C21 emits sites for Carbon Trust

The first of a series of websites designed by C21 for the Carbon Trust, the energy efficiency body set up by the Government last year, launched last week.

The group, which will receive a six-figure fee, is part of a two-company consortium appointed in April to design and build the master website and three sub-sites.

C21 will create the look and feel and advise on content for the sites, as well as defining the general strategy for what should be delivered via the intranet and extranet. Ashton Court Consultants will build the technology.

The first site to launch, www.thecarbontrust.co.uk/foundation, gives advice on funding new technologies. C21 is now working on the redesign of the Carbon Trust’s corporate site and the design of a site promoting energy efficiency. Both will launch later this month.

There is, as yet, no launch date for the remaining site, which advises on tax breaks for companies that invest in energy efficient equipment.

C21 director of consulting Adam Garfunkel describes the work as a ‘fantastic design challenge’.

‘Energy efficiency and carbon emissions are not easy things to get across. They are complicated issues and the role of design is to make them engaging and to encourage action now,’ according to Garfunkel.

The consultancy was appointed to the project following an eight-way strategic pitch.

The Carbon Trust is an independent, not-for-profit company funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the three Devolved Administrations, as well as climate change levy receipts. Its success will be measured in the reductions in carbon emissions it helps achieve.