The latest IPCC report, released this week, confirmed what we've all known for a long time: the world is on fire -- and only we can put it out.
Problem is we've a great many flames to extinguish collectively, and each of us has only one small bucket.
As such, it's time for us to rethink the systems we each rely upon, and really start to own it.
If each industry puts its best foot forward, then there's little to stop us from turning the tide, before the tide claims us all.
For Good-Loop, that means ad tech -- and by extension, the internet. Now, you may not know this, but the internet is a massive contributor to CO2 emissions. In fact, it's currently responsible for around 4% of global emissions (more than the airline industry) -- and is expected to double by 2025.
It's imperative that as we battle to keep the open web free and empower more access around the world that we also come together to mitigate its footprint.
As ads and the internet have come to go together like peanut butter and jelly, it's time for the people like us whose job it is to fill those pixels to provide the solutions, not exacerbate a problem.
Fortunately, the solutions are -- broadly speaking -- very straightforward.
Below are three key areas we need to address for the ad tech industry to be hailed as a hero, and not the villain (for once).
1. Address carbon inefficiency at an infrastructure level
Programmatic media, and in particular real-time bidding (RTB), has underpinned huge advancements in ad tech, and in a very real way, has helped to fund the world's news.
In principle, an auction is the single most egalitarian concept -- the bid that makes the most money for the publisher for any given ad opportunity wins, maximising the yield, while enabling publishers to set floor prices and protect themselves from low quality ads. Everyone maximises their value.
However, from a carbon perspective, RTB now serves as a wildly inefficient system.
Every ad call and layer of ad tech that is activated within the programmatic ecosystem carries with it a carbon footprint -- even the failed bids for the ads that never show require computing power.
But there are a number of quick and relatively easy wins that can be deployed here. For example, you can prioritise green energy DSP and SSP partners in your supply chain, and carry that all the way down to the publisher -- funding those who are running on green server technology.
That doesn't address all of the chain, such as the energy required by the end device, but through ensuring that clean pipes power the programmatic ecosystem, you instantly remove whole layers of CPU carbon.
You can also take steps to ensure that when the ad does reach the end viewer, it requires the least amount of energy possible to be displayed on the end device.
Simple actions like reducing your file sizes as much as possible can have a significant impact -- while making your ad load faster and run better.
2. Support challenging content and issues
This is ultimately a fight bigger than any one company. We need to come together if we want to be successful.
It's understandable that it may feel scary to run your ad alongside a piece about climate change. But, in truth, it's arguably the highest engagement position you can hope for.
These are ad positions which hold genuine attention. It's time for advertisers to put their money where their mouths are, and support quality content in this space, while simultaneously defunding those with aggressively contrarian views -- effectively deplatforming climate change denial through the use of controlled, human-vetted allow lists.
All members of the ad tech ecosystem have to align around this. Ultimately, we need to be brave enough to collectively educate our clients.
This can be hard to face, especially when media accounts move from agency to agency like hot potatoes. But it's vital that we all play our part in helping planners to communicate to their clients -- and on the brand side for them to listen and be willing to implement -- that the status quo is no longer acceptable.
Brands should be encouraged to seize this opportunity as there's also a clear commercial gain. As this content has been historically hard to monetise and sees less competition due to existing brand safety standards, it's often cheaper to access and deliver upon. Therefore not only does your ad spend now fund quality journalism on the key issues facing our planet, but you gain commercially through a harder working ad spend, securing the most premium environment for attention for a much better price.
3. Collaborate willingly and openly
As the brand safety companies themselves have begun to evolve the concept from "brand safety" to "brand suitability", it's time for advertisers to do the same.
Through such open source initiatives as Prebid, which is thriving, and the IAB TechLab, we've seen the collective impact our industry can achieve when we all work together. Sure, both groups have faced criticism but were created with the best of intentions and attract some of our smartest minds.
As we seek to decarbonise ad tech -- and in time, the internet -- it's vital we bake in the good, ensuring that we collectively engage with each other and spur each other on to clean up our little part of the world.
The beauty of this is that it enables us to go beyond doing no harm, but switch to actively doing good.
Together we can make our industry carbon neutral, and then in turn become climate positive -- using systems and processes that help to drawdown CO2 from the atmosphere.
For example, at Good-Loop we have a suite of green media solutions, including our free Carbon Calculator, TreePM and Green Ad Tag, that will help make your digital ad campaigns climate positive.
It's now our turn to pass the torch by educating others how to maximise the green -- and keep Earth out of the red.
