Action 1 aims to reduce emissions from the operations of advertising businesses. It calls for agencies and marketing services companies to annually measure carbon consumption data, for example, electricity usage, business travel, waste production, so you can reduce your operational carbon emissions.
The setting of public, science-based (in line with the Paris Agreement) carbon reduction targets, as well as the calculation and reporting of annual emissions, are asked of all Ad Net Zero supporters, both global and local.
According to the inaugural Ad Net Zero report, two emissions sources usually predominate within a company in our industry’s day-to-day operations:
Some advertising agencies, along with businesses in other parts of the advertising ecosystem, have already taken significant steps to reduce operational emissions. Those that have driven new behaviours in their companies, and in some cases achieved ISO 14001, B Corp or equivalent recognised standards, report competitive advantage, higher employee morale and financial savings as a result.
Learning from those who have made the most progress, and to generate a collective drive towards decarbonisation,
Ad Net Zero asks our supporters to:
For more information and advice, please download our Action 1 Plan.
All agencies and production companies – with client support – will be encouraged to commit to reducing emissions from advertising production. AdGreen, an organisation created to reduce the negative environmental impacts of production, is one example of how Action 2 can be kickstarted. It provides information and tools to support the industry in this transition, including a carbon calculator and sustainability training.
Like other aspects of advertising, motion and stills advertising production can be carbon-intensive processes, particularly location shoots with high levels of travel, hospitality, and complex supply chains.
Launching AdGreen
AdGreen launched in September 2020, helping the advertising industry to eliminate the negative environmental impacts of production, enabling the production community to measure and understand waste and carbon impacts, and empowering them to act for zero waste / zero carbon. Provided free at the point of use to the advertising production community, the project comprises of a carbon calculator, training, resources, and renewable energy and offsetting programmes. AdGreen is predominantly funded via a levy on production spend, which is paid by participating advertisers.
AdGreen is based in the UK but with global ambition to enable the industry, wherever the activity is, to act for a sustainable future.
AdGreen’s Latest Annual Review
New data, published in AdGreen’s latest Annual Review, highlights the huge opportunity for carbon reduction in the process of ad production around the world. Analysing 2773 projects from 175 companies, the findings show that travel and transport activities across all projects accounted for the highest percentage of emissions (60.2%), followed by film spaces (7%), and accommodation (6.75%).
The report demonstrates a clear business opportunity for advertisers, creative agencies, and production companies from increasing this data analysis, working more closely with suppliers, and adopting new, more sustainable approaches to content creation. Significant changes to ad operations are crucial for the industry to meet its net zero target.
AdGreen’s bespoke carbon calculator tool, created in partnership with industry stakeholders and updated in 2024, enables advertising agency and production teams (‘contributors’) to easily log their production activities and see where practical changes can be made to reduce a project’s carbon footprint. It also allows the related parent companies, production consultancies, brands, and brand parents (‘reviewers’) to explore and analyse footprints for all projects within their campaigns. Later, users will be able to generate reporting data, which can be used to inform larger company-wide reporting.
Find out more about AdGreen’s resources here.
Media agencies, media owners and clients are encouraged to work with their supply chains to develop and implement lower carbon media plans. Ad Net Zero has developed the Global Media Sustainable Framework – the first version of a set of voluntary standards to calculate the emissions from media planning and buying.
The weight and media mix chosen for a campaign can make a substantial difference to its carbon footprint. Advertisers and their media investment advisors need to be well informed so they can plan their schedules with their environmental impact in mind.
In March 2023, Ad Net Zero launched a fast track workstream to identify a standard framework for measuring the carbon emissions from media campaigns. It aimed to bring together the best thinking from across the industry into one common framework by benchmarking the current carbon measurement and estimation practices to identify common definitions and measures. By establishing consistent data inputs across all media channels, this will help to facilitate accurate reporting of the emissions stemming from media.
While the Global Media Sustainability Framework continues to strengthen and develop, it is important to provide the industry with interim actionable advice. To do this, in 2023, Ad Net Zero published a ‘Guide to Sustainable Media for advertisers’, which is advice to help reduce the environmental impact of media plans. This also complements the work completed by IAB Tech Lab in its Sustainability Playbook, which can be viewed here.
Action 4 of the Ad Net Zero plan challenges industry awards bodies to ensure that the sustainability credentials and climate impact of campaigns inform judging.
In 2023, sustainability criteria were introduced into award entry forms at top creative awards shows such as Cannes Lions and D&AD. Ad Net Zero aims to work further with these shows and many others like them, to tighten up the criteria for the world’s best creative work in service of a net zero economy.
Action 4 also encourages organisers of events and conferences to put sustainability at the forefront of planning, seeking in particular to curtail long-distance travel, where possible. We have partnered with isla – dedicated to supporting the events industry’s transition to a sustainable future – to create this quick action guide.
Awards
The advertising industry is social and thrives on coming together, for example, around industry awards nights. These perform a valued role in a healthy community of like-minded professionals, promoting excellence and stimulating competition, for creativity and effectiveness. There are some awards for ‘green’ campaigns although these are limited. In most instances, awards for environmentally positive advertising are rolled into a broader ‘social good’ or ‘social purpose’ category, separated as niche and lower down in the hierarchy of importance.
