Unwritten benchmark report
What does good climate disclosure really look like in private markets?
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About the report design project.
Unwritten commissioned Toast to redesign its annual Benchmark Report on private market climate disclosures, marking a shift from internally produced documents to a professionally designed research publication.
The 2025 report benchmarks more than 70 climate-related disclosures from private market firms across the UK, Europe, North America and APAC, analysing how investors are approaching governance, risk, strategy, metrics and targets.
This was not a marketing brochure. The report needed to function as a serious market reference: something sustainability leads, investment teams and LPs could rely on for credible insight. The challenge was to present dense analysis, charts and comparative data in a way that felt calm, authoritative and readable, without diluting the technical substance or over-styling the content. The finished document runs to 14 pages and is designed as a digital-first publication that can be shared, cited and returned to throughout the year .
Project scope.
Toast’s role covered the full design and production of the report once the written content was nearing completion.
The timeline was tight, with publication targeted for early February, so the design system needed to be established quickly and applied consistently across the document.
We began by defining a visual approach that deliberately moved away from the more expressive, tech-led aesthetic of Unwritten’s previous brochure work. The reference point was closer to institutional research: restrained typography, clear hierarchy, generous white space and layouts that prioritise comparison and comprehension over decoration. A McKinsey-style benchmark report was used as a quality reference, not to imitate, but to calibrate the level of polish and discipline expected.
From there, we designed a flexible page system that could handle multiple content types: forewords, chapter openers, long-form editorial analysis, charts, tables and summary callouts. Particular attention was paid to trend pages, where charts and explanatory text needed to work together without competing for attention. Colour was used sparingly, primarily to code sections and support data readability rather than to brand every page.
The scope also included integrating a small number of promotional pages at the back of the document, introducing Unwritten’s platform without disrupting the credibility of the research that precedes it. These pages were intentionally differentiated but still felt part of the same publication.
Planning your next benchmark or research report?
If you’re producing analysis that needs to stand up to scrutiny, the way it’s designed matters as much as the data itself. We help teams turn complex research into clear, credible publications that people actually read and reuse. Tell us about the report you’re working on and we’ll show you how we’d approach it.
Take your report digital.
We can take the print version of your report and create an online, interactive PDF version that is fully accessible. Many clients now go for this option to make their reports viewable across multiple devices and increase their reach.
