- Ad Net Zero runs content programme at London Climate Action Week for the first time, in addition to annual presence at Cannes Lions
- Emissions from 95%* of global media spend can now be calculated through the Global Media Sustainability Framework
- New creative toolkit – Every Brief Counts – freely available to help unlock more effective storytelling
London, UK. 23 June 2026: Ad Net Zero has published its biggest update on sustainable tools to date, including the third edition of its Global Media Sustainability Framework (GMSF) to help track emissions from 95%* of global media spend.
This is supported by the launch of Every Brief Counts, a voluntary, science-backed toolkit to help creative, strategy and brand professionals enhance advertising effectiveness by featuring more sustainable behaviours and actions in the most appropriate way. A dual programme of activities at London Climate Action Week and Cannes Lions will feature sustainability and advertising experts from across the industry.
Sebastian Munden CBE, Ad Net Zero Global Chair, said: “This is a milestone moment for Ad Net Zero as we deliver two key tools to support sustainable changes to the way we work and the work we make. The data is clear and evidence is growing – sustainable advertising delivers commercially through greater effectiveness, smart efficiencies and waste reduction. The Global Media Sustainability Framework and our Every Brief Counts toolkit are better for business, delivering more effective media planning and storytelling, whilst also reducing carbon and meeting the demands of stakeholders across the value chain.”
Supporting A Sustainable Media Supply Chain Worldwide
For the first time, advertisers and agencies can now use GMSF aligned tools to view sustainability performance and understand the impact of different media decisions across markets and across media channels. This third edition of the GMSF, v1.3, now allows emissions from media channels that account for 95%* of global media spend to be calculated with a consistent framework in line with carbon accounting and industry best practices. As well as Digital, TV, OOH and Print, the GMSF will soon provide guidance for Audio and Cinema media.
The GMSF has been developed with input from key industry stakeholders and Ad Net Zero supporters, including those within the GMSF Steer Team and Ad Net Zero Global supporters: The 4As, ANA, Booking Holdings, dentsu, EACA, Ebiquity, Estée Lauder, Google, Havas, IAA, IAB, IAB Europe, Indeed, IPA, ISBA, L’Oreal, LVMH, Mars, Mastercard, Meta, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Spotify, TikTok, Union des Marques and WPP.
Flavien Taquet, Marketing, Communications and Transformation Director, Renault Group, said: “The GMSF helps us move into this new era by giving us a common language to measure media impact across markets. It allows us to standardise reporting in line with industry standards and speak with one clear voice.”
Stephanie Helen Scheller, Managing Partner Sustainable Solutions EMEA, Omnicom Media: “This milestone shows what’s possible when our industry moves from ambition to action. By bringing greater consistency to how we measure media’s environmental impact and equipping teams with practical, science-backed tools like Every Brief Counts, we’re empowering better decisions at every stage of the process. The real opportunity now is scale – embedding these approaches into everyday planning and creativity so that sustainable choices become the default, not the exception.”
Harnessing The Benefits of Sustainable Storytelling
Every Brief Counts first launched as a pilot in late 2024, designed to showcase the key sustainable behaviours outlined by climate science and help teams tell these stories effectively through advertising. It has been developed in response to industry feedback, particularly from creatives and strategists, that there is a need for easy-to-digest science-backed climate information demonstrating how they can use their skill set to portray more sustainable behaviours accurately and responsibly within advertising.
Evidence from Kantar also shows that ads showing more sustainable behaviours are more effective. Overall short and long-term effectiveness is higher when the content includes sustainable behaviours, and these ads are also more distinctive, especially within their category, as well as emotionally engaging.
The Sustainable Behaviours Ad Tracker, a collaboration between the Advertising Association, Ad Net Zero and Kantar, which reports on the portrayal of the Every Brief Counts behaviours within advertising, shows that only 4.3% of ads currently feature sustainable behaviours. This is a drop from the 6.1% seen in the first report in April 2025. There continues to be more ads featuring sustainable transport and travel choices, and less featuring sustainable diet, product purchase or home and energy choices.
The Every Brief Counts brand was developed by dentsu Creative UK and designed with the creative development process in mind to make the toolkit as intuitive and accessible as possible.
Jessica Tamsedge, CEO, dentsu creative UK, said: “Climate action continues to be seen as ‘other’, an extraneous fight to core business delivery. Every Brief Counts is designed to hardwire sustainability into the creative process and ensure it is considered through the creative and production process.”
Businesses to already participate in Every Brief Counts include Born Social, Channel 4, EDF, giffgaff, Havas UK, Immediate, ITV, JCDecaux, Martin Agency, Meta, MGOMD, Neverland, Sky Media, TeamPeople and TikTok.
Lisa Boyles, Head of Go To Market and Media, giffgaff, said: “Responsible and sustainable marketing is at the core of the giffgaff brand and we were proud to take part in the Every Brief Counts pilot, which allowed us to demonstrate this commitment alongside key partners. Having clear and consistent guidance on how to tell more sustainable stories through advertising is key if we are to see industry-wide action in this space, so it’s great to see Every Brief Counts scaling to wider audiences.”
Kate Waters, Director of Client Strategy and Commercial Marketing, ITV, said: “This is a brilliant way to harness the power of advertising to accelerate the adoption of more sustainable behaviours. Ad Net Zero have done a fantastic job distilling a very complex topic into a simple but inspiring guide for agencies and their clients.”
The list of more sustainable behaviours included in the Every Brief Counts toolkit is based on Ad Net Zero’s interpretation of publicly available climate science sources, including the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) AR6, Chapter 5 (2022) report, Project Drawdown, Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Climate Change Committee (CCC). Its development was guided by Dr. Bill Wescott, Ad Net Zero’s Lead Climate Science and Policy Advisor, and Sebastian Munden, Ad Net Zero Global Chair and co-author of Sustainable Advertising.
Further inspiration:
More examples of sustainable progress within advertising businesses can be found within the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards. The Awards, which are currently open for the fifth year, celebrate the best industry work demonstrating both sustainable and commercial success. You can download the 2026 entry kit here.
If you want to find out more about the general Ad Net Zero Programme, see here.
Full details regarding Ad Net Zero’s programming at both London Climate Action Week and Cannes Lions can be found here.
*Source WARC 2025
