Clicks and Climate: How Digital Advertising Impacts the Carbon Conversation

Nick Maumus, Assistant Media Planner

Sustainability is a buzzword in every industry, and it will only become more prominent as the climate crisis continues to grow. But when “carbon emissions” is mentioned in conversation; we default to thinking about the energy sector, big oil companies, and that dreaded Honda Civic revving its engine every early morning. What we forget is the prevalent and material impact caused by the digital world, and more specifically, advertising and media.

Firstly, carbon emissions in digital advertising are very real and have a much more prevalent impact than most of us realize. For context; 1M impressions creates 1 metric ton of CO2e (One passenger on a round-trip flight from Boston to London), and Google serves about 30 billion on an average day! 

Scope 1, 2, and 3: Categorizing Carbon Emissions

In terms of how we identify and categorize these carbon emissions; there is the Scope framework, which is divided into three categories.

• Scope 1 includes direct emissions from the business such as buildings, facilities, and company vehicles. 
• Scope 2 is related to energy consumption primarily demanded from the power grid to fuel activities, included in but not limited to those covered in Scope 1. It also encompasses utilities and power sources produced by entities other than the one using the energy.
• Scope 3, which accounts for approximately 90% of carbon emissions, originates from a business’s supply chain.

When we think of this in the context of media, the supply chain is not necessarily raw materials or manufactured inputs as might be the case for a computer chip manufacturer. For brands and agencies, the supply chain is most evident in the programmatic marketplace, where each publisher has multiple bid requests for every ad slot, and buyers are bidding on it all.

Additionally, every transaction and exchange of data that occurs on the programmatic supply chain releases a variable amount of carbon emissions; the larger and less efficient the supply chain, the more carbon is emitted. Publishers often duplicate ad bids for the same slot on overlapping DSPs and direct partnerships, leading to unnecessary and wasted transactions.

Measuring Media Emissions

Media emission measurement partners, such as Scope3, have entered the space to analyze programmatic publishers and raise awareness of their environmental impact. They provide a comparative ranking of the publisher’s total carbon footprint, their programmatic supply chain, and how their footprint breaks out among ad selection; media distribution; and creative delivery. 

Another valuable resource is a study conducted by Fifty-Five titled The Carbon Footprint of Media Campaigns. This public study examines the carbon emissions generated by a one-month mock omnichannel media campaign. The fascinating part of this study is how they were able to analyze the emissions from the four digital channels they chose to include. In their findings, they discovered that 323 Tons of CO2e were released over the course of one-month. However, if advertisers take sustainable digital advertising best practices into account, they can bring that total down on average 32% to 218T. 

Sustainability and Advertising: A Win-Win Partnership

Every impact, whether large or small, makes a difference in the climate issue. It is important that we spread awareness and resources to educate ourselves, and our industry, on the ways we can each drive change. In the context of programmatic supply chains, MFA (Made for Advertising) sites and ad-cluttered platforms are much less environmentally friendly—and on top of that, advertisers typically avoid these sites anyway. 

So, an incentive makes itself clear; a more efficient campaign is a cleaner campaign, and a cleaner campaign is a more effective campaign. All in all, understanding areas of improvement while maintaining the integrity of our campaigns can lead to bottom line improvements and notable environmental impacts. Next time you are in planning or see an innovative media placement, I invite you to explore the associated carbon journey and how you might be able to include sustainable digital advertising practices into your value chain.