From Hidden Features to Confident Releases: How ClimatePartner Builds Its Decarbonisation Platform with ConfigCat
Targeted feature flags for safer, controlled releases
ClimatePartner helps more than 6,000 companies take climate action, from calculating carbon footprints and setting reduction targets to financing climate projects and communicating progress.
Behind these services is a growing decarbonisation platform developed by several product teams across interconnected frontend and backend applications.
To deliver changes continuously without exposing unfinished functionality, ClimatePartner uses ConfigCat feature flags to separate code deployment from feature release. New functionality can be deployed and tested by the people building it while customers and other users continue working with the established version.
This gives ClimatePartner's teams a safer, more flexible way to build and release the digital tools companies rely on throughout their climate action journeys.
Your Cat-Scan Summary
Overview
Industry
Climate technology and carbon management
Company Size
501-1,000 employees
Using ConfigCat Since
2021
Use Case
Release toggles, internal testing, user targeting, and controlled feature access
Key Wins
Independent product development, safer testing, fewer source-control conflicts, more control over when new functionality reaches users
Who is behind the flag?
About ClimatePartner
Founded in 2006 by Moritz Lehmkuhl, ClimatePartner helps companies turn climate commitments into action.
Its services cover the full decarbonisation journey:
- Calculating corporate and product carbon footprints
- Defining emission-reduction targets
- Planning and implementing reduction measures
- Financing verified climate projects
- Communicating climate action and progress
One of ClimatePartner's key differentiators is its hybrid approach. Customers can work with its software independently while also receiving support from climate action experts.
This combination of technology and expertise helps ClimatePartner support companies wherever they are in their journey, from understanding their emissions to developing and implementing a long-term net zero strategy.
More than 6,000 companies of different sizes and industries work with ClimatePartner. The company has also helped avoid or remove over 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere.
Its ambition is to build a comprehensive decarbonisation platform that can support customers across every aspect of this journey.
Delivering on that ambition requires more than expanding the platform's capabilities. ClimatePartner's product development teams must also be able to introduce changes continuously without destabilizing the tools customers already use.
The Purr-fect Stack
Tech Stack & Development Culture
ClimatePartner is building a service-oriented platform that runs entirely on AWS. The platform offers functionality through web applications and APIs. TypeScript is the primary programming language, with additional services written in Java and Python.
Its core technology stack includes:
- Node.js and NestJS for backend development
- React for frontend applications
- A centralized data lake for analytics
Each product team maintains a handful of frontend and backend applications. These applications operate relatively independently while communicating through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous processes.
Most of its applications are web-based tools where customers can enter carbon accounting data, analyse their emissions, or work with the results of their calculations. Other applications support internal teams responsible for managing customers and their data.
With several product teams contributing to different parts of the platform, developers need to be able to integrate and test changes without waiting for every feature to be complete.
Before ConfigCat Walked In
The Challenge: Continuous Delivery Across Multiple Product Teams
ClimatePartner wanted to deliver changes continuously while several teams worked on the platform in parallel.
The challenge was not simply getting code into production. Teams also needed to test unfinished functionality in realistic conditions without affecting customers or colleagues outside the development group.
Keeping work isolated in long-lived branches would have delayed integration and increased the risk of difficult merges, source-control conflicts, and late-stage surprises.
“We needed a way to isolate changes and test them without impacting production and without creating merge issues in source control.”
ClimatePartner needed to separate three different moments:
- Merging the code
- Deploying the application
- Releasing the feature
A feature flag management system provided that separation. Features could move into the deployed application while remaining visible only to the people actively working on them.
How the Cat Saved the Day
The Solution: Targeted Release Toggles for Product Teams
ClimatePartner began using ConfigCat in production in 2021. Feature flags are part of a shared workflow between engineers and product managers. Engineers can integrate and test unfinished functionality, while product managers take part in deciding when a feature is ready for selected users or a wider release.
Teams deploy new functionality behind ConfigCat flags and use targeting rules to control who can access it.
With ConfigCat, ClimatePartner can:
- Deploy unfinished functionality without exposing it to every user
- Test complete features in deployed applications
- Target individual developers, product team members, or testers
- Expand access without rebuilding or redeploying
- Compare flag configurations across environments
- Remove temporary toggles after a successful release
ClimatePartner deliberately uses feature flags as temporary release controls rather than permanent application settings.
“The main idea is to use them as release toggles and remove them once features have been released and proven. We don't use them to configure the applications.”
This keeps each toggle tied to a clear feature lifecycle. Once the rollout is complete, the flag can leave the codebase too, rather than hanging around long enough to become part of the furniture.
The Cat in Action
How ClimatePartner Uses ConfigCat in Production
Testing Features with Individual Team Members
ClimatePartner's primary feature flag use case is giving early access to the people developing a feature.
Teams commonly target users by:
- identifier
- email address
- ConfigCat segment
“Our main use case is targeting individual team members who are developing a feature, so they can test their changes while all other users still see the unchanged version.”
This means a change can move through the normal deployment process while its visibility remains limited to a known group.
When another developer, product manager, or tester needs access, the team updates the targeting rule. There is no need for a separate build or specific environment. Testing stays close to the real application, while the customer experience remains unchanged.
Managing Frontend and Backend Feature Flags
ClimatePartner uses ConfigCat in both frontend and backend applications. Frontend flags can control whether a user sees a new section or workflow. Backend flags can manage the services, calculations, or business logic behind it.
Using feature flags across both layers helps prevent incomplete experiences, such as showing a new interface before the supporting backend functionality is ready.
This is particularly useful in a service-oriented architecture, where one customer-facing feature may span several applications.
Keeping Track Across Environments
As ClimatePartner's feature flag usage grew, the overview of toggle values across environments became particularly valuable.
Teams can quickly compare configurations across development, testing, and production without opening each environment separately. This makes it easier to identify inconsistencies, confirm access rules, and understand the current release state of a feature at a glance.
Why They Picked the Cat
Why ClimatePartner Chose ConfigCat
ClimatePartner evaluated Unleash and LaunchDarkly before choosing ConfigCat in early 2021. The team needed a reliable feature flag service with user targeting, support for frontend and backend applications, multiple environments, and a clear interface that both engineering and product teams could use.
“ConfigCat fulfilled our main requirements and was the cheapest alternative.”
ConfigCat provided the functionality ClimatePartner needed without introducing unnecessary complexity or cost. Since then, it has become an established part of the company's product development and release process.
From Meow to Wow
Future Outlook: Building a Complete Decarbonisation Platform
ClimatePartner plans to keep expanding the tools companies use to measure emissions, define reduction strategies, manage carbon accounting data, and understand their progress.
As the platform evolves, ConfigCat gives product teams a stable way to introduce those changes without turning every deployment into a full public release. Teams can test features with the right people first, broaden access as confidence grows, and remove the toggle once the rollout is complete.
For now, the value is straightforward: product teams can keep moving while customers continue working with a stable platform.
Is ConfigCat a Fit for You?
Give Every Feature a Safer Path to Production
ClimatePartner's experience shows how feature toggles can support continuous delivery across a service-oriented platform. With targeted feature flags, teams can deploy changes early, test them with selected users, and release them more broadly when they are ready.
The result is fewer merge conflicts, safer testing, and greater control over the path from development to production.
Start using ConfigCat to separate deployment from release and bring more control to your feature delivery process.
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