Success Indicators

Use this tool

As part of a regular sprint review or team health check
Quarterly or project-level reviews
When reporting progress to stakeholders

You'll get

A lightweight dashboard of qualitative and quantitative signals
Clues about where habits are sticking and where more focus is needed
Evidence to share with stakeholders and leadership

Setup

Getting started

Choose the indicators most relevant to your team from the table below. Review them regularly, record observations or scores, and discuss patterns to decide if any actions are needed.

Dashboard

Suggested indicators

Area	Indicator
Team awareness	Sustainability is raised as a consideration in sprint planning without requiring a prompt from the facilitator.
Team awareness	Alternative, lower-impact solutions are raised and considered.
Behavioural change	Features assessed for real-world environmental impact before build.
Behavioural change	New features have measurably supported lower-impact real-world choices (e.g. reduced travel, energy savings, shared resources).
Development process	Sustainability is mentioned in code reviews.
Development process	Opportunities for optimisation are spotted during build.
Development process	AI features are reviewed for inference cost at the point of architecture or technical design.
Technical health	Lighthouse or equivalent performance scores above agreed baseline.
Technical health	Bundle sizes stable or reducing.
Technical health	Image optimisation rate improving.
Technical health	High caching hit rates.
User experience	Product works well on slow connections and older devices.
User experience	New features are reviewed for accessibility and equitable access as part of the definition of done.

Reporting

Connecting to formal sustainability reporting

Qualitative indicators like these are not a substitute for formal carbon accounting. But for organisations with CSRD obligations or net zero commitments, they are evidence of cultural change and process maturity. That evidence has value in an ESG or sustainability report as supporting narrative alongside quantitative data. Behaviour design outcomes, such as measurable shifts in user choices toward lower-impact options, can be particularly compelling evidence in sustainability reporting because they demonstrate impact beyond the organisation's own operations.

Guidance

Tips

Keep the list short so it is quick to review.
Mix qualitative signals (team behaviours) with quantitative ones (performance data).
Proxy metrics like Lighthouse scores are useful, but should be paired with real usage data where possible.
Performance metrics are proxies for environmental impact, not direct measures. Combine them with usage or energy data for a clearer picture.
Check for trade-offs: ensure improvements in one area do not create problems in another (e.g. accessibility vs. performance).

In practice

Example

A team tracked how often sustainability came up in sprint planning over six sprints. Early on, it appeared in one in five stories. After introducing Impact Tags and User + Planet Story Cards, it came up in almost every planning session without prompts.

Output

A running picture of how sustainability is being considered in the team and the product.

Measurement & Validation

Record indicator scores or notes at regular intervals and compare trends. Map changes in these indicators against any performance or impact metrics you track.

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