In our second sustainability interview, Martin Bryan, Global Chief Sustainability Officer of UM, joins us to share some of his thoughts on decarbonizing media and advertising. As more and more organizations in the industry are on their way to reducing their carbon emissions, Martin Bryan talks to us about some of the changes agencies have had to make. Also in this post, Martin Bryan chats about challenges that brands and advertisers face, making progress on common standards and what to expect from supply partners. In case you missed it, check out our previous interview with Suzy Ryder, Chief Digital Officer of OMD UK.
You can watch the full interview with Martin Bryan below:
For highlights from the interview, you can review the full Q&A below:
Q: We love the title “Global Chief Sustainability Officer” – can you give us a little background about how that role was created, why it was created, and how it came about?
“I see by and large, my role is from a compliance standpoint, really important for our clients.” - Martin Bryan
As more brands and advertisers make the move towards sustainability, agencies are creating entire roles and departments to help guide their customer base on how to best lower their carbon emissions and decarbonize the programmatic supply chain.
“The other piece of what we're providing through the practice is guidance to our clients on how to engage on the topic of sustainability, recognizing that there is a lot of potential risk or concern
in particular, related to greenwashing. So we're really helping navigate the complexities of the need to decarbonize our media ecosystem as well as the demonetization of climate miss and disinformation.”
Q: How do you see advertising and media sustainability evolving in 2023?
“I think we're also going to see a greater collaboration amongst the industry leaders through organizations like Ad Net Zero.”
Along with privacy regulations, sustainability is one of the few things that the entire advertising and media industry can agree on. In order to reach net-zero carbon emissions, there needs to be greater collaboration and transparency between all players in the industry.
“So as we work together to identify what that standard and approach is so that we can have a shared vernacular and a shared approach to measurement. I think that's really what we're hopeful to see in 2023 is that pre-competitive collaboration.”
Related: 5 Trends to Expect in Sustainability in 2023 — Sharethrough
Q: How close do you think we are to actually have industry-wide standards? Is that something that could happen this year?
“I think we absolutely are looking at a 2023 solution.”
A standardized measurement can go a long way in helping the ad tech industry reach net-zero emissions. Considering that a majority of a company’s emissions are generated by their supply chain, having those members using the same KPI maintains consistency and accuracy when measuring and reporting carbon emissions.
“And if we can all work together to identify those standards, the unique solutions that we can bring our clients shouldn't be based upon what should just be the standard in terms of measurement and in terms of how we define what emissions are as it relates to media.”
Related: How Digital Media can Reach Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2030 — Sharethrough
Q: What is the role of agencies within both creating those standards and pushing sustainability?
“So there’s a number of industry bodies, while also, I think it's incredibly incumbent upon the holding companies to steer and to commit to that collaboration. And ultimately I think it will come down to the holding companies coming to the table as we have to work together to ensure through the industry standard body that we're standardizing and creating that uniform approach.”
Agencies have the power, influence and dollars to lead the industry toward carbon-neutral ads. Agencies can also demand to work only with low-emission partners. If potential partners don’t want to miss out on revenue, they would have to find ways to lower their carbon footprint. This can have a cascading effect on the rate of adoption of sustainable practices.
“I also think it's really going to be important for us to have a third-party verification and auditing that'll be outside of even IAB and WFA.”
Related: Separating Agency Progress from Posturing Around Carbon Reduction and Sustainability
Q: What is your specific approach to sustainability in 2023 and beyond? How are you approaching it as an agency, both internally, but also with your clients and beyond?
“One other really important part of decarbonization is the decarbonization of our media ecosystem, so that's where it's really critical that we're forging these partnerships with Ad Net Zero and Sharethrough, as well as other ad tech providers’ and partners’ prevailing solutions. So our role in that is to verify to ensure that we're confident in the approach.”
It’s important for advertisers and brands to consider looking at a holistic view of the media ecosystem to better understand where and how carbon reductions can be made. Since the ad tech industry can be a large web of connections and partnerships, what one organization does affects others. Joining industry initiatives like Ad Net Zero gives agencies, brands, publishers and providers a common alignment and direction in achieving net-zero emissions.
Q: What are you expecting to see from supply partners in 2023?
“Commitments. We want to see goals similar to ours. Setting a net zero date is critical. We also want to see that there is a willingness to work immediately on solutions, as we've seen, with Scope3 and green media products.”
More and more, we see brands, agencies, and other ad tech players committing to reducing their carbon emissions. Also, we’re seeing more commitment to foundations and organizations like Science Based Targets initiative and Ad Net Zero from different players in the industry. Making these commitments keeps organizations accountable and helps ensure that progress is made.
