CHAPTER 1
The
industry's path
to net zero
The following data has been formulated from a review of the current sustainability commitments from supporters across the Ad Net Zero Global Group, plus the UK and US local chapters, as of September 2023.
The message from this data is clear. ANZ supporter advertisers are leading the charge toward net zero, compared to the 50% of Forbes 2000 global brands yet to disclose targets, and to the rest of the ad industry. In order to continue to be desirable partners to advertisers, agencies must step up to their responsibilities. With media owners and production companies seeing particularly low uptake of science-based net zero commitments, we can see a knock-on effect of inaction down the marcomms supply chain.
88% of Ad Net Zero supporter brands have set public, science-based net zero targets. With increasing disclosure requirements and consumer pressure, Advertisers are the leading sector in the supporter base for driving the transformation towards net zero.
100% of supporter brands have set near-term targets too, showing that long term commitments are translating into near-term action.
Very few agencies, in stark comparison to brands, have publicly set net zero targets. In order to transition to net zero in line with the Paris Agreement, we need to see industry-wide adoption of science-based targets. This will also become increasingly important as the Scope 3 emissions from large advertisers come under further regulation in the near future. This is one of the reasons we have made this mandatory for all ANZ supporters this year.
Advertising/Creative Agencies’ near-term targets – those that cut emissions pre-2030 - paint a similarly stark picture. Not only do we need agencies to join the transition to net zero publicly, we need for this to be coupled with strong, immediate decarbonisation strategies that will slash the industry’s real-world emissions by 2030.
Only a quarter of Media Owners in the supporter base have set public, science-based net zero targets so far. This sector is one of the largest contributors to the footprint of the industry overall and is therefore a key priority, with recent estimates published by WPP suggesting that media planning and buying could account for up to 54% of their total emissions across all scopes. In June 2023 this year therefore, spurred on by the increase in pressure from brands to provide emissions data, ANZ partnered with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and GARM (The Global Alliance for Responsible Media) to introduce an Immediate Action Guide to reduce media’s GHG emissions.
The Tech Platforms that support Ad Net Zero have set both ambitious net zero and near-term targets. 100% of our Tech Platforms currently have these in place.
Turning to the Ad Tech industry, however, we see a very different landscape. This could be explained by many of these businesses being relatively young, along with many being SMEs who may not have the resources to disclose yet.
Recognising the challenges many of our SME supporters face when it comes to beginning their net zero journey, ANZ have been active in sharing resources such as the SME Climate Hub. In October 2023, we ran a SME-specific webinar with supporter STV explaining how they started their science-based targets journey as an SME, and the top tips they had for others looking to start their own journey. We also partnered with Green Element to provide SMEs with the Compare Your Footprint tool, which offers supporters the chance to calculate their entire operation's carbon footprint, helping them to set realistic science-based net-zero targets that align with their company and industry. This tool adheres to the GHG protocol and has a rich database to guide you through the carbon calculation process. Watch this space for improvements to the tool in 2024.
Production companies are currently underreporting their net zero targets in a similar pattern to agencies and tech. This is an area ANZ are currently looking into for deeper insight. In the meantime, we are supporting those production companies that fall into the SME category with bespoke training and resources. See the Ad Tech section above for further details.
