From Our Global Director
In the three years since we launched the carbon calculator, we have seen significant upheaval within the advertising industry. Marketing budgets are being repeatedly tightened, the workforce has reduced, and the continuous development of technology demands our attention. It is heartening to see that despite these challenges, the move to sustainable content creation is gaining momentum and solidifying its place within the core strategy of organisations.
It is crucial we keep pushing ahead because we are now at a tipping point. 2023 was the warmest year on record, with extreme weather causing floods, wildfires, storms, and crop failure around the world. Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest level in four million years, while emissions of carbon dioxide continue to reach new heights. As an industry we need to remind ourselves of the urgency of the situation when the environmentally conscious choice seems to demand more time, effort, or perhaps budget.We cannot make decisions in isolation; we need to acknowledge the part we continue to play in this global crisis.
Reducing the amount of carbon being emitted can sometimes feel like an insurmountable challenge. Given that emissions are believed to have surpassed a record 36.8 billion tonnes in 2023 and the threshold of 1.5°C will be “passed for all practical purposes” in 2024, the scale of the task is daunting. However, there are many reasons to be optimistic that it can be achieved. The speed at which those of us in advertising can respond to real world events, and use our creative power to influence and inform, gives us the potential to bean incredible force for good, and a key player in the fight against climate change. What we choose to say, as well as how we choose to say it, needs urgent consideration.
Sustainability is not a buzzword, and we can’t assume that it will continue to feature on the agenda without a concerted effort on our part. We need to challenge ourselves to only support positive progress that benefits people and planet first and foremost. It requires a collective effort from all of us working across brands, creative agencies, production companies, suppliers, and trade bodies to ensure we continue the conversation.
In 2023 we saw an increase in companies that were willing to speak publicly about their successes, and their failures. The Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards are a clear indicator of the shift within advertising, with a 17% increase in entries from 2022, spotlighting organisations proudly sharing their planet positive work and demonstrating how creativity and sustainability can go hand in hand. Sharing best practices, knowledge, and resources across the industry, while acknowledging that there is not a straightforward fix, is key. Collaboration will help us all accelerate our progress to reach net zero.
This year’s report records a 1.5 tCO2e increase in average completed project size, from 2022to 2023: a 32% rise. We expect such year-on-year rises to continue before average emissions start to fall, as we see larger projects completed, which are representative of the big budget work being made by the industry. These figures are crucial, as we can’t accurately measure our progress without knowing where we are starting from. Understanding the data will push us to adapt and refine our strategies. Regulation requirements, such as the EU CorporateSustainability Reporting Directive coming in 2025, will see many companies expected to deliver comprehensive sustainability information alongside their financial information. For an industry obsessed with data points, carbon reporting has been noticeably absent from our metrics, and there is limited time remaining to rectify this before it becomes law.
This may sound alarming, but we are here to help. I understand we are asking many of you to add to your already significant workloads, but I want to assure you that we are doing our part to make carbon measurement as simple and efficient as possible while retaining robust reporting capabilities. We are making significant upgrades and improvements to the carbon calculator, speeding up the data gathering and entry process, while keeping the focus on our end goal: to support the sector to reduce carbon emissions generated by advertising production. We also appreciate this data needs to be comparable with the measurement of operational emissions, which is where standardised emissions frameworks come in – a key consideration of our work. We are here to support the industry by providing the means to confidently measure emissions and guiding you through this unfamiliar process.
Moving toward a sustainable future demands courage, concession, and collaboration.This is even more true in production, a naturally collaborative process which follows long-established practices. I hope this report serves as a roadmap, sharing inspiration from those who have taken the lead, and showcasing the support we can provide as you move through your sustainable production journey.
The business imperative for sustainable production will vary from company to company, but at AdGreen we believe there are several key reasons for organisations to embrace sustainability which we detail in this review. The learnings shared by other AdGreen users will not just benefit the production side of your business but can inform and improve an organisation’s wider operations.