The Global Media Sustainability Framework, which was announced Monday during a panel at Cannes, saw collaboration across all parts of the industry. Supporters include the 4As, IAB, Dentsu, Google, GroupM, L’Oréal, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Mastercard, Meta and Unilever.
The bad news: The internet as a whole has a larger carbon footprint than the entire airline industry (!!), and programmatic advertising is a contributor. The good news: “The extent to which people are aware of that and open to a conversion is changing at a phenomenally fast rate,” says Amy Williams, CEO and founder of sustainable advertising startup Good-Loop.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ad tech industry took steps to freeze Russian-owned media companies out of the advertising ecosystem. But programmatic technology continues to be used by parties on both sides of the conflict as a platform to conduct psychological warfare.
The term “sustainable marketing” calls to mind disposable bamboo razor handles from Schick, the promise McDonald’s made last year that by 2025 all Happy Meal toys will be made from environmentally friendly material and Coca-Cola’s plan to launch a new bottle made from 100% recycled plastic. But digital media has a carbon footprint, too. A big one.
