A new whitepaper from Ad Net Zero has quantified advertising’s contribution to Australian businesses’ supply chain emissions for the first time.
The report found that advertising averages more than 5 per cent of upstream Scope 3 emissions, and that this climbs as high as 16 per cent in key sectors such as government, infrastructure and public services.
The research, developed with climate and carbon disclosure specialists 2XE, highlights how better arming businesses with better data can reduce emissions without compromising marketing performance or investment.
Ad Net Zero Australia Lead Arum Nixon said the findings highlighted why marketers should be engaging directly with their organisation’s sustainability strategy, rather than risk having marketing’s emissions calculated and cut for them.
“For a long time, marketing has sat outside the emissions conversation, often delegating these questions to a risk or finance team. This report, and the data within it, shows that’s no longer tenable – in some sectors, advertising is one of the largest sources of Scope 3 emissions a business has,” said Nixon.
The whitepaper also argues that with mandatory climate reporting under AASB S2 bringing new scrutiny to how businesses measure and disclose emissions across their value chain, marketing — often overlooked as immaterial — is now a genuine consideration for corporate boards and sustainability teams.
The paper similarly sets out a practical case for why addressing marketing’s emissions doesn’t need to come at the cost of budget or campaign performance, provided organisations move from broad, spend-based estimates to more granular, activity-based data.
“This report is significant because it tackles the myth that you can reduce your emissions but that it comes at the expense of advertising performance,” said Nixon.
“The good news is that marketers who get ahead of this issue have a genuine opportunity, not just a compliance burden. When you move to activity-based data, you can usually find areas where waste is sitting and tackle it often while improving campaign performance at the same time. That’s a far better position than simply being told to cut spend.”
Nick Palousis, 2XE co-founder and CEO, who led the analysis, said the scale of the numbers warranted immediate attention.
“When a supply chain emissions source averages over 5 per cent, it is showing up on the pie chart and deserves a plan,” said Palousis. “Advertising can sit alongside, and in some cases exceed, other familiar Scope 3 sources such as waste or business travel. The difference is that action can often start without major capital deployment or impact on the organisation.”
Two leading Australian brands are featured in the whitepaper illustrating how brands are tackling this issue: Australian Ethical, working with Benedictus Media and oOh!media, cut out-of-home emissions per dollar spent by 63 per cent and per thousand impacts by 82 per cent through better targeting, renewable-powered inventory, recyclable materials and more energy-efficient creative — contributing to a 21 per cent reduction in overall paid media emissions and a 50 per cent stronger uplift in brand awareness than the brand’s previous campaign.
National broadcaster SBS, working with media agency Hearts & Science, has also reduced its marketing’s share of its Scope 3 emissions from 6 per cent (FY22, spend-based) to 3 per cent (FY25, using a hybrid of spend-based, supplier and activity-based data), with a goal of reaching 100 per cent activity-based measurement.
For its recent Premium Drama campaign, SBS was able to serve BVOD ads at times when there was more renewable energy in the grid – across all dayparts – using Hearts & Science’s Renewables Ad Engine, leading to a 24.6 per cent reduction in the carbon intensity of the campaign compared to the delivery from an SBS baseline campaign without compromising audience reach.
Emma Grainge, head of brand and communications at Australian Ethical, said: “Finding a solution that reduced our advertising emissions without impacting the campaign performance was important to us. More broadly, addressing marketing’s emissions will play an important role in our overall decarbonisation strategy. This is not just because Australian Ethical is a purpose-driven brand; we see it as a strategic advantage to future-proof our business.”
Abi Thomas, head of sustainability at SBS, said: “Marketing emissions are a material part of SBS’s carbon footprint, so reducing them is an important part of our sustainability journey. By moving from spend-based to activity-based measurement, we’ve gained a far more accurate picture of our impact and identified practical ways to reduce it. This includes delivering lower-carbon advertising campaigns, such as the recent SBS premium drama campaign, which reduced emissions without compromising audience reach.”
The whitepaper sets out a five-step playbook for marketers: establish a baseline, improve data quality, adopt a consistent methodology such as the GMSF, build carbon into planning decisions, and set targets with embedded accountability.