Related: Why The Ad Industry Should Focus On Scope 3 Emissions — Sharethrough
Q: Do you see a lot of brands pushing for better sustainability? Do brands still need a lot of education on sustainability in the ad tech space?
“So increasingly, we're hearing from our clients proactively. We're also proactively going to our clients and sharing this information. And as we continue through 2023, I think we're certainly at a point of educating at a point still for us to lay the foundation and understanding.”
There are many moving parts so it can be difficult for brands and advertisers to understand where to start. Sustainability in ad tech is a relatively new field and it can be hard to understand what’s worthwhile and what isn’t. Adding on to that uncertainty is also the fear of greenwashing. Thankfully, a number of resources are available to learn more about digital advertising’s carbon emissions and how that all fits together into the programmatic supply chain.
Related: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
Q: If you had to pick one thing the advertising and media industry need to work on in 2023 to move forward with sustainability?
“But we can do something immediately about our emissions: purchasing renewable energy, optimizing the supply path, ensuring that we're being as efficient with our delivery of media, and then, through that reduction, then offsetting until we're able to identify other mechanisms and other levers for drawdown.”
How brands, advertisers, publishers and ad tech providers become sustainable are unique to themselves, so there are many different ways that each player can reduce their carbon emissions. Thus, contributing to the greater reduction of carbon from the supply chain.
However, it’s impossible for the internet to operate without some carbon emissions, no matter how minimal. For the remaining, unavoidable emissions, Green Media Products like Sharethrough’s GreenPMPs™, built in partnership with Scope3, enable advertisers to neutralize the emissions from running digital ad campaigns.
Related: Building a Sustainable Programmatic Ecosystem with Sharethrough’s GreenPMPs
Q: You've been very successful internally in pushing this narrative and educating – are there resources or anything that you would point to for people trying to make that change from within?
“I think the most important thing that you can do is join industry working groups like Ad Net Zero.”
By joining industry groups like Ad Net Zero, brands and advertisers have the chance to voice their concerns, contribute too long-term industry development and stay up-to-date on all the latest learnings and news about sustainability in advertising and media.
“I think this book Net Positive is a fantastic example of how we can actually drive bottom-line growth for our businesses that we support while doing the right thing. As Benjamin Franklin said, you know, do well by doing good. I think that that's exactly the moment that we're in right now.”
Related: Deep Dive: A Guide to Environmental Sustainability in Digital Advertising
A great thank you to Martin Bryan, Global Chief Sustainability Officer of UM for joining us in this interview. We are excited to learn about agencies’ role in sustainability, the challenges and solutions the industry faces, and what it’s going to take to reach net zero emissions. Stay tuned for more interviews on sustainability featuring other industry leaders.
In our second sustainability interview, Martin Bryan, Global Chief Sustainability Officer of UM, joins us to share some of his thoughts on decarbonizing media and advertising. As more and more organizations in the industry are on their way to reducing their carbon emissions, Martin Bryan talks to us about some of the changes agencies have had to make. Also in this post, Martin Bryan chats about challenges that brands and advertisers face, making progress on common standards and what to expect from supply partners. In case you missed it, check out our previous interview with Suzy Ryder, Chief Digital Officer of OMD UK.
You can watch the full interview with Martin Bryan below:
For highlights from the interview, you can review the full Q&A below:
Q: We love the title “Global Chief Sustainability Officer” – can you give us a little background about how that role was created, why it was created, and how it came about?
“I see by and large, my role is from a compliance standpoint, really important for our clients.” - Martin Bryan
As more brands and advertisers make the move towards sustainability, agencies are creating entire roles and departments to help guide their customer base on how to best lower their carbon emissions and decarbonize the programmatic supply chain.
“The other piece of what we're providing through the practice is guidance to our clients on how to engage on the topic of sustainability, recognizing that there is a lot of potential risk or concern
in particular, related to greenwashing. So we're really helping navigate the complexities of the need to decarbonize our media ecosystem as well as the demonetization of climate miss and disinformation.”
Q: How do you see advertising and media sustainability evolving in 2023?
“I think we're also going to see a greater collaboration amongst the industry leaders through organizations like Ad Net Zero.”
Along with privacy regulations, sustainability is one of the few things that the entire advertising and media industry can agree on. In order to reach net-zero carbon emissions, there needs to be greater collaboration and transparency between all players in the industry.
