While the Green Media Summit was all about sustainability in digital media and advertising, there are some insights that transcend industries. Richard Davis’ from 51toCarbon Zero keynote presentation was aimed at any organization that wants to reduce their carbon footprint.
In this post, we cover the 5 steps companies can take to help them reach net zero emissions through measurement, focus, commitment, action and supporting sustainability initiatives.
Watch the highlight video:
Keynote: 5 Steps to Build Your Company’s Path to Net Zero
During the Green Media Summit, Richard Davis, Co-founder and CEO of 51toCarbonZero, shared 5 steps companies can take with them on the path to net-zero carbon emissions. Any organization can follow these steps and it’s not limited to digital media and advertising.
How to reach net zero carbon emissions in 5 simple steps
Step 1: Measure
Step 1 in reducing carbon emissions is to measure them. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” rings true for carbon waste as well. Having said that, organizations should do their best to begin their sustainability efforts by measuring their current emissions. This gives them a baseline they can compare against to see how much waste they’ve reduced.
Richard Davis mentioned “but the reality is that most companies do not measure and those who do might not do it appropriately.”
Another benefit of measuring emissions is you can uncover what is effective and what needs improvement. Rather than wasting energy, time and money on ineffective efforts, measurement enables companies to make more informed decisions about their sustainability initiatives. In digital media and advertising, organizations like Scope3 are helping companies measure their supply chain emissions. Whereas, organizations like 51toCarbonZero help companies measure their full scope of emissions.
Step 2: Focus
Measuring your current emissions would reveal what contributes to the overall carbon footprint, step 2 is about focusing your sustainability efforts.
Where should companies focus their efforts? Scope 3 emissions, or supply chain emissions, are an ideal starting point considering scope 3 emissions account for a majority of an organization’s total carbon footprint. From there, only scope 1 and 2 emissions remain, which are some of the easiest sources of carbon waste to reduce and control. However, there are many different business activities that fall under scope 3 emissions, so how do you know which to tackle first?
Why The Ad Industry Should Focus On Scope 3 Emissions — Sharethrough
“Your three to five hotspots will make the bulk of your emissions,” informed Davis.
The hotspots could look different for organizations even within the same industry. But in any case, companies should focus on reducing those Scope 3 emissions first. Once those emissions are in check and reduced as much as possible, then companies can start to reduce the smaller sources of Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions. However, that isn’t to say that you can’t do both at the same time.
“There will be consistent emission hotspots, like energy and, and business travel. But then there will be nuances depending on where you sit in the media ecosystem,” explained Davis.
Now that you’ve measured your emissions and focused on the largest emitters, what’s next?
Step 3: Commit
By now, you’ve measured your baseline emissions and identified your major polluters, step 3 is committing to reducing your emissions. Start by setting realistic targets. How much carbon waste do you aim to reduce? And in what time frame? The answers will differ for every company, but there are some common targets. Some organizations are aiming to reach net zero by 2030. Digital media and advertising is one industry with that goal and has a high chance of achieving it. Whereas some other industries, like fossil fuels, will take longer to reach net zero due to technological limits and constraints.
Some other common sustainability targets include:
- Carbon neutral emissions by 2030,
- 90% reduction in scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 2040,
- 50% reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2040,
- Net-zero emissions by 2050.
Organizations like Science Based Targets initiative provide a platform for organizations to make public commitments about their sustainability targets. But companies can also make public statements and press releases about their net zero commitments. This can help increase brand awareness and improve brand sentiments considering that 80% of consumers believe organizations can do more than governments when it comes to sustainability.
Learn More: [Infographic] Research Reveals Consumer Understanding of Advertising’s Impact on Carbon Emissions — Sharethrough
Now that you’ve committed to reducing your carbon emissions, it’s time to act.
Step 4: Act
Nearing the end, step 4 is about acting on your sustainability commitments and scope 1, 2 and scope 3 reduction plans. Depending on your goals and abilities, there are many ways that organizations can reduce their different emissions. For scope 1, switching to more energy-efficient appliances and facilities is a simple way to reduce emissions. How those are powered can also be easily made more sustainable. Using renewable energy can help companies reduce their scope 2 emissions. Where it gets a little tricky is for scope 3 emissions.
For scope 3 emissions, companies need to look at their supply chain. This includes goods production, materials delivery and employee travel, among other factors.
“Retailers are now asking what is the carbon footprint of the magazines coming to my stores,” Davis said.
