Advertising industry to tackle the climate emergency

Supplied. Advertising agencies and groups, advertisers and media and trade bodies have come together at Cannes to apply and plan the rollout of Net Zero

AdNet Zero is the advertising industry’s drive to reduce the carbon impact of developing, producing and running advertising to real net zero by 2030.

The AdNet Zero programme was launched in the UK in November 2020 by the Advertising Association, ISBA and the IPA and counts over 100 advertisers, agencies, commercial media owners and production companies in its membership.

Focus on US and EU

The global advertising industry, as measured by advertising media investment, was worth $594,322bn in 2020.

The top 20 advertising markets account for 89.3% of this spend and these markets, the US and EU that will be the immediate focus of the programme's rollout.

The next update will be presented at the Ad Net Zero Global Summit which will take place online on 9 and 10 November, alongside COP27.

Going forward, progress will be shared and discussed at Cannes Lions each summer and the Global Summit each November, in line with the COP event, to maintain momentum during this critical decade.

Supported by Cannes Lions

Ascential, owner of Lions, has played a major role in convening this international action to tackle the climate emergency. The group invited more organisations with international reach to join and help support the roll-out plans.

The world's major advertising agency holding companies, dentsu international, Havas, Interpublic Group, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP, along with Unilever – one of the world's largest advertisers, global tech companies, Google and Meta, plus European media company Sky, will be supported by US trade bodies, ANA, 4A's and the IAB, European and global agency associations, EACA and Voxcomm, the WFA representing global advertisers and the IAA to extend the Ad Net Zero programme from the UK to other major advertising markets.

5-point plan

"Our 5-point action plan pledges to reduce carbon emissions from UK advertising operations to net zero by 2030, with businesses committing to robust, verified plans to reduce their emissions,” says Stephen Woodford, chief executive, Advertising Association.

It also pledges to use advertising's power to accelerate the switch to more sustainable products and services for consumers.

“We are excited to be working now on a roadmap for development internationally, with the flexibility to adapt and develop market-specific solutions and share best practices in sustainable ad operations. We welcome all organisations interested in this to contact us to find out more,” he says.

For more details, visit: AdNet Zero