// 15
ISTOCK/ IPOPBA
ENVIRONMENT
Is the U.K. model workable here?
Digital Campaigns and their Carbon Costs BY AARON YEARDLEY
I
t is now essential for companies to quantify, understand, and reduce their carbon footprint. Yet, most companies only consider embodied carbon in their products and operational carbon from manufacturing and office emissions. But now, the paradigm is beginning to shift so that a digital carbon footprint is also required. The UK’s advertising industry has activated the AD Net Zero Action Plan in a bid to reduce carbon emissions from digital FEBRUARY 2022
advertising to net zero by 2030. The five-step action plan includes a “simple” list of actions that each business should follow to become real net zero. However, Action 3 is far from simple. With the aim to reduce the carbon emissions from digital advertising, Action 3 aims to curb the emissions sourced from media planning and buying. This should enable businesses to make more informed decisions when choosing media agencies. But the caveat; Action 3 is totally reliant on a tool for the future called
DIMPACT, which is currently in its prototype stage. DIMPACT has begun making huge strides by enabling participating media companies the ability to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with serving media content, including that from the ad delivery value chain. However, for players in the media and advertising industries, quantifying carbon emissions any later than now is too late. Together, we all need to take an active role in enabling carbon
reductions. We simply cannot wait for tools to do the job for us. Calculating the environmental impact of digital advertising is no simple task. The various routes through the programmatic supply chain complicate calculations but the inherent inefficiency of digital advertising causes all routes to be environmentally damaging. Here, we will depict the methodology involved in calculating the greenhouse gas emissions from one route through the programmatic supply chain. We aim to show that whilst the DMN.CA ❰