Organizations can implement policies that require their partners and suppliers also to reduce their carbon emissions. Like falling dominoes, one positive change leads to another and before you know it, the entire supply chain becomes sustainable.
For digital advertising, Made for Advertising sites are some of the biggest culprits of carbon waste in the programmatic supply chain. These MFA sites are sites that are designed to monetize and display and excessive amount of ads to cheaply bought impressions. Meanwhile, generating around 25% more carbon waste than non-MFA sites at the same time wasting 15% of ad spend without providing meaningful performance improvements beyond vanity metrics. To help advertisers reduce their carbon emissions, Sharethrough became the first SSP to automatically remove Jounce-identified MFA sites from all our off-the-shelf and custom PMPs. Furthermore, our Low-Emissions PMPs automatically remove low-performing/high-emissions sites, which typically include MFA sites. At no extra cost, this turnkey solution enables advertisers to reclaim their ad spend and route it to more sustainable publishers.
Read More: How Advertisers Can Avoid Wasting Ad Spend On Made-For-Advertising Sites — Sharethrough
Step 5: Support
Step 5 is the last step and it is supporting sustainability initiatives, both internal and external.
This support needs buy-in from the C-suite level in order to be successful. How can businesses support these initiatives? One of the most effective ways is to apply a lens of sustainability to all your business processes.
Davis advised “you need to have that accountability and governance and organizational set up crystallized, formalized and shared in the business. If you want to achieve net zero, you need the C-level people involved.”
Advertisers can support sustainability initiatives through digital advertising by running their campaigns through GreenPMPs™, built in partnership with Scope3, measure the exact amount of carbon emissions generated by their campaigns and compensate for that by allocating a portion of ad spend to funding high-quality carbon removal activities such as direct air capture, carbon soil storage and reforestation.
Sustainability and efficiency often go hand-in-hand, since both require removing waste. For example, computers are more efficient today than they were in their inception. What used to take up a whole room, can now be as small as a fingernail. They probably weren’t focusing on the environmental benefits when engineers were trying to improve computers, but as a side-effect of that efficiency, carbon waste decreases and it becomes more sustainable to produce them.
Learn More: Smart Throttling: Sharethrough's Machine Learning Approach to Sustainable Adtech
Additionally, organizations need to provide a platform for internal and external contributors and stakeholders to provide ideas and suggestions. “You need to engage people in other parts of the business to work with you,” informed Davis.
Becoming sustainable can be easier than you think
As sustainability becomes more important than ever, organizations are taking it upon themselves to do their part to reduce carbon emissions. Following these 5 steps taken from 51toCarbonZero’s Richard Davis’ keynote presentation during the Green Media Summit will help set any organization in any industry on the course to net zero emissions. Measuring emissions and focusing on the hotspots. Committing to a plan and then acting on that plan to reduce your carbon waste, and supporting sustainability initiatives along the way. For best results, repeat these steps as frequently as possible.
Contact us to learn more about reducing your carbon emissions or about sustainability initiatives.
While the Green Media Summit was all about sustainability in digital media and advertising, there are some insights that transcend industries. Richard Davis’ from 51toCarbon Zero keynote presentation was aimed at any organization that wants to reduce their carbon footprint.
In this post, we cover the 5 steps companies can take to help them reach net zero emissions through measurement, focus, commitment, action and supporting sustainability initiatives.
Watch the highlight video:
Keynote: 5 Steps to Build Your Company’s Path to Net Zero
During the Green Media Summit, Richard Davis, Co-founder and CEO of 51toCarbonZero, shared 5 steps companies can take with them on the path to net-zero carbon emissions. Any organization can follow these steps and it’s not limited to digital media and advertising.
How to reach net zero carbon emissions in 5 simple steps
Step 1: Measure
Step 1 in reducing carbon emissions is to measure them. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” rings true for carbon waste as well. Having said that, organizations should do their best to begin their sustainability efforts by measuring their current emissions. This gives them a baseline they can compare against to see how much waste they’ve reduced.
Richard Davis mentioned “but the reality is that most companies do not measure and those who do might not do it appropriately.”
Another benefit of measuring emissions is you can uncover what is effective and what needs improvement. Rather than wasting energy, time and money on ineffective efforts, measurement enables companies to make more informed decisions about their sustainability initiatives. In digital media and advertising, organizations like Scope3 are helping companies measure their supply chain emissions. Whereas, organizations like 51toCarbonZero help companies measure their full scope of emissions.
