Can the advertising industry, built to amplify consumption, become sustainable?

The pressure is on businesses to adopt more sustainable practices, but can advertisers follow suit? Our Group Director for Strategy, Media and e-Commerce, Krishna Kumar, shares his thoughts on how sustainability and advertising can actually go hand in hand.

A Forbes article explained how Gen Z is not only a better proponent and practitioner of sustainability, but also an influencer for their Gen X and Boomer grandparents. People in the advertising industry have used such pointers to profess why brands and products should become more sustainable. Agencies have since used sustainability messages across campaigns for clients, segmented audiences based on this interest, and even won awards for some brilliant ideas. 

Moving from preaching to practising, can the advertising industry, that is built to amplify consumption and influence people to increase their materialistic wants, truly become sustainable? Or is sustainable advertising just a misnomer?

The need for sustainability thinking in the advertising industry

A quick search will reveal that there is a considerable carbon footprint and negative environmental impacts associated with the production of advertising materials and their distribution. Surprising but true! Be it print advertising that is correlated to environmental impacts in sourcing and the usage of chemicals and plastics or digital advertising, in which energy-thirsty devices such as big servers and digital technologies generate tremendous carbon footprints and e-wastes. Purpose Disruptors, a UK-based agency, calculated that the advertising industry contributes a 28% addition per head in carbon footprints in the UK alone. In addition, a carbon calculator by Good Loop revealed that 5.4 tonnes of CO2 is emitted by a typical online ad campaign. The note below from Wikipedia illustrates the magnitude of this impact. 

“In 2004, over seven billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases associated with print media advertising were emitted into the atmosphere by the United States. In the US, about 25 million square metres or about 10,000 tons of non-biodegradable PVC is directly attributed to outdoor billboards every single year”.

Efforts to drive sustainability in the advertising industry

Amy Williams, CEO of Good-Loop, in a WARC article expands on the key steps the industry could take on decarbonisation. For example, using SVG files instead of JPG, and delivering just 5% of the campaigns during non-peak times (which means lesser use of the energy grid) can have a significant impact on the amount of CO2 emitted. 

There have also been interesting industry-wide initiatives that agencies can align with. Ad Net Zero is one such programme. Launched in the UK in 2020, this initiative aims to reduce the carbon footprint of advertising by developing, producing, and running advertising campaigns to real net zero by 2030. The five step plan proposed by Ad Net Zero addresses key areas in the advertising industry that are likely to result in high carbon emissions. Business travel, office energy use, curbing emissions in advertising production, investigating media planning and buying decisions, and even looking into award events, are among the areas that need to be addressed. 

Ad Green is another initiative that aims to develop standards of sustainability in the advertising industry with a vision to eliminate the negative impact the industry has on the environment. The free Carbon Calculator developed by AdGreen is able to quantify the carbon footprint based on specific inputs about advertising production, be it motion graphics, stills or audio projects in advertising campaigns. Further to this, Ad Green also conducts training programmes for people in the industry that impart know-how on areas and methods to decarbonise.  

Small steps can make a big impact

As Millennials and Gen Z will soon become the torch bearers of the advertising industry, demand for sustainability in advertising will only become more acute. A UK study points to improved job satisfaction amongst 91% of advertising professionals, knowing that their agency was taking positive climate action. 

Besides big changes such as switching to low-energy digital ecosystems, reviewing the entire production process, and investigating the carbon footprints of their suppliers, agencies can also initiate simple steps to encourage employees to be more aware of wastages and adopt more sustainable habits in the workplace. These include minimising printing (or printing on both sides), using less air conditioners, or using more natural sunlight instead of electricity to light up the office.

For those further interested in sustainable advertising, The WARC Guide to net zero marketing is a must read. And if you are the last person leaving the office, do turn off the lights!

If you are looking for a sustainable approach to content development, media or analytics, you can reach us through https://www.lionandlion.com/.