“Advertised emissions”: A vital new metric to help the industry tackle climate change

This article outlines research by Purpose Disruptors and magic numbers concerning the environmental impact of incremental sales generated by advertising in the UK, and how the industry can respond.

Additional sales from advertising add 28% to the annual carbon footprint of every single person in the UK.

That’s the headline finding of new research being launched at COP26 in Glasgow this week by Purpose Disruptors, a network of ad professionals hoping to reform the industry in response to climate change, and the marketing analytics consultancy magic numbers.

In harder ecological terms, that 28% figure equates to 186 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, and is equivalent to running 47 coal-fired power plants all year round.

It’s important because the window available to keep us within 1.5 degrees Celsius...

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