A decade ago, phrases like “carbon neutral” and “Corporate Social Responsibility” felt more like buzzwords than business imperatives. Sustainability wasn’t on the radar for most companies, with many c-suite’s wary of the negative impact that any “green” initiatives could have on short-term profits.
Fast forward to today, and sustainability is everywhere—news, culture, politics and especially business. In fact, a 2018 study found that 97% of investors factored Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics into their decision-making. It’s also impacting job searches, with 72% of Gen Zs and 71% of millennials stating that environmental policies and initiatives are important when researching a new employer. Consumers are equally as invested, with revenue from sustainable products growing six times faster than other products.
The Sustainable Future (the TLDR version at least)
So how did we get here? What have companies been up to these past 10 years to make headway in the race towards a more sustainable future?
To support the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol developed a system to classify emissions into three categories: Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased energy), and Scope 3 (indirect emissions from a company’s value chain).
Source: https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/Scope3_Calculation_Guidance_0.pdf
Most of the sustainability efforts we hear about focus on reducing Scope 1 emissions—like Nike, which reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at its facilities by 69%, closing in on its 70% goal by 2025. Other big names like Target and Disney are also jumping in, pledging net-zero emissions by 2040 and 2030, respectively.
Media’s Role in GHG Emissions
While companies have made progress in reducing Scope 1 emissions, the spotlight is now shifting to Scope 2 and 3. These indirect emissions include everything from the energy used to power IT services to the emissions generated by digital advertising campaigns.
“Digital decarbonization” is the process of reducing emissions and any environmental impacts associated with digital activities. This involves integrating sustainable practices and applying eco-friendly measures throughout the entire lifecycle of digital technologies, from production to usage to (eventual) disposal.
Unsurprisingly, some of the biggest contributors to digital waste are among the largest technology and social media companies. It makes sense when you think about the scale of brands and consumers alike who utilize these platforms every day.
While their goal is to reach net-zero emissions across all operations and value chain activities by 2030, Google recently reported a 48% increase in GHG emissions since 2019, largely due to a surge in data center energy consumption from new AI technologies. To help combat the energy required to keep-up in the age of AI, the tech Goliath recently unveiled “Trillium” their sixth-get TPU which is over 67% more energy-efficient than TPU v5e.
(It’s also worth noting that Google has maintained 100% renewable energy matching across global operations for the past seven years.)”
But Google and other “big tech” players are not alone in their contribution to media-based emissions. Advertisers themselves are also adding fuel to the proverbial fire. WPP, one of the five major “holding companies,” estimated that Scope 3 emissions from Media accounted for nearly 54% of their total emissions.
As younger generations become more aware of digital marketing’s environmental impact, they’ll push for transparency in Scope 3 reporting. For marketers, this means understanding and owning their digital carbon footprint and adopting digital decarbonization strategies—a task that’s easier said than done.
Luckily, help is on the way!
In 2024, Ad Net Zero introduced the Global Media Sustainability Framework. This voluntary framework gives the industry a way to measure and reduce GHG emissions in marketing, with key action points like creating a sustainable media partner list and cutting unnecessary tech from the media value chain.
While we still don’t fully understand the totality of GHG emissions caused from digital advertising, some estimate that one million ad impressions are nearly the equivalent of around one metric ton of COe2. Here’s just a snapshot of emission-generating activities that take place throughout the average media lifecycle:
- Media Agencies: Agency overhead (office, business travel, IT resources), servers for storing client assets
- Creative Agencies: Agency overhead, production overhead, servers for editing & storing assets
- AdTech Partners: Emissions from running DSPs and SSPs, data transmission, data collection
- Publishers: Emissions from servers that house publisher sites, displaying programmatic media, network transmissions
When you consider all of the individuals and companies that are involved in showing one ad to just one consumer, it’s clear just how intertwined adtech, advertisers, and publishers are when it comes to generating emissions. It’s this interdependence that makes it crucial for every player in the industry to adopt a similar framework and measurement system for tracking emissions.
Gen Z and Sustainability
But it’s not just governments or industry groups driving these efforts—young consumers, especially Gen Z, are demanding more transparency from the brands they support. Gen Z—which now makes up a quarter of the global population—is four times more likely to support brands committed to climate change. And 64% of them are even willing to spend more on sustainable products. With their spending power estimated to reach $12 trillion by 2030, that’s a pretty loud directive for brands.
Sustainability is also reshaping how brands communicate through marketing. Gone are the days when companies could hide their ESG efforts in a corporate report. Today’s consumers expect brands to be upfront. In fact, 60% of Gen Z and Millennials say that while a brand’s reputation may lead to a purchase, trust is what keeps them coming back.
To build genuine trust with young consumers, brands must authentically and consistently communicate their values, a task which is easier said than done in today’s congested and fragmented media landscape where every minute:
- 1.7M Facebook posts are shared
- 66k photos are uploaded to Instagram
- 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube
- 1M hours of streaming video are consumed
Per Domo’s Data Never Sleeps 10.0 report
With so much noise, marketers often struggle to stay on trend or weave sustainability messaging into their strategy, choosing instead to focus on evergreen, sales-driven content. But connecting brand values to cultural moments through consistent sustainability messaging is crucial for building trust with eco-conscious consumers. At Sightly, we’ve seen this play out time and again.
Where Sightly Comes In
As proud supporters of Ad Net Zero, we are currently working on a joint initiative to integrate sustainability logic into our marketing intelligence platform, Brand Mentality. With our focus on brand values and media integrity, we are well-positioned to help advertisers show up authentically around sustainability.
Brand Mentality’s contextual targeting capabilities ensure that brands prioritizing sustainability can align their messaging with their audience.
For instance, we recently helped a client in the steel industry establish a sustainability playbook regarding how the brand wanted to react to news and trends around new sustainable products, renewable energy, environmentally-friendly construction, political policy, and more. Using this playbook, we were able to reach target B2B audiences on relevant sustainability-centric CTV content at the video level, where we ran creatives with green-centric messaging. The result was an impressive 99% video-completion-rate (VCR), which was a 5% increase over all other targeting tactics.
As more brands adopt sustainability frameworks, they’ll expect all their partners to prioritize transparency around carbon footprints. We have plans in place to measure our own carbon footprint and learn about the ways we can reduce emissions and work on educational initiatives to support brands on their own sustainability journeys.
What’s Next for Brands?
As pressure mounts from consumers and regulators, it’s critical for brands and agencies to evaluate their entire operation—from direct emissions to digital marketing. By setting criteria for choosing media partners who care about sustainability and adopting frameworks like the Global Media Sustainability Framework, businesses can reduce their environmental impact and build authentic, lasting connections with their audiences. At Sightly, we’re here to help brands navigate this evolving landscape and create authentic sustainability playbooks that drive impactful connections with consumers.