“So as we work together to identify what that standard and approach is so that we can have a shared vernacular and a shared approach to measurement. I think that's really what we're hopeful to see in 2023 is that pre-competitive collaboration.”
Related: 5 Trends to Expect in Sustainability in 2023 — Sharethrough
Q: How close do you think we are to actually have industry-wide standards? Is that something that could happen this year?
“I think we absolutely are looking at a 2023 solution.”
A standardized measurement can go a long way in helping the ad tech industry reach net-zero emissions. Considering that a majority of a company’s emissions are generated by their supply chain, having those members using the same KPI maintains consistency and accuracy when measuring and reporting carbon emissions.
“And if we can all work together to identify those standards, the unique solutions that we can bring our clients shouldn't be based upon what should just be the standard in terms of measurement and in terms of how we define what emissions are as it relates to media.”
Related: How Digital Media can Reach Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2030 — Sharethrough
Q: What is the role of agencies within both creating those standards and pushing sustainability?
“So there’s a number of industry bodies, while also, I think it's incredibly incumbent upon the holding companies to steer and to commit to that collaboration. And ultimately I think it will come down to the holding companies coming to the table as we have to work together to ensure through the industry standard body that we're standardizing and creating that uniform approach.”
Agencies have the power, influence and dollars to lead the industry toward carbon-neutral ads. Agencies can also demand to work only with low-emission partners. If potential partners don’t want to miss out on revenue, they would have to find ways to lower their carbon footprint. This can have a cascading effect on the rate of adoption of sustainable practices.
“I also think it's really going to be important for us to have a third-party verification and auditing that'll be outside of even IAB and WFA.”
Related: Separating Agency Progress from Posturing Around Carbon Reduction and Sustainability
Q: What is your specific approach to sustainability in 2023 and beyond? How are you approaching it as an agency, both internally, but also with your clients and beyond?
“One other really important part of decarbonization is the decarbonization of our media ecosystem, so that's where it's really critical that we're forging these partnerships with Ad Net Zero and Sharethrough, as well as other ad tech providers’ and partners’ prevailing solutions. So our role in that is to verify to ensure that we're confident in the approach.”
It’s important for advertisers and brands to consider looking at a holistic view of the media ecosystem to better understand where and how carbon reductions can be made. Since the ad tech industry can be a large web of connections and partnerships, what one organization does affects others. Joining industry initiatives like Ad Net Zero gives agencies, brands, publishers and providers a common alignment and direction in achieving net-zero emissions.
Q: What are you expecting to see from supply partners in 2023?
“Commitments. We want to see goals similar to ours. Setting a net zero date is critical. We also want to see that there is a willingness to work immediately on solutions, as we've seen, with Scope3 and green media products.”
More and more, we see brands, agencies, and other ad tech players committing to reducing their carbon emissions. Also, we’re seeing more commitment to foundations and organizations like Science Based Targets initiative and Ad Net Zero from different players in the industry. Making these commitments keeps organizations accountable and helps ensure that progress is made.
Related: Why The Ad Industry Should Focus On Scope 3 Emissions — Sharethrough
Q: Do you see a lot of brands pushing for better sustainability? Do brands still need a lot of education on sustainability in the ad tech space?
“So increasingly, we're hearing from our clients proactively. We're also proactively going to our clients and sharing this information. And as we continue through 2023, I think we're certainly at a point of educating at a point still for us to lay the foundation and understanding.”
There are many moving parts so it can be difficult for brands and advertisers to understand where to start. Sustainability in ad tech is a relatively new field and it can be hard to understand what’s worthwhile and what isn’t. Adding on to that uncertainty is also the fear of greenwashing. Thankfully, a number of resources are available to learn more about digital advertising’s carbon emissions and how that all fits together into the programmatic supply chain.
Related: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
Q: If you had to pick one thing the advertising and media industry need to work on in 2023 to move forward with sustainability?
“But we can do something immediately about our emissions: purchasing renewable energy, optimizing the supply path, ensuring that we're being as efficient with our delivery of media, and then, through that reduction, then offsetting until we're able to identify other mechanisms and other levers for drawdown.”
How brands, advertisers, publishers and ad tech providers become sustainable are unique to themselves, so there are many different ways that each player can reduce their carbon emissions. Thus, contributing to the greater reduction of carbon from the supply chain.
However, it’s impossible for the internet to operate without some carbon emissions, no matter how minimal. For the remaining, unavoidable emissions, Green Media Products like Sharethrough’s GreenPMPs™, built in partnership with Scope3, enable advertisers to neutralize the emissions from running digital ad campaigns.
