Industry carbon reduction

Consumers

• 86% of consumers think companies should be doing as much as they can to reduce their impact on the environment instead of waiting to be forced to by the government.
• 42.1% of consumers feel guilty when they buy products or services that are not sustainable.
• 65.4% have adopted a more sustainable lifestyle to improve their happiness.

The advertising industry

• Amidst industry regulations tightening, half (49%) of UK marketing professionals are wary of working on sustainability marketing campaigns due to the fear of being accused of ‘greenwashing’.
• 2 in 5 (40%) marketers say they do not have relevant sustainability marketing qualifications but would want one, revealing a critical skills gap.
• 63 % of consumers say they would like brands to be more vocal about their sustainability plans, but remain sceptical about their authenticity.
• WPP, which manages media spend of more than $60bn on behalf of clients, has set a target to reach net zero carbon in its own operations by 2025 and across its supply chain by 2030, including emissions from the placement of advertising. 
• Using IPA Effectiveness Award winner data, Ecoeffectiveness focused on Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s “Beauty and brains” 2015-2017 campaign for Audi. It generated 1.7 million tonnes of carbon per year, or 5.1 million tonnes in total, about the same as the annual emissions of Uganda.

Young talent

• 91% of respondents say that they would be motivated by objectives related to the overall purpose of the company (societal or environmental), right from the job description stage.
• 9.7% of Gen Z consumers have boycotted a brand they see as not sustainable enough.
• 44.8% of Gen Z consumers feel guilty when they buy products or services that are not sustainable.
• 69.7% of Gen Z have adopted a more sustainable lifestyle to improve their happiness.
• 14.2% of Gen Z believe it is the responsibility of individuals/consumers to support sustainable initiatives.

As a result, we have educated ourselves about the carbon footprint of making ads or even running virtual events; and how to run our own businesses.

Industry Carbon Reduction Resources

Purpose Disruptors

"A network of advertising insiders working together to reshape our industry to tackle climate change." One of their many initiatives and training is #ChangeTheBrief Alliance - a not-for-profit partnership between agencies of every size and type - media, creative, design, PR - and their clients, learning and acting together to directly address the challenge of the climate crisis by promoting sustainability via every channel available to them.

The Alliance provides an on demand and face to face learning programme and community to all of its members, offering insights and expert advice at a category level on how we can adapt our work to promote more sustainable choices and behaviours in line with a zero-carbon world."

Ad Net Zero Certificate

Completing the Ad Net Zero Essentials Certificate gives learners:

• An essential understanding of the climate crisis
• Appreciation of our industry’s role to take positive climate action
• Techniques to measure the carbon emissions related to the work we produce across the advertising process and how to go about reducing them
• Provocation about what we can do as advertising and marketing services professionals to promote a more sustainable way of life
• Guidance on how to avoid greenwashing in advertising

AdGreen

Lots of different free resources such as the carbon calculator and sustainable production training.

IPA Media Climate Charter

The Media Carbon Calculator calculates the carbon emissions associated with a media plan based on the media mix. It uses a range of data sources, including DEFRA electricity emissions factors and device power outputs and energy intensity to determine the carbon footprint of a media plan at channel level.

There are other resources available to those media agencies who have signed up to the charter, which includes advice on the eight cliches not to use or overuse.

Ecoeffectiveness

A 20-minute film of senior people from Elvis and Iris explaining about the hidden measure to date in advertising effectiveness.

Green Screen Environmental Production Platform

Since 2009 they have supported and trained the production industry to make 1000 ads, films, tv shows in sustainable best practice.  They provide help for D&I. "The next generation of crew know only one way to shoot - sustainably. Graduates of the training who we’ve placed on shoots have all moved on from being a Green Steward to starting their production careers.’"

BCorps

"Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. Here is free knowledge and tools to help join the 600 UK companies with this status."

World Federation of Advertisers’ Planet Pledge

Planet Pledge is a Chief Marketing Officer led framework designed to galvanise action from marketers to promote and reinforce attitudes and behaviours which will help the world meet the challenges laid out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  One very useful resource is all the listed tools such as the Wayfinder from The Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Friends of the Earth

Training for local campaign groups.

Earth.Org

21 environmental films - movie night?  Lots of other knowledge on this site: e.g. best places to live to avoid climate change and guidelines to avoid greenwashing in marketing.

University of Cambridge Sustainability Management course

Online short course - "Learn to argue the business case for sustainability, develop integrated sustainability strategies, and implement them throughout your sphere of influence."

UN Climate Change resources

Very cerebral but gives the global picture.

Greenpeace

A great place to find a speaker to come to your office and talk about an aspect of climate change and how to take action.