Econaut
From CO₂ Monitoring to Full Adoption
Econaut was born out of a simple question: How can you make the CO₂ performance of inland waterway vessels transparent in a way that is fair enough to compare vessels and practical enough to actually work with?
What began as the redesign of a CO₂ benchmark evolved into a multilingual digital product featuring an app, backend, reports, benchmarking, and fleet functionality. Along the way, however, the focus shifted from product and methodology development to user behavior, data access, and organizational ownership.
What started as Strategic Design eventually turned into an alignment issue.
ORGANISATIE
Inland Waterway Expertise and Innovation Center
PERIODE
2011–2018
ROL
Initiator & Product Owner
FOCUS
Product Design · Data · Adoption · Alignment
The challenge: What constitutes a fair CO₂ performance?
An emissions figure may seem objective. But as soon as factors such as ship type, load factor, empty voyages, and sailing profile differ, making comparisons becomes a design challenge. So first, it was necessary to clarify what “fair performance” actually means.
1. Methodology
ing CO₂ per metric ton-kilometer provided a logical basis, but the results depended heavily on assumptions and system boundaries. Furthermore, dozens of different calculation methods were in use across Europe.
2. Comparability
Comparing one ship to a completely different type of ship yields little useful information. Econaut therefore developed benchmarks within relevant ship classes.
3. Operational Reality
Empty runs are a common part of many inland waterway operations. For this reason, voyages without cargo were also included in the ship’s overall performance rather than being excluded from the data.
4. From Numbers to Behavior
In addition to absolute CO₂ performance, relative scores, graphs, and monthly reports were provided—for example, how much better or worse a ship performed compared to the average for its class.
The design challenge was therefore broader than simply creating a CO₂ calculator: how do you make emissions data fair, understandable, and useful enough to influence behavior and decision-making ?
From Benchmark to Digital Product
The methodology was just the beginning. Over the course of several development cycles, Econaut was expanded into a multilingual digital product that combined measurement, comparison, and reporting.
1. App & platform
A publicly available app, website, and backend that allowed users to record, among other things, the distance, loading and unloading locations, tonnage transported, and fuel consumption for each trip.
2. Benchmarking & Feedback
Relative performance metrics, charts, and monthly reports showed how a ship performed compared to others in its class. A user panel helped further refine the methodology and differentiation.
3. Incentives & Adoption
’s Green Award incorporated Econaut into its incentive system. This created an external incentive for inland waterway operators to register and disclose their CO₂ performance.
4. From Ship to Fleet
Shipping companies were able to track multiple ships simultaneously. At the same time, research was conducted to determine how engine management, GPS, and AIS data could further automate data entry.
From a project perspective, this resulted in a complete product—including the app, backend, reports, benchmark, external incentive, and fleet functionality—within a relatively compact development environment.
When a Good Project Isn't Yet a Successful Product
Automation proved to be essential
. Retrieving data automatically proved to be much more difficult due to manufacturers, warranties, and an extremely diverse existing fleet and systems.
An incentive does not necessarily mean adoption
The Green Award generated registrations, but not necessarily sustained, regular use. Account ≠ adoption.
Product without a product organization
There was room to build, but no dedicated product team and insufficient structural commercial mandate to turn Econaut into a scalable product line.
What began as a design question thus shifted to alignment: technology, users, data, incentives, and organizational ownership all had to align simultaneously.
What Econaut Teaches
A well-executed innovation project does not necessarily equate to a successful innovation. Econaut demonstrated that technology and methodology can be quite advanced, while actual implementation lags behind.
True adoption requires that several conditions be met simultaneously: minimal user friction, reliable data, relevant incentives, clear product ownership, and sufficient organizational mandate.
This gap can arise particularly in existing organizations. An innovation may align perfectly with policy goals and funding programs, but not sufficiently with the day-to-day reality of the user or the organization responsible for scaling it up.
Econaut demonstrates why successful innovation is ultimately less about adding yet another feature and more about designing the environment in which a product can actually be used, adopted, and scaled up.
The experience with Econaut is one of the early building blocks of the current Aristoi approach to “ Strategic Design , and Alignment.”
Is your innovation sound in substance, but is its actual implementation lagging behind?