Did you know that the digital and technology industry is on a par with the aviation industry in terms of carbon emissions? Global emissions for our industry sit just under 4%, which is the same as the aviation industry pre-Covid! We all know we need to act now to stop catastrophic climate change, but sometimes even the feeling of how or where to start can be overwhelming.
The good news is, digital is a relatively easy area to decarbonise, and a great starting point for all businesses when it comes to reducing carbon emissions. Things that make a material difference to the carbon emitted through digital:
- Weight of images and videos - the heavier the assets, the more energy is needed to serve the image / video creative. When you take into account the amount of page impressions served in each campaign, this can add up to a lot of carbon very quickly!
- Weight of your website / landing pages - the slower and heavier your website or landing pages, the more energy is needed to serve them. As your website may serve hundreds of thousands or millions of page impressions each month, this again can add up to a lot of carbon emitted.
- How your ads are served: whilst the evolution of programmatic is known for bringing efficiencies to the industry, this way of trading is carbon intensive. Multiple calls, sometimes hundreds or thousands, on a page use more energy. Unfortunately the most efficient way of media buying in terms of cost and convenience, is a more carbon intense way of buying media!
Some top tips on how you can reduce your digital ad campaigns carbon emissions:
- Audit the local market for partners offering green technologies / sustainable digital ad solutions.
- Ask your agencies to only use digital partners offering sustainable ad solutions.
- Utilise all sustainable services on offer
- Ask your agency for digital campaign reports including carbon emission reductions as a metric (this can be done - ask us how!)
The time for talk is over - we need action and the digital ad industry in Aotearoa New Zealand must play its part. There are sustainable digital ad solutions live in the New Zealand market, and forward-thinking brands that are fully committed to being part of the change are reaping the rewards now. Don’t get left behind. Talk about Sense Data about digital ad carbon reduction today.