Related: Building a Sustainable Programmatic Ecosystem with Sharethrough’s GreenPMPs
Q: You've been very successful internally in pushing this narrative and educating – are there resources or anything that you would point to for people trying to make that change from within?
“I think the most important thing that you can do is join industry working groups like Ad Net Zero.”
By joining industry groups like Ad Net Zero, brands and advertisers have the chance to voice their concerns, contribute too long-term industry development and stay up-to-date on all the latest learnings and news about sustainability in advertising and media.
“I think this book Net Positive is a fantastic example of how we can actually drive bottom-line growth for our businesses that we support while doing the right thing. As Benjamin Franklin said, you know, do well by doing good. I think that that's exactly the moment that we're in right now.”
Related: Deep Dive: A Guide to Environmental Sustainability in Digital Advertising
A great thank you to Martin Bryan, Global Chief Sustainability Officer of UM for joining us in this interview. We are excited to learn about agencies’ role in sustainability, the challenges and solutions the industry faces, and what it’s going to take to reach net zero emissions. Stay tuned for more interviews on sustainability featuring other industry leaders.
Behind Headlines: 180 Seconds in Ad Tech is a short 3-minute podcast exploring the news in the digital advertising industry. Ad tech is a fast-growing industry with many updates happening daily. As it can be hard for most to keep up with the latest news, the Sharethrough team wanted to create an audio series compiling notable mentions each week.
In our second sustainability interview, Martin Bryan, Global Chief Sustainability Officer of UM, joins us to share some of his thoughts on decarbonizing media and advertising. As more and more organizations in the industry are on their way to reducing their carbon emissions, Martin Bryan talks to us about some of the changes agencies have had to make. Also in this post, Martin Bryan chats about challenges that brands and advertisers face, making progress on common standards and what to expect from supply partners. In case you missed it, check out our previous interview with Suzy Ryder, Chief Digital Officer of OMD UK.
You can watch the full interview with Martin Bryan below:
For highlights from the interview, you can review the full Q&A below:
Q: We love the title “Global Chief Sustainability Officer” – can you give us a little background about how that role was created, why it was created, and how it came about?
“I see by and large, my role is from a compliance standpoint, really important for our clients.” - Martin Bryan
As more brands and advertisers make the move towards sustainability, agencies are creating entire roles and departments to help guide their customer base on how to best lower their carbon emissions and decarbonize the programmatic supply chain.
“The other piece of what we're providing through the practice is guidance to our clients on how to engage on the topic of sustainability, recognizing that there is a lot of potential risk or concern
in particular, related to greenwashing. So we're really helping navigate the complexities of the need to decarbonize our media ecosystem as well as the demonetization of climate miss and disinformation.”
Q: How do you see advertising and media sustainability evolving in 2023?
“I think we're also going to see a greater collaboration amongst the industry leaders through organizations like Ad Net Zero.”
Along with privacy regulations, sustainability is one of the few things that the entire advertising and media industry can agree on. In order to reach net-zero carbon emissions, there needs to be greater collaboration and transparency between all players in the industry.
“So as we work together to identify what that standard and approach is so that we can have a shared vernacular and a shared approach to measurement. I think that's really what we're hopeful to see in 2023 is that pre-competitive collaboration.”
Related: 5 Trends to Expect in Sustainability in 2023 — Sharethrough
Q: How close do you think we are to actually have industry-wide standards? Is that something that could happen this year?
“I think we absolutely are looking at a 2023 solution.”
A standardized measurement can go a long way in helping the ad tech industry reach net-zero emissions. Considering that a majority of a company’s emissions are generated by their supply chain, having those members using the same KPI maintains consistency and accuracy when measuring and reporting carbon emissions.
“And if we can all work together to identify those standards, the unique solutions that we can bring our clients shouldn't be based upon what should just be the standard in terms of measurement and in terms of how we define what emissions are as it relates to media.”
Related: How Digital Media can Reach Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2030 — Sharethrough
Q: What is the role of agencies within both creating those standards and pushing sustainability?
“So there’s a number of industry bodies, while also, I think it's incredibly incumbent upon the holding companies to steer and to commit to that collaboration. And ultimately I think it will come down to the holding companies coming to the table as we have to work together to ensure through the industry standard body that we're standardizing and creating that uniform approach.”
Agencies have the power, influence and dollars to lead the industry toward carbon-neutral ads. Agencies can also demand to work only with low-emission partners. If potential partners don’t want to miss out on revenue, they would have to find ways to lower their carbon footprint. This can have a cascading effect on the rate of adoption of sustainable practices.
