Vancouver-based smashLAB spent roughly eight months transforming Momentum, the former print publication from the thinktank at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, to the digital space. Renamed Ensia, the site serves as both a magazine and event series showcasing environmental solutions in action.

With its clean, modern and responsive design the site stands out from its peers in the environmental news space. smashLAB went with WordPress for content-management, given the number of authors who'll need to add content, and to allow for reader comments, which add value by continuing the story and discussion beyond the original article posting. "The back-end is so incredibly easy to use, we're able to spend valuable time creating new content instead of updating Dreamweaver templates," said Ensia's Todd Reubold. "In fact, the new site is so easy to use that we're now able to nearly quadruple our daily output of news and information."

The seamless integration of social media sharing in the new site really helps with visibility. In addition, "the prominence of contributors on page posts throughout the site, including photos, bios and links to stories, has led to a flood of inquiries and pitches from outstanding journalists around the world."