In recent years, more attention has come to the ad industry’s carbon footprint. But to tackle its carbon emissions—which come from a wide range of sources from company operations to digital advertising—the industry needs to understand precisely where they’re coming from. And this means figuring out how to measure them.

Efforts to measure emissions by the industry’s main players—from holding companies to independent agencies—lack a standardized approach, say organizations including tech startup Scope3 and WPP-owned GroupM.

Industry group Ad Net Zero—created in 2020 by the U.K.-based Advertising Association together with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers—has been framed as a neutral third party aiming to bring companies together to collaborate on a framework. “We look at Ad Net Zero to marshall the industry and set the market requirements,” said Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab at Campaign U.S.’s Tech Talks in February.

But this push to address the industry’s carbon impact has been criticized. For instance, the environmental activist group Clean Creatives has argued that the work the industry does for fossil fuel clients such as Exxon cancels out any effect new efforts might have.

Read: Clean Creatives and scientists say drop fossil fuel clients

Below, Ad Age explains the state of ad industry emissions and efforts to measure them, including what more needs to be done. 

Where do the ad industry’s carbon emissions come from?

While there are varying figures showing the carbon output from specific sectors of the advertising industry and emissions scopes, a broad figure showing the industry’s total carbon output is not readily available, say organizations working on measurement, including Scope3 and Ad Net Zero.

A report from sustainability initiative AdGreen this March showed that the industry emitted 2,446.1 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) as a result of 515 projects completed last year. But “we believe that there are many more projects akin to those in the 50 tCO2e and above category being produced across the industry both in the UK and beyond, not yet being recorded,” the initiative's global director, Jo Fenn, said in a statement. “It’s clear that engagement is needed from organizations working on larger scale productions so that we have a more even picture.”

Here is a breakdown of what kind of emissions the industry needs to account for.

According to international standards, an organization’s carbon emissions are broadly categorized as Scope 1, 2 or 3, which respectively refer to its direct emissions; indirect pollution from external providers used by the company; and the even more indirect greenhouse gases produced by its supply chain.

The advertising industry’s Scope 1 emissions are straightforward: as with most other sectors, they come directly from sources that are controlled or owned by an organization, such as its vehicles or facilities.

Its Scope 2 greenhouse emissions are indirect, meaning the emissions that come from services purchased from an external provider, such as the energy bought from an electricity company. 

Scope 3 emissions are harder to get a grasp on, and they are also the largest part of any company’s emissions and the most complicated to reduce. For companies in the ad industry, Scope 3 can include suppliers they use during the production process or events. Less tangibly, it also includes the carbon impact of products advertised and the emissions produced by digital-only processes, such as placing and targeting ads and digital campaigns.

This last consideration is a big one: the internet generates carbon by consuming electricity through data centers, mobile devices and transmission networks, according to Website Carbon Calculator. Online advertising is the cause of about 1% of all global energy consumption, according to researchers of a 2018 study reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Also see: 15 execs leading sustainability efforts

What have carbon measurement efforts looked like so far?

Efforts have included creating measurement tools and plans, as well as coming up with solutions to standardize measurement. 

Ad Net Zero has created a five-pronged plan to reduce emissions.

The plan involves forming working groups of companies that each deal with emissions associated with each scope, including operating emissions, along with emissions from production, media buying, awards and the industry’s influence on consumer behavior. The group announced the launch of its U.S. chapter, led by former OMD CEO John Osborn, in February this year. 

Following its plan, Ad Net Zero has organized two global summits during which discussion included carbon measurement updates. Part of the plan also recommends resources from AdGreen, which is backed by the Advertising Association and provides resources including a carbon calculator and training.

There has also been a wealth of carbon calculators from holding companies and organizations including Dentsu, GroupM and Good-Loop, which allow a company to enter details about its operations to ascertain the biggest sources of carbon emissions.

It’s become clear that the industry needs to standardize these measurement efforts, however. 

“It’s happening, but I don’t think it’s necessarily helping, because right now there isn’t a global standard,” Matt Bourn, communications director of Ad Net Zero, told Ad Age last year while speaking of carbon measurement. “As an advertiser, you’re comparing apples with oranges with pears, meanwhile frustrating your media partners, because you’re interpreting their data in different ways.”

