Carbon calculations set to factor more in media buying

By Erwin Busselot, Director Business Innovation & Solutions, Ricoh Graphic Communications, Ricoh Europe 

Ricoh Europe, London, 18 September, 2024 – The advertising industry faces a dual environmental challenge: reducing its own emissions while catalysing positive consumer behaviour for a more sustainable world.

So say Matt Bourn, Director of Communications for the Advertising Association and Ad Net Zero in Great Britain, and Sebastian Munden, Chair of Ad Net Zero and WRAP, in their book Sustainable Advertising.

They explore how media purchases – online, print, TV, outdoor, radio, and cinema – impact emissions.

For advertising conglomerate WPP these six areas represented 54% of its emissions according to its 2019 Sustainability Report. For Guardian Media Group, 99% of its 2022-2023 assessed emissions footprint originated from the supply chain. Printing operations accounted for 72% of those emissions, predominantly due to paper production.

Another consideration is CO2 emissions resulting from advertising. Because consumer purchasing and use of products and services are influenced by advertising, leading to ‘Advertised Emissions.’ Despite the industry’s substantial investment in understanding the link between advertising and sales, there is no clear way to quantify the additional CO2 emissions driven by this increased level of consumption, particularly at the level of individual advertising campaigns.

Operational goals and client expectations are driving a revaluation of CO2 emissions within the media mix. But there is a big challenge – measurement.

A complex supply chain, numerous stakeholders, and a wide range of activities make it very difficult to develop consistent, transparent, and comparable tools for meaningful calculation.

In the book, Mindshare, a media agency within GroupM, states existing carbon calculators use inconsistent parameters which means emissions cannot be compared.

Cepi (Confederation of European Paper Industries) has gone some way to addressing this in the paper industry. It has introduced a Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) framework and related Category Rules (PEFCR) for paper, board, and tissue paper. These help paper companies conduct comprehensive Life Cycle Analyses (LCAs), including assessments of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on a comparable basis.

Marketreach, a division of Britain’s Royal Mail, employs a carbon calculator for its top 10 formats. With this tool agencies and advertisers can access metrics to manage campaign carbon emissions.

A pathway for its members to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 has been created by the British Professional Publishers Association (PPA).

However, a graphic industry wide carbon measurement tool is lacking and the print media value chain faces a significant challenge in demonstrating to the advertising industry, brands, and consumers, its commitment to, and progress in, reducing emissions.

Addressing this gap and providing emission data across the entire value chain is crucial.

As Bourn and Munden’s book states, immediate action can be taken to eliminate emissions from everyday media plans by minimising negative environmental impacts.

Some ways Ricoh is reducing emissions and how in turn we are help Print Service Providers cut theirs can be found here. We have also recently expanded the sustainability focused resources available in our Business Booster consultancy including calculating the impact of analogue versus digital production. Talk to Ricoh to discover more.

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