Why gCO2PM should be a metric on everyone’s mind

One thousand digital ad impressions uses up the same energy as running one load of laundry, according to research from Scope3. 

Why advertising emissions matter

“Once you see the problem, you can’t unsee the problem,” said Brenda Tuohig, Scope3’s head of strategy and global partnerships, at DMEXCO. “Can you imagine when you’re running those hundreds of millions of impressions in campaigns just how much energy you’re producing?”

Scope3, which works with stakeholders to reduce carbon emissions, reports that over 60% of ad emissions are due to how they’re distributed, with the programmatic ecosystem the prime offender. Its quarterly Sustainable Advertising Report includes various benchmarks, and the average grams of carbon per 1000 impressions (gCO2PM) is a central metric.

Significant reductions are possible 

• Demand-side platform Adform partnered with Scope3 across 45 active campaigns in nine countries and lowered overall carbon footprint by 60%. 
• Audi cut out a third of high-carbon domains for a campaign in the Czech Republic and achieved a 33% reduction in gCO2PM against a control group (which was 81% lower against the market average). 
• Vodafone did something similar in Germany and achieved a 40% lower carbon footprint, as measured by gCO2PM – and a 12% decline in cost per acquisition. 

Takeaways 

• Measurement and benchmarking are critical in order to know not only what good looks like but how campaigns can get there.
• Always-on testing and learning will aid continuous improvements.
• Develop a sustainable trading strategy: consider frequency capping, optimising with efficient algorithms, prioritising higher-quality apps and sites, and using sustainable sourcing and supply paths.

Key quote

“The big thing for us within our platform was being able to look at, how can we reduce the carbon emissions and how can we also balance that out with performance” – Vicky Foster, VP, global commercial partnerships at Adform.

BEC