Step 2: Focus
Measuring your current emissions would reveal what contributes to the overall carbon footprint, step 2 is about focusing your sustainability efforts.
Where should companies focus their efforts? Scope 3 emissions, or supply chain emissions, are an ideal starting point considering scope 3 emissions account for a majority of an organization’s total carbon footprint. From there, only scope 1 and 2 emissions remain, which are some of the easiest sources of carbon waste to reduce and control. However, there are many different business activities that fall under scope 3 emissions, so how do you know which to tackle first?
Why The Ad Industry Should Focus On Scope 3 Emissions — Sharethrough
“Your three to five hotspots will make the bulk of your emissions,” informed Davis.
The hotspots could look different for organizations even within the same industry. But in any case, companies should focus on reducing those Scope 3 emissions first. Once those emissions are in check and reduced as much as possible, then companies can start to reduce the smaller sources of Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions. However, that isn’t to say that you can’t do both at the same time.
“There will be consistent emission hotspots, like energy and, and business travel. But then there will be nuances depending on where you sit in the media ecosystem,” explained Davis.
Now that you’ve measured your emissions and focused on the largest emitters, what’s next?
Step 3: Commit
By now, you’ve measured your baseline emissions and identified your major polluters, step 3 is committing to reducing your emissions. Start by setting realistic targets. How much carbon waste do you aim to reduce? And in what time frame? The answers will differ for every company, but there are some common targets. Some organizations are aiming to reach net zero by 2030. Digital media and advertising is one industry with that goal and has a high chance of achieving it. Whereas some other industries, like fossil fuels, will take longer to reach net zero due to technological limits and constraints.
Some other common sustainability targets include:
- Carbon neutral emissions by 2030,
- 90% reduction in scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 2040,
- 50% reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2040,
- Net-zero emissions by 2050.
Organizations like Science Based Targets initiative provide a platform for organizations to make public commitments about their sustainability targets. But companies can also make public statements and press releases about their net zero commitments. This can help increase brand awareness and improve brand sentiments considering that 80% of consumers believe organizations can do more than governments when it comes to sustainability.
Learn More: [Infographic] Research Reveals Consumer Understanding of Advertising’s Impact on Carbon Emissions — Sharethrough
Now that you’ve committed to reducing your carbon emissions, it’s time to act.
Step 4: Act
Nearing the end, step 4 is about acting on your sustainability commitments and scope 1, 2 and scope 3 reduction plans. Depending on your goals and abilities, there are many ways that organizations can reduce their different emissions. For scope 1, switching to more energy-efficient appliances and facilities is a simple way to reduce emissions. How those are powered can also be easily made more sustainable. Using renewable energy can help companies reduce their scope 2 emissions. Where it gets a little tricky is for scope 3 emissions.
For scope 3 emissions, companies need to look at their supply chain. This includes goods production, materials delivery and employee travel, among other factors.
“Retailers are now asking what is the carbon footprint of the magazines coming to my stores,” Davis said.
Organizations can implement policies that require their partners and suppliers also to reduce their carbon emissions. Like falling dominoes, one positive change leads to another and before you know it, the entire supply chain becomes sustainable.
For digital advertising, Made for Advertising sites are some of the biggest culprits of carbon waste in the programmatic supply chain. These MFA sites are sites that are designed to monetize and display and excessive amount of ads to cheaply bought impressions. Meanwhile, generating around 25% more carbon waste than non-MFA sites at the same time wasting 15% of ad spend without providing meaningful performance improvements beyond vanity metrics. To help advertisers reduce their carbon emissions, Sharethrough became the first SSP to automatically remove Jounce-identified MFA sites from all our off-the-shelf and custom PMPs. Furthermore, our Low-Emissions PMPs automatically remove low-performing/high-emissions sites, which typically include MFA sites. At no extra cost, this turnkey solution enables advertisers to reclaim their ad spend and route it to more sustainable publishers.
Read More: How Advertisers Can Avoid Wasting Ad Spend On Made-For-Advertising Sites — Sharethrough
Step 5: Support
Step 5 is the last step and it is supporting sustainability initiatives, both internal and external.
This support needs buy-in from the C-suite level in order to be successful. How can businesses support these initiatives? One of the most effective ways is to apply a lens of sustainability to all your business processes.
Davis advised “you need to have that accountability and governance and organizational set up crystallized, formalized and shared in the business. If you want to achieve net zero, you need the C-level people involved.”
