Sustainability is a hot topic in media and ad tech circles. While the conversations are well-intentioned, they are just that: talk—even though the tools to drive meaningful change have existed for quite a while.

The advertising industry has to stop hiding behind the fact that things are not perfect, stop saying it cares about sustainability and actually do the things it proclaims to care about.

Here are three areas where marketers have a genuine chance to align their media investments with sustainability intentions and maximize financial efficiency in the process:

Supply path optimization

Data from BidSwitch shows that 98% of traffic has a complete SupplyChain Object—which provides transparency into all the parties that were involved in a given transaction—and 90% of all traffic has two hops or less. Dope. Before we declare victory though, that same data shows a 370% increase in the number of supply-side platform (SSP) bid requests between 2017 and 2023. Some of that can be explained by the rise in CTV, but most of it is actually due to multiple header bidding integrations and the use of deal IDs to game the bidstream.

While this hasn’t traditionally fallen under the supply path-optimization umbrella, wrapper duplication also wastes an awful lot of the work done in the name of efficiency. Despite being the most direct possible path, your demand-side platforms are still bidding on the same inventory believing that it’s unique. The Global Placement ID (aka GPID) can be used to identify duplicative paths to the same piece of inventory.

Why are you OK with SSPs sending multiple requests for the same inventory as long as there's plausible deniability when the duplication has been obfuscated by the header bidder? That is just bad business and is pure waste from a sustainability perspective—and you don’t need an emissions calculator to tell you that.

Made for advertising

Determining what is or is not made for advertising—often spammy, clickbait or low-quality websites—is a mixing board, not a light switch. Brands will have different tolerances. That is OK. What is not OK is (a) not doing basic quality checks of inventory, (b) having the conversation to figure out where that line is for a brand, and (c) not bothering to understand the perverse incentives created by the media metrics in the bonus malus clauses of contracts.

According to Jounce Media’s State of MFA report, as of September 2023 MFA is still taking up 20% of the bidstream. MFA websites use a TON of energy by cramming content with ads and not following simple best practices, which results in ads being seen on a page that makes consumers angry while frantically searching for the close button.

The ANA’s 2023 Programmatic Media Transparency study found that as much as $20 billion is wasted, mostly due to vanity media metrics. In its words, “common sense should tell buyers that not all ‘cheap’ inventory is ‘quality’ inventory.”

It is time to use attributes in open real-time bidding technology such as the IAB Tech Lab’s Object: Refresh—which signals when and how often an ad slot automatically refreshes—and Global Placement ID to move away from media buying strategies based solely on highly viewable, inexpensive media and to rethink media buying strategy to optimize toward actual performance.

Enforcing accurate video signals

The buy side continues to allow itself to be gaslit by video inventory claiming to be instream without any validation. Bad actors continue to get away with mislabeling video inventory that clearly does not meet the definition because few bother to check—especially considering the updated signals that close a lot of loopholes.

The binary of “if it’s not instream it's rubbish” is simply false. But when brands buy instream videos they are paying a premium. Dave Morgan, CEO of Simulmedia, says brands are paying four times as much as they would for other kinds of inventory. Brands should demand that verification vendors ensure those signals are accurate.

Concerns about CTV—including whether the TV is on, if the ad is viewable or if multiple ads are playing in different applications at the same time—can be addressed with the IAB Tech Lab’s Open Measurement Software Development Kit. Given the CPMs this inventory commands OMSDK implementation should be required before buying CTV inventory.

It takes a lot of energy to power servers that render videos, but they would use less if overvalued video inventory was reduced.

This is not a signal problem; it is an enforcement problem. Marketers don’t need to know all the ins and outs of each specification, but they do need to ask the questions (supported by reporting) of the media buying teams that traffic ads.

These are difficult problems, but they’re not intractable. We have the tools to solve this and the ultimate power to enforce standards that promote efficient, brand-safe and sustainable programmatic advertising. It’s time to stop talking and walk the walk.