Aligning the Advertising Sector with Net-Zero Goals
Last week, with the help of the Race to Zero team and Oxford Net Zero, we hosted a first-of-its-kind session for the advertising industry where we asked a big question:
How can the advertising industry play a more holistic role in helping address our climate Emergency?
We brought together climate experts to share the latest thinking on what progressive action looks like, alongside industry insiders experimenting and stress-testing these new ideas. In breakout sessions, we heard from trade bodies, advertising leaders and sustainability experts from the UK and Europe on the nuanced needs of the advertising industry.
Why we’re better together — the power of ‘Serviced Emissions’
This was the last in a series of consultation sessions from Race To Zero — the global campaign created by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, rallying companies, cities, regions, financial, educational, and healthcare institutions — to take rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030.
Many big industry players are part of the Race to Zero, including WPP, IPG, JCDecaux and Sky.
A recent area of focus has been to bring alignment (and provide support to) businesses in sectors such as Lawyers, Management Consultants, Accountants and other professional services providers (PSPs) alongside Advertising.
Why?
Well… these sectors are hugely influential.
They advise and provide services to all other major companies in the world. But Professional services industries have gone under the radar when it comes to carbon accounting and reporting. It’s a bit murkier on how best to measure and reduce emissions for sectors that don’t directly produce products — yet influence the sales and the success of client businesses.
In bringing sectors together, Race to Zero hopes to build support for how to measure and ultimately reduce ‘Serviced Emissions’ — that is emissions ‘associated with and, in some cases, resulting from the services we provide across projects and client work, particularly through working in high emitting sectors’.
The good news is in the Advertising sector, Purpose Disruptors have developed a tailored framework Advertised Emissions for the advertising industry. It’s a jumping-off point for the advertising industry to measure the holistic impact of its work. Other sectors are following suit, with ‘Advised Emissions’ for lawyers now underway and tailored frameworks for other sectors in the making.
Over the last twelve months, the Race to Zero team has also been harvesting insights from different sectors, to produce a helpful set of six guiding principles, each crafted to; enable behaviour change, support clients in maximising the opportunities of a fair and just transition, increase their resilience to climate risks, and plan for a net zero, just, resilient future.
You can take a closer look in their consultation paper here.
The 6-fundamental principles of approaching Serviced Emissions:
- Strategy: Develop a strategy to understand and reduce your serviced emissions as part of your commitment to net-zero/1.5C and embed this in your business model.
- Due Diligence and Risk: Integrate Climate Considerations into due diligence for new and existing clients, projects and services.
- Ongoing Engagement: Proactively embed climate opportunities and risks into your services and projects.
- Governance: Develop robust governance systems within the PSP to uphold commitments to 1.5C, in regard to both your own company’s emissions and your serviced emissions.
- Measure Impact and Report on Progress: Track the outcome and impact of your engagement on services emissions.
- System Changes: Advocate for regulatory changes to support accelerated transition.
How have the principles been rolled out in practice?
During the session we heard from a panel of sustainability experts; Ian Bell, Sustainability Leader from Accenture, Lucy Usher, Sustainability Lead at Oliver and Pam Noakes, Head of Sustainability at M&C Saatchi who’ve been applying Serviced Emissions principles, and using Advertised Emissions on the ground.
Lucy, shared her process. Discussing her focus on principles 1 & 2, Process and Due Diligence and Risk. Firstly mapping her client base at OLIVER and reviewing her top 20 clients by revenue globally, as a starting point.
“Rather than eating the elephant all at once, we decided to just calculate [Advertised Emissions] for our top 20 clients by revenue globally, rather than trying to spend a vast amount of time to find data on 300+ clients. We learnt what data was easy to get hold of, and we now actually have a version 1… we’re now starting to get a sense of who the high carbon clients are and can make business decisions based on this.”
Through the practice of starting somewhere as a jumping off point to iterate from, OLIVER has generated the necessary information to make more informed climate-related decisions, such as deciding not to take on fossil fuel clients.
Pamela, discussed the huge progress she’s helped catalyse in the last 12 months in her time at M&C Saatchi. Honing in on principles 1–4. Strategy, Due Diligence and Risk, Ongoing Engagement and Governance, M&C Saatchi have reviewed their client portfolio, mapped potential risks from clients and incentivised planet-positive business decisions:
“We’re starting to measure the revenue we’re generating from planet positive campaigns… the idea is to see how valuable planet positive campaigns are to our business, and we even have a proportion of exec bonuses tied to this KPI.”
“We’ve started looking at some of the various risks those [high emitting] sectors might pose, risks that we might accidentally get involved in greenwashing, risks that sectors might get banned, risks of climate litigations, risks that our people might not be happy to work with certain clients.”
And Ian, discussed the vital role of measuring end-to-end emissions. Highlighting future risks and how Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting works in tandem with this work. He also highlighted potential regulatory futures involving Advertised Emissions, including the possible introduction of carbon taxes and mandatory emissions reporting.
“Whatever scenarios you look at, and you’re always looking at scenarios in climate risk — you might be looking at an orderly transition to net zero, you might be looking at a ‘hot house’ scenario, or a disorderly transition where suddenly the breaks are put on and regulation comes in to swiftly move companies to a sustainable footing. In every scenario Advertised Emissions is a factor that we talk with clients about in terms of what it may mean for them and how they can start to plan for it… such as potential carbon tax they may need to pay in the future.”
What would make it possible for practitioners to implement Advertised Emissions?
On the call were over 50 professionals ranging from CE0’s founders, sustainability leads strategists, media owners, and external thought leaders, who came together to define what next for Advertised Emissions.
We posted the question:
What would make it possible for practitioners to implement Advertised Emissions in our business and across the industry?
Six core insights from our breakout groups came through loud and clear:
- Enhance Methodological Rigour: Keep refining how we calculate and report Advertised Emissions. To ensure accuracy, and align with international standards.
- Develop Incentive Structures: Create clear incentives for companies to adopt sustainable practices, possibly backed by regulatory frameworks for compliance and widespread adoption across the industry.
- Foster Industry Collaboration: Encourage collaboration between agencies, clients, and regulatory bodies to establish a unified approach to sustainability. We can learn from successful case studies and existing frameworks like the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
- Build Comprehensive Resources: Invest in creating and disseminating industry-accepted resources that offer guidelines, clarify regulatory and ethical considerations, and support decision-making processes related to sustainability in advertising.
- Expand Employee Engagement and Training: Develop comprehensive training programmes to educate employees at all levels on the importance of sustainability and their role in achieving corporate sustainability goals.
- Leverage Technology and Data Analytics: Utilise advanced data analytics and technology to better track, analyse, and report on emissions. This enhances our ability to make informed decisions and meet regulatory requirements.
So what next?
An updated version of the principles folding in nuanced insight from each sector is in the making.
Purpose Disruptors are about to kick off an academic partnership to add more rigour to the Advertised Emissions methodology.
We invite you to consider the learnings shared in this consultation and to participate in the debate to address the questions posed.
We also would like to offer support and collaboration to advance the industries’ climate response. Get in touch.
