Effectively Reducing Emissions in Digital Advertising: A Path Towards Sustainability

By Audrey Danthony, Co-founder and CPO of IMPACT+

The topic of carbon emissions from advertising is a complex one, and it’s crucial that we address it with proactive actions, just as we do with other industry issues like fraudulent ads, privacy or viewability.

As advertisers, agencies, publishers, and technology providers, we must unite on a trajectory that leads to more responsible advertising, gaining trust from consumers while actively reducing the industry’s overall emissions.

What indicators should we be monitoring?

To achieve this, we need to adopt environmental performance indicators to monitor advertising distribution effectively. Two types of indicators are essential in our journey towards reducing impact:

1. Total Volume of Carbon Emissions: This indicator allows us to track the absolute reduction of emissions over time, year after year, showcasing real environmental progress.
2. Unit Value Comparisons: We must also consider a unit value that enables us to compare campaigns, activations, actors, or contexts independently of advertising volumes. For example, using the Wh/1000$ spent indicator helps us easily assess the energy efficiency of campaigns, regardless of their type (video, display, search, etc.).

By implementing these indicators and measuring data over time, each player in the value chain can adjust their media plans, targeting, and distributin of advertising volumes based on observed unit performances.

Environmental Indicators to Monitor Impact on Global Warming

Going further, it’s important to understand the key environmental indicators to monitor:

1. Electricity Consumed (Wh, kWh…): This measures the quantity of electrical energy required for user devices, hosting servers, and network infrastructure used in transmitting advertisements.
2. Carbon Intensity of electricity (gCO2eq /kWh): This represents the volume of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions resulting from the production of one kWh of electricity, which can vary significantly throughout the year, or even day-to-day.
3. Carbon Emissions (gCO2eq — kgCO2eq…): By combining electricity consumption and carbon intensity, we can obtain the total volume of carbon emissions due to the electricity. To which must be added the emissions from the supply chain lifecycle user devices, servers, and routers (production, transport, etc.)… These emissions consist of different greenhouse gases, which are converted into an equivalent volume of carbon dioxide in potential global warming. When we integrate electricity consumption, carbon intensity, and emissions from the supply chain life cycle of user devices, servers, and routers (production, transport, etc.), we gain measurable data and insights into environmental impacts.

5 Tips for Implementing a Carbon Impact Evaluation Tool

Now that you know what to measure, it’s time to choose tools to track these indicators. When selecting and implementing measurement tools for your carbon impact, the below tips will empower you to make a positive difference while ensuring your advertising campaigns are both sustainable and impactful.

1. Granular Measurement Solutions: Choose tools that provide actionable data, with enough dimensions such as specific devices or networks used, or publisher website.
2. Scalability: Opt for scalable tools that provide you with the ability to deploy carbon evaluation at scale on all your campaigns, across many countries.
3. Monitoring Reduction Actions: Continuously assess the impact of your reduction actions throughout your advertising campaigns.
4. Benchmarking: Compare your environmental performance with that of other players to gauge effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
5. Collaborate with Measurement Partners: Engage with your measurement partners to leverage their support in your impact reduction efforts.

Go Further with Our White Paper

Our white paper provides a comprehensive guide to help you take even more impactful steps in reducing emissions in advertising. as well as covering the above in more detail, the white paper features:

• A quick and easy checklist for creative teams to integrate eco-friendly practices.
• Strategies to optimise your ad-tech stack for sustainability.
• How to reduce energy loss caused by advertising waste.
• And much more!

Download the white paper here.

By embracing these practices and adopting environmental indicators, we can all contribute to a more sustainable advertising industry and a better future for our planet while ensuring consumers’ trust and loyalty.

Let’s make a collective effort towards a greener, more responsible advertising ecosystem.