From insights to impact: applying design thinking to climate contracting

Peter Drucker once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it”. At The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP), we believe that creating the future of law is a collective act, one built on collaboration, curiosity and climate-aligned, scalable impact.

Our work sits at the intersection of user insight, legal design, and climate action. We don’t just listen to our users; we create with them, test with them, and align everything we build to their real world challenges. This supports our mission to embed climate responsibility into the global economic system.

Every conversation, workshop, and piece of research feeds directly into what we build next. Here’s what we’re learning right now, and how it’s shaping the tools and communities we’re creating together.

1. “We need real-world support, not just more content.”

Many of our users are sustainability or procurement leads navigating complex systems. They need a community, not another PDF.

That’s why we created the Climate Clauses Working Group: a collaborative space where hundreds of professionals share lessons, test ideas, and learn from each other. It’s open, informal and practical, helping people move from theory to impact in their organisations.

“Very interesting event, lovely to hear other best practices and to ask/answer questions. Improvement could be to add 30min. Thank you for the work you do and the support you provide!” Working group attendee

2. “Let us work the way we already work.”

Legal teams operate in tightly defined workflows, and usability often determines adoption. So we’ve focused on removing friction, from launching DOCX downloads of our clauses and guides to prototyping tools like our Clause Recommender, which uses AI to detect sustainability clauses within contracts.

We’re also exploring what it means to design for trusted AI environments, where users can experiment safely with contract data without compromising security. These are the kinds of human centred, responsible design questions that guide our next phase of product innovation.

3. “We need help choosing the right clause.”

Finding the right clause shouldn’t feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. We’re redesigning our website from the ground up to reflect how people actually think and work, making it easier to explore by goal, industry or impact area. We’ll share more soon about the powerful new features we’re testing to help users discover, compare and implement content faster.

4. “I want to help, but I need proof that this works.”

Users want to see impact, not just content. That’s why we’ve partnered with researchers and AI experts to track open source clause adoption across public contracts. We’re beginning to map where and how TCLP clauses are being used, and pairing that with fresh case studies that show real-world implementation and negotiation outcomes.

5. “We need training that fits around our jobs.”

We developed Climate Contracting in Action, a free, CPD certified online course in partnership with the Shoosmiths Foundation. It’s designed for busy professionals who want to learn on their own terms, packed with hands on exercises, practical examples and community discussion. It’s already helping hundreds of users integrate climate considerations into their day-to-day work, from developing their professional expertise to upskilling supply chain partners.

“It was great to undertake the training… I breezed through a fair amount due to my expertise, though I will admit, some of the legal terminology was new to me so I picked up quite a bit in that regard. This morning, I have already suggested to one of my vendors that they undertake this training, it is an excellent resource for that purpose.” Online training participant

Our approach: collaborative, iterative, and effective

We’ve learned that when you design with people, not for them, the results last and they scale. Our in-house legal design and research team sits at the heart of everything we do, working alongside our legal, content, digital and engagement specialists to make sure every tool, clause, and learning experience is rooted in real user needs and measurable outcomes.

This co-creative way of working, from hackathons to content development working groups, reflects the strength of our community. Together, we’re creating resources that are useful and relevant today, and resilient for the future. This approach also underpins our new playbooks, which are practical, step by step guides for anyone looking to apply our principles within their own organisation.

We’re also expanding our measurement, evaluation and learning (MEL) framework to understand the real-world impact of our work. And as AI continues to reshape how legal professionals find, trust and apply content, we’re evolving too: prototyping responsible tools, ensuring TCLP’s open-source materials can integrate safely with leading AI systems such as ChatGPT and Harvey and supporting knowledge platforms like Thomson Reuters. We’re also staying close to emerging developments in this field to adapt quickly and effectively.

The past and future of climate contracting is collaborative, data informed, and user-driven.

Join our community and help shape what comes next.