“I also think it's really going to be important for us to have a third-party verification and auditing that'll be outside of even IAB and WFA.”
Related: Separating Agency Progress from Posturing Around Carbon Reduction and Sustainability
Q: What is your specific approach to sustainability in 2023 and beyond? How are you approaching it as an agency, both internally, but also with your clients and beyond?
“One other really important part of decarbonization is the decarbonization of our media ecosystem, so that's where it's really critical that we're forging these partnerships with Ad Net Zero and Sharethrough, as well as other ad tech providers’ and partners’ prevailing solutions. So our role in that is to verify to ensure that we're confident in the approach.”
It’s important for advertisers and brands to consider looking at a holistic view of the media ecosystem to better understand where and how carbon reductions can be made. Since the ad tech industry can be a large web of connections and partnerships, what one organization does affects others. Joining industry initiatives like Ad Net Zero gives agencies, brands, publishers and providers a common alignment and direction in achieving net-zero emissions.
Q: What are you expecting to see from supply partners in 2023?
“Commitments. We want to see goals similar to ours. Setting a net zero date is critical. We also want to see that there is a willingness to work immediately on solutions, as we've seen, with Scope3 and green media products.”
More and more, we see brands, agencies, and other ad tech players committing to reducing their carbon emissions. Also, we’re seeing more commitment to foundations and organizations like Science Based Targets initiative and Ad Net Zero from different players in the industry. Making these commitments keeps organizations accountable and helps ensure that progress is made.
Related: Why The Ad Industry Should Focus On Scope 3 Emissions — Sharethrough
Q: Do you see a lot of brands pushing for better sustainability? Do brands still need a lot of education on sustainability in the ad tech space?
“So increasingly, we're hearing from our clients proactively. We're also proactively going to our clients and sharing this information. And as we continue through 2023, I think we're certainly at a point of educating at a point still for us to lay the foundation and understanding.”
There are many moving parts so it can be difficult for brands and advertisers to understand where to start. Sustainability in ad tech is a relatively new field and it can be hard to understand what’s worthwhile and what isn’t. Adding on to that uncertainty is also the fear of greenwashing. Thankfully, a number of resources are available to learn more about digital advertising’s carbon emissions and how that all fits together into the programmatic supply chain.
Related: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
Q: If you had to pick one thing the advertising and media industry need to work on in 2023 to move forward with sustainability?
“But we can do something immediately about our emissions: purchasing renewable energy, optimizing the supply path, ensuring that we're being as efficient with our delivery of media, and then, through that reduction, then offsetting until we're able to identify other mechanisms and other levers for drawdown.”
How brands, advertisers, publishers and ad tech providers become sustainable are unique to themselves, so there are many different ways that each player can reduce their carbon emissions. Thus, contributing to the greater reduction of carbon from the supply chain.
However, it’s impossible for the internet to operate without some carbon emissions, no matter how minimal. For the remaining, unavoidable emissions, Green Media Products like Sharethrough’s GreenPMPs™, built in partnership with Scope3, enable advertisers to neutralize the emissions from running digital ad campaigns.
Related: Building a Sustainable Programmatic Ecosystem with Sharethrough’s GreenPMPs
Q: You've been very successful internally in pushing this narrative and educating – are there resources or anything that you would point to for people trying to make that change from within?
“I think the most important thing that you can do is join industry working groups like Ad Net Zero.”
By joining industry groups like Ad Net Zero, brands and advertisers have the chance to voice their concerns, contribute too long-term industry development and stay up-to-date on all the latest learnings and news about sustainability in advertising and media.
“I think this book Net Positive is a fantastic example of how we can actually drive bottom-line growth for our businesses that we support while doing the right thing. As Benjamin Franklin said, you know, do well by doing good. I think that that's exactly the moment that we're in right now.”
Related: Deep Dive: A Guide to Environmental Sustainability in Digital Advertising
A great thank you to Martin Bryan, Global Chief Sustainability Officer of UM for joining us in this interview. We are excited to learn about agencies’ role in sustainability, the challenges and solutions the industry faces, and what it’s going to take to reach net zero emissions. Stay tuned for more interviews on sustainability featuring other industry leaders.
Founded in 2015, Calibrate is a yearly conference for new engineering managers hosted by seasoned engineering managers. The experience level of the speakers ranges from newcomers all the way through senior engineering leaders with over twenty years of experience in the field. Each speaker is greatly concerned about the craft of engineering management. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted yearly in September, from 2015-2019 in San Francisco, California.
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