For families and individuals who own forest land, it can feel like the only way to make a profit is to clear the trees and sell the timber. Forest Carbon Works’ mission is to help them earn income by conserving the forests instead.
The organization works with landowners to designate their forests for carbon sequestering and earn revenue through the carbon offset market. FCW plays an important role in helping these forest owners navigate the complex approval process, which would otherwise shut smaller family forests out of the market.
Software for Good built a new website and online application system for Forest Carbon Works to invite landowners in and walk them through each step. We started by working with their team to understand the organization’s users and map out the long journey to evaluate land and launch a forest carbon project. Next, we dug even deeper to build out the lengthy forms where applicants fill out details about each parcel of their land. We designed a clean, inviting user interface for the system, using visual elements to help applicants understand the steps and see their progress.
Development included building a new website explaining Forest Carbon Works’ mission and project requirements, as well as the application forms and user dashboard. The system needed to facilitate the process not only for landowners, but also for forest technicians or “cruisers” — contractors who work with FCW to conduct the in-person evaluation of forest land.
The application system also had to integrate with Salesforce, where Forest Carbon Works’ staff would review and process landowner applications. Our team developed the functionality that allows for syncing in both directions between WordPress and Salesforce: Submissions to the website’s application forms show up in Salesforce, and updating an applicant’s account on Salesforce triggers the same update on the WordPress side.
The fully launched application combines inviting, intuitive design with robust functionality to support the core of Forest Carbon Works’ operations. We continue to work with their team to refine the tool and build out features for the full approval process, making sure we can support landowners each step of the way.