The programmatic advertising industry produces more than 215,000 metric tons of carbon emissions in a single month, according to research company Scope3’s Q1 2023 state of sustainable advertising report.
The report, which covered the USA, UK, Australia, Germany and France, highlights that if marketers cut spending on 'climate risk' websites, 33.5K metric tons of carbon could be saved every month. The majority (60%) of carbon generated by programmatic advertising comes from ‘ad selection emissions’ and can be attributed to the notoriously complex supply chain.
Anne Coghlan, co-founder and COO at Scope3, said this report is crucial for the industry to pause and consider how we come together to tackle the climate emergency.
“We are striving for a more effective advertising industry with the least impact on the environment, something that can only be achieved by industry collaboration, using the right data and taking action now," Coghlan said.
"For the first time, we know where to take action to deliver the most immediate impact.”
Brian O’Kelley, co-founder and CEO at Scope3, said another action advertisers can do right now to dramatically reduce energy consumption is to change the way they configure the trillions of auctions that match advertisers with ad placements.
“In doing so, we improve transparency, reduce privacy risk, and increase the proportion of spend in working media, without adverse revenue impact for publishers and no adverse performance or reach impact for buyers," O’Kelley said.
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