Also see: Ad Net Zero launches U.S. chapter

Why is standardizing measurement necessary? And what’s been done so far?

Carbon calculators are different for each company, Brian O’Kelley, founder of tech startup Scope3, said in an interview with Ad Age in November. O’Kelley previously founded ad tech company AppNexus and sold it to AT&T in 2018. Scope3 is focused on providing data to help the industry measure and reduce its supply chain emissions. 

“This is more (about) the math behind the calculator,” O’Kelley said, comparing it to a spreadsheet. “Everyone has a spreadsheet, but the question is, what are the lines of the spreadsheet,” he said, and what factors does everyone need to include? “Making sure everybody has all the required lines is about fairness and accuracy,” he said.

GroupM created a framework to standardize measurement in July, and in November announced it was gathering a group of 20 clients to test out its model for measurement. 

The agency highlighted the need to standardize measurement efforts as the reason for putting out the framework. “Having different standards across companies, platforms, and markets is delaying meaningful action,” GroupM CEO Christian Juhl said in a statement when the agency put out its framework in July.

Speaking of the methodology the agency described to Ad Age in November, Global Chief Innovation Officer for GroupM and WPP data company Choreograph Krystal Olivieri said, “We want it to not be the GroupM framework” and instead just have it become “the way to measure carbon emissions” across the industry.

Also see: 15 execs leading sustainability efforts

When asked why he thought a third-party trade group hadn’t led the charge, O’Kelley said at the time that “industry groups are all talking about who should do it … All of that conversation has been happening, so I think GroupM got impatient and started proactively working with clients to reduce their footprint.” 

In February, the agency teamed up with Scope3 to make its carbon calculator more accurate by using Scope3’s supply chain emissions data. 

See: GroupM updates its carbon calculator via Scope3 partnership

Ad Net Zero created a U.K.-based team in October last year, tapping Reckitt Global Media Director Craig Fryer to lead conversations around how to standardize measurement. 

Where do brands fit into this, and what are they doing?

On the brand side, companies have also launched their own efforts toward measurement or joined industry actions. 

Companies ranging from Google and Meta to Unilever are supporters of Ad Net Zero, and provide voluntary annual funding for all the organization’s operations. Others, such as GroupM’s client working group, have said they’re using carbon calculators from their agencies or from AdGreen.

Company actions have included Nestlé’s France division, which worked with ad tech company Impact+ in 2021 to measure its digital ad emissions for its Nescafé brand, with the aim of halving them. Toyota and Tesco both used carbon calculators from agencies to measure and cut the carbon effect of their digital ads, according to reporting from Insider last year.

Companies such as Unilever and Chanel also began asking their agencies to add their sustainability metrics when they pitched, according to 2021 reporting from Insider. 

Read more: Reckitt exec leads push to measure media carbon emissions

Has there been criticism of these actions?

Some critics, including author and sustainable marketing activist and advisor Thomas Kolster, say the ad industry must take a broader view of the issue. “The more painful conversation we need to have as an industry is the influence we have on consumer behavior,” such as telling consumers to buy more, Kolster said.

Environmental advocacy group Clean Creatives has criticized how holding companies and agencies are still doing work for fossil fuel clients. 

“The current sustainability commitments by holding groups don't address the biggest part of their climate impact, which is the work they do for their clients,” Duncan Meisel, Clean Creative’s co-founder and executive director, said in January 2022. “WPP's annual carbon footprint is 5.4 megatons of CO2, and the footprint of their fossil fuel clients is 2,287 megatons. So if they generate even a 0.2% increase in sales for their fossil fuel clients, they wipe out the entire impact of their pledge.” WPP didn't respond to Ad Age's request for comment on the accuracy of these figures.

Clean Creatives boycotted the U.S. launch of Ad Net Zero in February by holding its social media handles hostage until it provided “a plan about how they will get their member agencies out of working with fossil fuel clients,” Meisel said at the time in a statement. Said Ad Net Zero's Osborn in response: “We have not yet tackled that topic and that is something that is under discussion.”

Clean Creatives also penned a letter to the industry with scientists last year, telling companies to drop their fossil fuel clients.