Cities around the world face pressure to meet climate goals, report emissions, and plan for future risks. But local governments, especially in the Global South, often operate with limited staff, low budgets, and high political turnover. Traditional tools are either too technical, too generic, or too slow (commonly a custom spreadsheet).

Creating a baseline GHG inventory can take 6 to 12 months. Risk assessments are often skipped due to lack of local data. Action plans are long lists with no prioritization. This makes it hard for cities to meet reporting obligations or make informed decisions.

You can't know what you don't know. Cities assumed they are limited to local data providers, or that other external data is either expensive or useless. We leveraged our partnerships with global data providers to integrate datasets that we could offer to cities to use. At the same time, to address scenarios where data can still be missing, we turned complex spreadsheets into unified, user friendly and clearer forms for the most used methodologies. Our approach was to build modular, fast, and usable tools that reduce friction at every step. I focused on designing workflows that guide users, connect to trusted datasets, and deliver clear outputs — in minutes, not months.

I led product and UX design, working closely with climate scientists, data engineers, and city stakeholders. I prototyped directly in Replit, using AI tools to generate components and structure logic. We tested early versions in cities in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, iterated based on real user feedback, and scaled the tools as part of the CityCatalyst platform.