Good-Loop in 2019 became one of the first ad tech companies to achieve B Corp certification- something we're incredibly proud of. We welcome the opportunity, and the challenge, of leading the way for others in our industry to make a meaningful difference. We work with brands to deliver profit with purpose and our B Corp certification certainly backs this up.
Good-Loop has a simple mission: to create a new, more positive role for advertising in society.
How did it all begin?
Amy Williams was tired of watching life-changing amounts of money go from one corporate giant to another. So, she put a post up on Work In Start Ups and within a week, she received an email from Daniel Winterstein, an experienced software engineer who was running a tech consultancy in Scotland.
Daniel shared Amy's vision to build something that would make the world a little better, and so in 2016, Good-Loop was founded. Since then, we have raised over £6 million for good causes all around the world. But in 2021, we realised that we needed to go beyond donations and start tackling Adland's growing carbon footprint as well.
Why did you start to tackle advertising's growing carbon problem?
The average digital ad campaign emits 5.4 tonnes of CO2e - almost half the average annual carbon footprint of someone in the UK.
"We're at the tipping point. At the current rate of emissions, within the next 20 years we'll reach the point where we'll start to experience catastrophic climate change all around the globe and the planet will become increasingly uninhabitable. As an industry, we need to do all we can to halt this disastrous rise in temperatures by adopting advertising practices that are good for the planet." - Amy Williams, CEO of Good-Loop
When we first started looking into this issue, we developed a free carbon calculator for advertisers to measure their estimated carbon footprint of a particular campaign.
However, we knew that there were still challenges to get advertisers to truly see the impact that digital advertising can have on the planet. We even roped in Ben Fogle as a celebrity appearance at Cannes to help us spread the word!
The industry needs our support
It's an issue that has got a lot of traction across the industry over the last 18 months. Through our research, we found that 9 in every 10 U.K. marketers agree that the digital advertising industry does have a responsibility to reduce carbon emissions. But 70% said there was not enough training on sustainable media to facilitate meaningful change.
It's clear that a lot of greenwashing is not intentional. However, we must work together to put an end to it:
"People across our industry care deeply about tackling our carbon problem and making advertising a positive force in the world. But in order to reach ad net zero, we now need more industry-wide education and we must collaborate to develop universal sustainable standards, to guide future best practices." - Amy Williams, CEO of Good-Loop
We Go Beyond Greenwashing Because…
It makes sense. Everyone wins when brands stop throwing money at ill-thought out initiatives that inevitably become greenwashing,and start actually investing in more sustainable ways of digital advertising.
The advertiser experiences a faster, cleaner, better quality and a better performing ad - and the planet doesn't have to pay the price.
Look out for next week, where we'll be telling you how we go beyond greenwashing as a company, and how we're helping others on their sustainability journeys.
