Are digital emissions a marketing blindspot?
A combination of weak consumer pressure and a lack of agreed standards means marketers are failing to prioritise cleaning up their ‘hidden’ digital emissions.
Brands seem keen to ignore the extent of the ‘hidden’ emissions they create through their use of the digital marketing ecosystem, but are they really the ones who should be tackling the problem?
Programmatic has a notoriously complex supply chain, meaning more emissions in addition to those generated by creating ads and sharing them through other media channels. Indeed, the programmatic advertising industry alone produces more than 215,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions in a single month across just five leading economies, according to figures from media reporting company Scope 3.
Despite the scale of the issue, WARC’s 2024 Programmatic Report finds emissions reduction is not a priority for most companies (59%), suggesting progress has stalled on the journey to greater sustainability in digital marketing.
More than half of respondents to the study say the lack of industry-wide standards is one of the reasons measuring emissions is not a priority, explains Paul Stringer, WARC managing editor of research and advisory.