Advertisers can support sustainability initiatives through digital advertising by running their campaigns through GreenPMPs™, built in partnership with Scope3, measure the exact amount of carbon emissions generated by their campaigns and compensate for that by allocating a portion of ad spend to funding high-quality carbon removal activities such as direct air capture, carbon soil storage and reforestation.
Sustainability and efficiency often go hand-in-hand, since both require removing waste. For example, computers are more efficient today than they were in their inception. What used to take up a whole room, can now be as small as a fingernail. They probably weren’t focusing on the environmental benefits when engineers were trying to improve computers, but as a side-effect of that efficiency, carbon waste decreases and it becomes more sustainable to produce them.
Learn More: Smart Throttling: Sharethrough's Machine Learning Approach to Sustainable Adtech
Additionally, organizations need to provide a platform for internal and external contributors and stakeholders to provide ideas and suggestions. “You need to engage people in other parts of the business to work with you,” informed Davis.
Becoming sustainable can be easier than you think
As sustainability becomes more important than ever, organizations are taking it upon themselves to do their part to reduce carbon emissions. Following these 5 steps taken from 51toCarbonZero’s Richard Davis’ keynote presentation during the Green Media Summit will help set any organization in any industry on the course to net zero emissions. Measuring emissions and focusing on the hotspots. Committing to a plan and then acting on that plan to reduce your carbon waste, and supporting sustainability initiatives along the way. For best results, repeat these steps as frequently as possible.
Contact us to learn more about reducing your carbon emissions or about sustainability initiatives.
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.
While the Green Media Summit was all about sustainability in digital media and advertising, there are some insights that transcend industries. Richard Davis’ from 51toCarbon Zero keynote presentation was aimed at any organization that wants to reduce their carbon footprint.
In this post, we cover the 5 steps companies can take to help them reach net zero emissions through measurement, focus, commitment, action and supporting sustainability initiatives.
Watch the highlight video:
Keynote: 5 Steps to Build Your Company’s Path to Net Zero
During the Green Media Summit, Richard Davis, Co-founder and CEO of 51toCarbonZero, shared 5 steps companies can take with them on the path to net-zero carbon emissions. Any organization can follow these steps and it’s not limited to digital media and advertising.
How to reach net zero carbon emissions in 5 simple steps
Step 1: Measure
Step 1 in reducing carbon emissions is to measure them. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” rings true for carbon waste as well. Having said that, organizations should do their best to begin their sustainability efforts by measuring their current emissions. This gives them a baseline they can compare against to see how much waste they’ve reduced.
Richard Davis mentioned “but the reality is that most companies do not measure and those who do might not do it appropriately.”
Another benefit of measuring emissions is you can uncover what is effective and what needs improvement. Rather than wasting energy, time and money on ineffective efforts, measurement enables companies to make more informed decisions about their sustainability initiatives. In digital media and advertising, organizations like Scope3 are helping companies measure their supply chain emissions. Whereas, organizations like 51toCarbonZero help companies measure their full scope of emissions.
Step 2: Focus
Measuring your current emissions would reveal what contributes to the overall carbon footprint, step 2 is about focusing your sustainability efforts.
Where should companies focus their efforts? Scope 3 emissions, or supply chain emissions, are an ideal starting point considering scope 3 emissions account for a majority of an organization’s total carbon footprint. From there, only scope 1 and 2 emissions remain, which are some of the easiest sources of carbon waste to reduce and control. However, there are many different business activities that fall under scope 3 emissions, so how do you know which to tackle first?
Why The Ad Industry Should Focus On Scope 3 Emissions — Sharethrough
“Your three to five hotspots will make the bulk of your emissions,” informed Davis.
The hotspots could look different for organizations even within the same industry. But in any case, companies should focus on reducing those Scope 3 emissions first. Once those emissions are in check and reduced as much as possible, then companies can start to reduce the smaller sources of Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions. However, that isn’t to say that you can’t do both at the same time.
“There will be consistent emission hotspots, like energy and, and business travel. But then there will be nuances depending on where you sit in the media ecosystem,” explained Davis.
Now that you’ve measured your emissions and focused on the largest emitters, what’s next?
Step 3: Commit
By now, you’ve measured your baseline emissions and identified your major polluters, step 3 is committing to reducing your emissions. Start by setting realistic targets. How much carbon waste do you aim to reduce? And in what time frame? The answers will differ for every company, but there are some common targets. Some organizations are aiming to reach net zero by 2030. Digital media and advertising is one industry with that goal and has a high chance of achieving it. Whereas some other industries, like fossil fuels, will take longer to reach net zero due to technological limits and constraints.
