoing developer intervention or incurring additional costs.

LocalGov Drupal is a Drupal distribution tailored for councils by councils. It's powered by Drupal, which means councils have access to all its enterprise-grade features, but it’s been developed for council teams to use.

Brand consistency and trust

As a public sector initiative, the website had to be instantly recognisable as a trusted council service. 

This required strict adherence to the council’s digital design manual and corporate branding, as well as accessibility standards that local government sites also seek to achieve. It also needed to create a visually engaging, non-bureaucratic identity that felt appropriate for a modern environmental movement.

Scalability and future-proofing

The requirement specified that the platform must be adaptable for future expansion. This included the ability to incorporate new project types – such as the decarbonisation of community buildings – and the potential to scale into a regional portal covering other areas if other local authorities adopted the scheme.

Our approach

Annertech’s approach to the ICaN South Gloucestershire project was defined by a user-centric, agile methodology designed to meet an ambitious launch deadline while ensuring the platform remained accessible, scalable, and environmentally responsible.

1. User-centred design and IA

The project began with a streamlined discovery phase to map out a logical information architecture. 

A key focus was the dual-path user journey, which addressed the challenge of catering to both individual residents and corporate investors. 

Annertech implemented clear “self-identification” signposts on the homepage, allowing users to self-select their persona and access tailored content (for example businesses may be interested in environmental, social, and governance and corporate social responsibility data, and residents may be interested in community impact stories) without creating a fragmented experience.

2. Technical implementation

The Drupal advantage

The site was built on LocalGov Drupal, a shared codebase, reducing total cost of ownership and improving governance.

Performance and carbon impact

To align with the council’s 2030 Net Zero goal, the site was hosted on Upsun, a B-Corp certified green hosting provider. Annertech implemented advanced caching (Fastly CDN and Redis) to minimise processing power and ensure the site remained performant even during high-traffic events.

3. Functional solutions for climate action

Fundraising and infographics

To drive engagement, Annertech developed a fundraising barometer to track project funding. This included a feature for scheme managers to add offline contributions (for example grants or planning gains), ensuring the public-facing total reflects the true project status.

Donation strategy

All donations are made through Gov.UK Pay, the UK government’s online payment platform for public sector organisations.

Storytelling

Rather than a dry financial calculator, the approach focused on tangible impact. People can get information about specific fundraising projects. Data is coupled with the opportunity to use a range of media video and photography, architects’ drawings and cost benefit reports so people can see exactly where their money is going.

Results

The South Gloucestershire ICaN (Investing in Communities, Climate and Nature) website provides an exceptional digital experience, mirroring the efficiency of the local environmental initiatives it promotes. 

It currently showcases seven crucial climate and nature recovery projects across the region, the platform has achieved top-tier technical optimisation. 

It boasts a flawless GTmetrix Grade A rating alongside a 100% performance score, ensuring that residents, businesses and community groups can access vital ecological information and donation portals with maximum speed and zero lag. 

Importantly, the ICaN site achieved a Lighthouse accessibility score of 100.

This blistering performance not only enhances user experience but directly aligns with the initiative's green principles by minimising the digital carbon footprint of the site itself.