Australian programmatic ads the second most polluting globally: Scope3
The Australian programmatic advertising industry is the second most carbon emitting across five major economies, according to data from Scope3.
The company’s report, Q1 2023 State of Sustainable Advertising, found Australia emitted 582.3 grams of carbon dioxide and equivalent greenhouse gases per 1000 impressions (gCO2PM) of programmatic advertising, second behind Germany’s 631.6 grams, and ahead of Great Britain, France, the US and the global average.
Carbon emissions per 1000 programmatic ad impression per country
Overall carbon emissions per month for Australia was 9,300 metric tons, contributing to the total 215,000 metric tons across the five countries.
The biggest source of carbon emissions in the Australian programmatic advertising industry is from ‘ad selection’, or the emissions associated with the supply path from the inventory ad slot and the complete graph of all advertising parties involved.
Ad selection comprises 55.2 percent of emissions, followed by consumer devices at 22.5 percent, media distribution (publisher side) at 13.6 percent and creative distribution (agencies and brands side) comprising 8.6 percent.
“This report is a crucial moment for the industry to pause and consider how we come together to tackle the climate emergency,” Scope3 co-founder Anne Coghlan said.
“We are striving for a more effective advertising industry with the least impact on the environment, something that can only be achieved by industry collaboration, using the right data and taking action now. For the first time, we know where to take action to deliver the most immediate impact.”
Monthly carbon emissions from programmatic advertising
The report also found publishers across those five countries would emit carbon as low as 187 gCO2PM up to 1772 gCO2PM. Scope3 called the most emitting publishers ‘climate risk’ websites.
The report said eliminating spending on the worst emitting 10 percent of domains would cut down 33,500 metric tons of CO2 each month across those five countries.
Scope3 also took aim at made-for-advertising (MFA) sites, which have high-density advertisements, highly paid inbound traffic and clickbait content, saying they are not just a waste of money but also contribute to higher carbon footprints due to reselling and ad bombardment.
The report recommended that brands, agencies, publishers and ad tech companies should shift spend to avoid these ‘climate risk’ websites and work with less-emitting or ‘green’ sites instead, as well as adopting sustainable practices.
Scope3 co-founder and CEO Brian O’Kelley said: “By changing the way we configure the trillions of auctions that match advertisers with ad placements, we can dramatically reduce the energy consumption of the process.”
“And, in doing so, we improve transparency, reduce privacy risk, and increase the proportion of spend in working media, without adverse revenue impact for publishers and no adverse performance or reach impact for buyers.”
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