Some other common sustainability targets include:
- Carbon neutral emissions by 2030,
- 90% reduction in scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 2040,
- 50% reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2040,
- Net-zero emissions by 2050.
Organizations like Science Based Targets initiative provide a platform for organizations to make public commitments about their sustainability targets. But companies can also make public statements and press releases about their net zero commitments. This can help increase brand awareness and improve brand sentiments considering that 80% of consumers believe organizations can do more than governments when it comes to sustainability.
Learn More: [Infographic] Research Reveals Consumer Understanding of Advertising’s Impact on Carbon Emissions — Sharethrough
Now that you’ve committed to reducing your carbon emissions, it’s time to act.
Step 4: Act
Nearing the end, step 4 is about acting on your sustainability commitments and scope 1, 2 and scope 3 reduction plans. Depending on your goals and abilities, there are many ways that organizations can reduce their different emissions. For scope 1, switching to more energy-efficient appliances and facilities is a simple way to reduce emissions. How those are powered can also be easily made more sustainable. Using renewable energy can help companies reduce their scope 2 emissions. Where it gets a little tricky is for scope 3 emissions.
For scope 3 emissions, companies need to look at their supply chain. This includes goods production, materials delivery and employee travel, among other factors.
“Retailers are now asking what is the carbon footprint of the magazines coming to my stores,” Davis said.
Organizations can implement policies that require their partners and suppliers also to reduce their carbon emissions. Like falling dominoes, one positive change leads to another and before you know it, the entire supply chain becomes sustainable.
For digital advertising, Made for Advertising sites are some of the biggest culprits of carbon waste in the programmatic supply chain. These MFA sites are sites that are designed to monetize and display and excessive amount of ads to cheaply bought impressions. Meanwhile, generating around 25% more carbon waste than non-MFA sites at the same time wasting 15% of ad spend without providing meaningful performance improvements beyond vanity metrics. To help advertisers reduce their carbon emissions, Sharethrough became the first SSP to automatically remove Jounce-identified MFA sites from all our off-the-shelf and custom PMPs. Furthermore, our Low-Emissions PMPs automatically remove low-performing/high-emissions sites, which typically include MFA sites. At no extra cost, this turnkey solution enables advertisers to reclaim their ad spend and route it to more sustainable publishers.
Read More: How Advertisers Can Avoid Wasting Ad Spend On Made-For-Advertising Sites — Sharethrough
Step 5: Support
Step 5 is the last step and it is supporting sustainability initiatives, both internal and external.
This support needs buy-in from the C-suite level in order to be successful. How can businesses support these initiatives? One of the most effective ways is to apply a lens of sustainability to all your business processes.
Davis advised “you need to have that accountability and governance and organizational set up crystallized, formalized and shared in the business. If you want to achieve net zero, you need the C-level people involved.”
Advertisers can support sustainability initiatives through digital advertising by running their campaigns through GreenPMPs™, built in partnership with Scope3, measure the exact amount of carbon emissions generated by their campaigns and compensate for that by allocating a portion of ad spend to funding high-quality carbon removal activities such as direct air capture, carbon soil storage and reforestation.
Sustainability and efficiency often go hand-in-hand, since both require removing waste. For example, computers are more efficient today than they were in their inception. What used to take up a whole room, can now be as small as a fingernail. They probably weren’t focusing on the environmental benefits when engineers were trying to improve computers, but as a side-effect of that efficiency, carbon waste decreases and it becomes more sustainable to produce them.
Learn More: Smart Throttling: Sharethrough's Machine Learning Approach to Sustainable Adtech
Additionally, organizations need to provide a platform for internal and external contributors and stakeholders to provide ideas and suggestions. “You need to engage people in other parts of the business to work with you,” informed Davis.
Becoming sustainable can be easier than you think
As sustainability becomes more important than ever, organizations are taking it upon themselves to do their part to reduce carbon emissions. Following these 5 steps taken from 51toCarbonZero’s Richard Davis’ keynote presentation during the Green Media Summit will help set any organization in any industry on the course to net zero emissions. Measuring emissions and focusing on the hotspots. Committing to a plan and then acting on that plan to reduce your carbon waste, and supporting sustainability initiatives along the way. For best results, repeat these steps as frequently as possible.
Contact us to learn more about reducing your carbon emissions or about sustainability initiatives.
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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