Ad Net Zero—the initiative launched by the Advertising Association, the ISBA and the IPA in the UK aimed at reducing the carbon impact of advertising—will make its way to major markets worldwide, advertising leaders announced at the Cannes Lions Festival.
Global trade bodies including the ANA, 4A’s and the IAB, the WFA, European and global agency associations, EACA and Voxcomm, and the IAA will help the world’s largest agency holding companies—including Dentsu International, Havas, Interpublic Group, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP, Unilever, Google, Meta and Sky—establish plans to roll out Ad Net Zero in major ad markets with an immediate focus on the US and the EU. Serving as a roadmap, the UK program will help these companies develop market-specific solutions to reducing their ads’ carbon footprint.
The top 20 advertising markets—which account for 89 percent of the global advertising industry’s $594.322 billion spend— will be the focus of the program after the US and EU are addressed.
Launched in 2020, Ad Net Zero includes a five-point action plan that pledges to reduce the carbon emissions from UK advertising operations to net zero by 2030 and to leverage advertising to accelerate consumers’ switch to more sustainable products and services. It also includes the AdGreen carbon calculator, which helps measure and reduce emissions from advertising production.
Unilever has committed to reducing emissions to zero within its own operations by 2030 and to net zero across its value chain by 2039, with the first priority being to reduce emissions in line with the 1.5°C ambition of the Paris Agreement, according to Aline Santos, Unilever chief brand officer, and chief equity, diversity, and inclusion officer.
Ad Net Zero will provide updates on its progress at Cannes Lions each summer and its global summit each November. The next update will be presented at Ad Net Zero’s global summit, which will take place online on November 9 and 10, alongside this year’s 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference.
