3 Sustainability Sticking Points in Adland

Last month, tens of thousands of activists swarmed New York, demanding that corporations and governments swiftly transition away from fossil fuels. Two days later, activist group Clean Creatives released a report showing that nearly 300 advertising and PR agencies work for fossil fuel brands. Climate issues are also getting attention within the ad industry. Leaders in programmatic are inching toward a standardized process for measuring the carbon emissions associated with digital media; agencies are building out sustainability teams and partnerships to meet climate-related requests of their clients; and more than 700 agencies are pledging not to work with fossil fuel companies until they've demonstrated a successful clean energy transition plan. But while progress is happening, it's far from guaranteed. These three areas—the decarbonization of programmatic, agencies' in-house climate literacy and their work for polluting clients—represent some of the ad industry's biggest opportunities to impact the climate. Success in these areas will dictate whether the industry continues to fuel the climate crisis or transforms where necessary to fight it. "We should be focusing our attention on how we create the most sustainable, resilient, collaborative [advertising] ecosystem," Anne Coghlan, co-founder and chief operating officer at sustainability-focused programmatic data consultancy Scope3, told Adweek. As new tools like AI become available, she explained, asking questions about the carbon cost at each new juncture "will go a long way." Ad tech's standardization conundrum In early 2023, Brian O'Kelley, the other co-founder (and CEO) of Scope3, predicted that there would be a standard for measuring ad-tech emissions by mid-year. That didn't happen. Still, things are underway. The IAB Tech Lab kicked off a sustainability working group in January to establish best practices and aim for a standardized measurement methodology, and the group released a set of best practices for curbing unnecessary emissions in June. Curt Larson, chief product officer at supply-side platform Sharethrough and a member of the IAB working group, said a standard will likely emerge by the middle of 2024. The risk in the meantime, he explained, is that agencies fail to begin the work of decarbonizing until that standard is established. "What we've heard from some agencies is, 'We're waiting to take action until we have a standard so that we will be able to take credit for our reduction,'" Larson said. "That's frustrating." Protecting against greenwashing As stricter legislation takes effect in Europe regarding greenwashing and some U.S. states look to tighten regulations around misleading environmental claims, brands are facing steeper consequences for missteps. For agencies, that means raising the bar on internal climate literacy to avoid greenwashing that could result in serious repercussions for clients. We should be focusing our attention on how we create the most sustainable, resilient, collaborative [advertising] ecosystem.Anne Coghlan, co-founder, COO, Scope3 U.K. regulators have banned dozens of ads over the past year for violating laws regarding environmental claims, for example. While U.S. authorities are still in the process of updating guidance on green claims, state-level regulation is opening brands up to lawsuits in California, Maryland and other states for misleading consumers regarding recyclability. Some agencies are bringing in external experts to give more in-depth trainings on greenwashing to sustainability teams. Others are partnering with environmental groups or consultants to serve as an additional gut check or vetting process when creating work that includes green claims or climate messaging. Futerra, a sustainability-focused agency based in the U.K., has begun offering in-depth trainings to support other agencies looking to improve staffers' understanding of the nuances of greenwashing. "[Agencies] have to become competent on this, not just aware of it," Solitaire Townsend, co-founder and chief solutionist at Futerra, told Adweek. Failing to sufficiently prevent greenwashing risks not just client reputations, but also talent retention and recruitment, she noted. "The war for talent and the sustainability challenge are the same thing." Ditching Big Oil While Clean Creatives hasn't slowed its efforts to convince ad and PR agencies to ditch fossil fuel clients, the biggest holding companies remain in business with Big Oil. Still, talent's taking notice. This month, Adweek published an article documenting the stories of several industry employees who left jobs in recent years due, at least in part, to the work their agency was doing with climate-harming clients. "We're at an increased moment of clarity," Duncan Meisel, executive director of Clean Creatives, told Adweek. He highlighted the fact that New York, an ad industry hub, was impacted by wildfire smoke over the summer—something that's likely to happen more often as the climate crisis accelerates. "There is a growing sense of understanding that this is a priority that does need to be solved," he explained. But the impacts of the Clean Creatives campaign reaches beyond the industry itself, noted Townsend. While its stated focus is to starve climate-harming brands of the best talent that the ad and PR industries have to offer, it's also catching the eye of climate activists and regulators outside adland. "These campaigns aren't always targeting the industry," Townsend said. "The audience for these campaigns are sometimes regulators, clients and activist communities. And that's what [Clean Creatives' annual reports are] beginning to do." This story is part of the “Building a Better Agency” special feature.

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Kathryn Lundstrom

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Kathryn Lundstrom