When it comes to the coveted ‘Grand Prix’ awards especially, juries are seldom invited to consider the carbon impact of the advertising they are evaluating. We challenge the awarding bodies to introduce that thinking into their judging criteria.
It has been a great development to see that, for the first time in 2024, the Cannes Lions team has included a sustainability question on the entry form for every award that the jury could see. This data will, along with 2023’s data, be used by LIONS to provide a benchmark report year-on-year for how the industry is making progress on embedding sustainability into its work.
To help identify best practice and examples of sustainable campaigns, the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards, launched in 2022, recognise the businesses, organisations, and individuals who are leading the way in reducing their carbon footprint and contributing to the global effort to combat the climate emergency.
Judging work on the dual criteria of creative excellence and sustainability, these awards aim to inspire others to transform their own work by showcasing the innovative and effective measures being taken to achieve net zero emissions within adland. You can view all the winners from the 2023 awards here.
Events
For many organisations, events are important new business opportunities. But they can generate substantial carbon emissions, often unnecessarily or wastefully, and could be conducted in more climate-friendly ways. In order to meet the ambitions of Ad Net Zero, it is important that we take into account the climate impact of our industry events.
We have partnered with isla – an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the events industry’s transition to a sustainable future – on our own events, using their TRACE tool to measure emissions from our own work. All Ad Net Zero members are entitled to discounted membership of isla. In the UK, please contact hello@weareisla.co.uk for more information.
The pandemic proved to us that there is a better way to run events for the planet. For example, reducing the need for delegates to fly to industry events through utilising a hub-and-spoke approach, with events taking place at regional and local levels could significantly reduce emissions. If your team must be at an event think about the mode of transport you will take. For example, we have encouraged UK industry professionals to join us in taking the train from London to Cannes. Utilising facilities and contractors that exercise high sustainability standards can also make a big difference.
We firmly believe the cultural influence and creative power of the advertising industry should be used to drive positive change, in every sector of the economy. Action 5 is focused on using our ability to support more sustainable behaviours. Initiatives like #ChangetheBrief are recommended to provide agencies with more sustainable solutions to their campaign briefs.
Ad Net Zero believes that brands can use advertising to promote more sustainable choices, to back innovations that deliver greener solutions to people’s needs and desires, and to highlight behaviours that could reduce carbon emissions.
Research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Kantar suggests 64% of consumers say it is businesses’ responsibility to solve climate and environmental issues, 68% of employees say organisations should step up when governments fail to fix society’s problems and nearly half (49%) of investors would sell their investment if a company does not sufficiently address Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.
The Sustainable Behaviours Tracker
Ad Net Zero is committed to catalysing the transformation of adland’s work in favour of a net zero economy. With this in mind, we launched The Sustainable Behaviours Advertising Tracker. The Tracker, a project between the Advertising Association, Ad Net Zero and Kantar, aims to deliver a new regular report, based on work underway by Ad Net Zero under Action 5.
The new report will provide a quarterly and annual review of how and where sustainable behaviours feature within advertising campaigns. It will provide a new level of insights to the advertising industry, with benchmarks across categories for the portrayal of more sustainable behaviours.
Purpose Disruptors’ #ChangetheBrief
We need a determined effort across the board to influence the policies and decisions of advertisers toward more sustainable marketing approaches. One such effort is #ChangetheBrief, an initiative created at Mindshare and promoted to the wider industry by the Purpose Disruptors. Acknowledging that agencies – strategic, creative and media alike – have a duty to serve their clients to the best of their abilities, #ChangetheBrief mandates that, when briefed by a client, agencies present an additional response that encourages a sustainable behaviour or attitude in the client’s audience.
Avoiding Misleading Environmental Claims and Greenwashing
As brands increasingly promote more sustainable products and services, it’s important our industry understands the regulations surrounding this. Each country has different rules on making accurate environmental claims and Ad Net Zero has global training to help you understand the terminology, rules and regulations.
In terms of the regulation of advertising in the UK, CAP codes and ASA regulation already cover the need for clarity, substantiation and evidence for environmental claims. Guidance on environmental claims can be found via the ASA website, and the regulator is also reviewing how consumers understand the terminology ‘net zero’ and ‘carbon neutral’ – helping consumers understand substantiation of claims.
Also in the UK, the CMA has published a Green Claims Code, outlining, for example, how relevant claims must be truthful, clear and evidence-backed – while avoiding important omissions; making fair and meaningful comparisons; and considering the full lifecycle of a product. The CMA also offers a useful checklist and a more detailed guide, in a consumer context.
Another valuable place to start is the Global Guidance on Environmental Claims published by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), the global marketing trade body, in April 2022.
Celebrating our industry’s best work
The Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards were launched in 2022 and will return for the third year in November 2024. While the awards show and programme itself models the best practices we’d like to see across all other awards shows (See Action 4), the winners coming out of it provide the industry with a solid bank of case studies every year for immediate inspiration for their own creative work and/or sustainable business strategies.
Examples of last year’s winning campaigns and all the categories can be found on the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards website here.
