Leveraging the ripple effect to tackle climate change
Friday 26 August 2022
Cascade is a student-led project building an app that aims to tackle climate change by leveraging the ripple effect to combine individual action and systemic change. In 2021 it was awarded funding from the St Catharine’s College Master’s Fund to support its development. The Master’s Fund was established as a result of a generous donation of £100,000 from Jon (1983, Natural Sciences) and Ann Ardron.
The project is the brainchild of TseUweja (2018, Engineering), who has recently graduated from St Catharine's. In 2019 Tse was brushing her teeth and wondering if switching from a plastic toothbrush to a bamboo one would be worth it, or if the carbon emissions would simply be replaced with other problems, such as deforestation and biodiversity loss. Overwhelmed by the number of everyday decisions that would require this calculus, and unsure whether her solitary choices even mattered, she came up with the idea of an app which could quantify the impacts of each option to help you make the decisions. She took the idea to four friends, and since then the project has grown to comprise a diverse team of over 60 members!
Over the following months, a team of 20 students completed a volunteer internship with Cascade with project costs supported by the Master’s Fund. The team developed two app features: HoliPlanner and CascadeGo. HoliPlanner helps users to plan more environmentally friendly holidays, which account for nearly two thirds of UK international flights, and CascadeGo is like a sustainable Google Maps, helping users plan healthier and more environmentally friendly everyday trips.
Tse said, "It's been absolutely crazy to see how Cascade has grown from an idea in my head while brushing my teeth to what it is now, and I am so grateful for everyone who's been part of the journey so far. As I graduated this year, I think Cascade will look a little different. I would love to keep the collaborative, all-hands-on-deck nature of Cascade but perhaps with a smaller team which will be easier to manage post-university. Now we've fleshed out some of the features of Cascade, over the next couple of months we want to start user testing it so that we can roll out some features."
What the interns say
Cascade summer volunteer interns at an in-person social after working remotely with each other.
“The project has been such an insightful experience for me. I joined as a data analyst for the Holiday planning team and got to develop hard skills such as using google sheets, APIs and Figma. Spending my time communicating with the behavioural insights members gave me a new appreciation for the complexity of an app and I got to develop soft skills such as leadership, communicative and presenting skills. This has been a great learning experience for me and I am excited to see the final product!” - Charlie
“Initially, I joined as a data analyst but am lucky to have expanded my role to explore both climate data as well as the behavioural science of climate action. I appreciate this position as it has allowed me to balance simplifications with nuances of data- something very necessary to help individuals understand their own impact! Since I am frequently frustrated with sustainability misconceptions, it is refreshing to work on a project to make climate engagement accessible for everyone. My experience so far has been varied and insightful, I have appreciated the high degree of collaboration and enjoyed the friendliness of everyone in the teams!” - Tanya
“Joining the Behavioural Insights team has helped me develop a much greater understanding of app psychology and made me appreciate how much thought goes into the UX of an app. This internship has helped me gain knowledge in a field that I wouldn’t normally investigate in my degree research. I’ve especially enjoyed researching behaviour models, and finding well-established insights into users’ mindsets and how our assumptions differ or are similar to reality. The internship is run efficiently in a collaborative atmosphere, allowing any team member to share their opinion knowing it will be taken into consideration. The team leads and core members of Cascade work together well, ensuring the smooth running of the internship. Overall, a super experience so far and I’m looking forward to learning more in the BI field!” - Anita
“I’ve been working on Cascade’s new holiday planning feature this summer. I was interested specifically in their Behaviour Insights work because I’m thinking of pursuing a career in climate-related social policy or the UX/product management side of environmentally sustainable consumer products. My internship has drastically changed my ideas about the influences on sustainable individual behaviour. Common motivators like eco-guilt have limited effectiveness and instead I’ve learned how to use behavioural models and external motivators such as gamification to spur on our users. I’ve also honed my behavioural research skills such as constructing user surveys, designing A/B testing, and hypothesis-based problem solving. This includes the simple yet eye-opening realisation that we can’t make assumptions about the user’s priorities and problems - every assumption must be converted into a hypothesis, and thoroughly tested. Working on Behavioural Insights has also led me to related areas of product design like visual design, UX and data analysis. The broad scope of the internship was initially a steep learning curve, but it’s been an invaluable experience as now I can confidently talk about and work on multiple facets of app development!” -Jenny
“I have particularly enjoyed taking a data-driven approach to developing sub-features which encourage users to choose eco-friendly modes of transport, such as planning safer routes for cyclists. The support and feedback I received from my teammates and the main Cascade team has improved my understanding of how data can be effectively used to motivate change in peoples’ habits. I also had the opportunity to work on behavioural insights for the Holiday Planning feature, giving me a fuller appreciation for the interdependence between changing behaviour and data analysis. Overall, the internship has given me valuable experience in collaborating with others in developing an innovative project, which I believe is crucial to combating the climate crisis. I can’t wait to see how the app develops beyond the internship.” - Jeffrey
“This internship has been an amazing learning experience for me! I am in the Business strategy team, and together with the other team members, I have been working on the business plan for Cascade. Working on the entrepreneurial aspects of a startup has been very rewarding. I have been able to develop my knowledge of how businesses operate and apply this to Cascade, which is something I would not have been able to do through my degree. Overall, I have greatly enjoyed working at Cascade and I am excited to see how Cascade develops.” - Sumedh
Each member of the coding team took on Backend, Frontend and Deployment coding tasks; this ensured that each software engineer gained a deeper insight into web development.
“As a team, using an agile development cycle, we implemented a web progressive application. We received designs from the Design Team and then split the required work into manageable parts. Some key assignments included: REST API endpoints for a SwapShop app; security and authentication for accounts; automatic deployment on Google Cloud and frontend design using NuxtJS and Tailwind. Overall, this has been a fun project for everyone involved. Also, it shows how fast a simple idea can turn into a ready to be published application.” - Coding Team
About Cascade
Based on collaborations with climate experts and behavioural scientists, Cascade provides users with engaging, effective actions they can take to reduce their own climate impact, and helps them to sustain these into long-term habits. Most crucially, data analytics are then used to turn these individuals' actions into a collective movement. Not only will users be able to see their own impact quantified, but they will also be able to see the impacts of others in their community: family, friends, colleagues, etc. Cascade believes in the power of individuals to influence each other, as demonstrated in a 2012 study on the uptake of solar panels within a community, and aims to bring about not only individual change but a collective shift in how we live and value the Earth.
This ripple effect can also be extended into pushing for systemic change on the part of governments and industry. Change - whether large or small; social, political, or industrial - is so often catalysed by bottom-up mobilisation: plant-based meat substitutes is only one such example of industry moving to meet demand created by people's changing priorities. By helping to bring about collective change, Cascade hopes to empower people to push in a concerted way for more progressive action from governments and industries. Furthermore, the data obtained about people's actions will provide a basis for a quantitative and persuasive campaign.
Since the start of the project, Cascade has developed five flagship features, designed to target the areas in which individuals can have the most impact: purchasing, energy, local and international travel, and food - with plans for many more to come!
