Multiple roadmap layers
Connect drivers, value, operations, technologies, capabilities and initiatives without flattening them into one project list.
Sustainability and energy transition
Sustainability and energy roadmapping software
Structure complex transition choices across external drivers, stakeholder value, technologies, capabilities, investment and implementation horizons.
Designed for
A shared planning surface for the people who hold different parts of the answer.
- Sustainability leaders
- Energy managers
- Technology teams
- Transformation programmes
The practitioner problem
Transition plans must connect more than technologies
Sustainability and energy transitions combine policy, markets, customer expectations, infrastructure, technology, data, skills and operating-model change. A technology list can be useful input, but it does not show how the organisation will create value or build the capability to implement change.
Roadmapping helps participants examine several layers together. External drivers can be connected to stakeholder outcomes, service or process changes, enabling technologies, organisational capabilities and sequenced initiatives.
The method is particularly useful where the pathway contains uncertainty. Teams can represent alternatives, decision points and dependencies without pretending that one distant plan is already fixed.
Decision structure
Questions the roadmap needs to connect
The useful unit is not an isolated item. It is an item whose purpose, evidence, relationships and implications can be examined.
- 01
Which regulatory, market and stakeholder drivers matter, and on what horizon?
- 02
What customer, operational or societal value should the transition create?
- 03
Which process, service and business-model changes are required?
- 04
Which technologies and data capabilities enable those changes?
- 05
What skills, partnerships, infrastructure and investment must be developed?
- 06
Which assumptions or external events should trigger roadmap review?
Working cycle
Move from framing to a governed roadmap
- 01
Frame the transition
Define the system boundary, desired outcomes, time horizon and stakeholders whose knowledge is required.
- 02
Connect value and capability
Relate external drivers and stakeholder value to processes, services, technologies and organisational capability.
- 03
Develop pathways
Represent alternatives, dependencies, decision points, resource needs and learning activities across time.
- 04
Review against evidence
Update the roadmap when policy, technology performance, costs, stakeholder needs or organisational capacity change.
Worked structure
Illustrative example: industrial energy flexibility
An industrial operator wants to reduce cost and emissions while improving resilience. Its roadmap could connect:
- Energy-price, carbon, regulatory and customer drivers
- Operational outcomes such as flexibility, reliability and verifiable emissions reduction
- Efficiency, electrification, storage, sensing and optimisation options
- Data governance, workforce, supplier and investment capabilities
- Pilot decisions, infrastructure dependencies and scaling pathways
This is an invented example. The ABB and IfM Engage work cited below predates InnovationFlow and is included as methodological context, not as a software case.
What the software should preserve
Keep the strategic logic usable between reviews
Alternative pathways
Represent options and dependencies so uncertainty becomes a planning input rather than an omitted caveat.
Connected strategy tools
Bring in trends, PESTLE analysis, scenarios, stakeholder analysis, capability assessment and portfolio choices.
Resource and change history
Test capacity, assign ownership and retain the reason when policy, evidence or sequencing changes.
Research and practice basis
Claims that can be traced
These sources support the roadmapping method and practitioner problem. They are not evidence that software alone produces successful outcomes.
The published ABB and IfM Engage case used roadmapping to explore energy-management change across customer value, technology, process, people and capability. InnovationFlow founder Dr Clemens Chaskel was the lead consultant on the engagement. The consultancy project took place before InnovationFlow was created and is included as a roadmapping-practice case, not a software case. [1]
Roadmap architecture research explains why layers, time and relationships should be configured for the purpose and context rather than copied as a universal template. [2]
Implementation research highlights the organisational work required to connect roadmap content with changing roles, resources and routines. [3]
- [1]ABB and IfM Engage (2022). Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge teams up with ABB to lead the future of energy management. ABB global press release. Source ↗
- [2]Phaal, R. and Muller, G. (2009). An architectural framework for roadmapping: Towards visual strategy. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 76(1), 39–49. Source ↗
- [3]Gerdsri, N., Vatananan, R.S. and Dansamasatid, S. (2009). Dealing with the dynamics of technology roadmapping implementation: A case study. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 76(1), 50–60. Source ↗
Continue exploring
Method, evidence and connected capabilities
Digital transformation is not a technology shopping list
Read the evidence-bounded ABB and IfM Engage case note.
Open resourceRoadmap architecture
Learn how layers and relationships are designed for a particular strategic purpose.
Open resourceTechnology roadmapping software
Explore specialist support for market, product, technology and capability alignment.
Open resourceFrequently asked questions
Questions about this roadmapping use case
Is this only for technology selection?
No. A sustainability or energy roadmap can connect external drivers and stakeholder value to business models, services, processes, technologies, capabilities, resources and implementation choices.
Can the roadmap represent alternative transition pathways?
Yes. Alternatives, decision points and dependencies can remain visible until evidence supports commitment to a particular pathway.
Was InnovationFlow used in the ABB and IfM Engage project?
No. The project is cited as an example of the roadmapping use case and practitioner experience. It predates the InnovationFlow software application.
Build a roadmap that survives the next decision.
Explore InnovationFlow free for 30 days, or discuss the structure, facilitation and governance of your roadmapping process with a practitioner.