Kickstarter – Alexandra Criscuolo – 2018

Goals

Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, was looking for a way to help creators and entrepreneurs assess, mitigate and communicate the environmental impact of their entrepreneurial projects. Currently, early-stage entrepreneurs lack the environmental tools needed to assess the environmental impact associated with the manufacturing and shipping of their physical products. Intent on changing this, EDF Climate Corps fellow Alexandra Criscuolo was enlisted to develop an online environmental resource center – a one-stop platform for early-stage entrepreneurs.

Solutions

After interviewing creators and Kickstarter staff who work closely with creators, Criscuolo put together a gap analysis to determine what resources are currently publicly available for early-stage entrepreneurs and what items are on their wish list. She reviewed the five-part environmental framework that was going to be as the basis for the center, and recommended opportunities for improvement. Using the information gathered through research and interviews, Criscuolo created the resource center and worked with Kickstarter staff to develop a plan for communicating, launching and maintaining the resource center.

Potential Impact

The environmental resource center has the potential to help more than 60,000 Design & Technology projects launched on Kickstarter, and up to over 340,000 other projects across categories such as fashion, games, and food, reduce their environmental impact by providing them with production-specific environmental tools. Plans have been made to publish the environmental resource center on Kickstarter.com for public use.