Every digital interaction has a footprint. When someone scrolls through a newsfeed, streams their favourite series, or buys a hat they saw in an ad, an invisible chain of servers, exchanges, and devices powers the experience. Each step consumes energy and collectively contributes to carbon emissions, accelerating the climate crisis. The advertising industry is in fact one of the biggest silent contributors, accounting for 2.5 per cent of global CO₂ emissions. The supply chain is complex, energy-intensive, and somewhat hidden from the public consciousness.
Zero Waste Week was another opportunity to reflect on the importance of reducing waste in all forms, especially digital. In advertising, waste manifests as irrelevant impressions, opaque supply chains, and inefficient programmatic flows. These are not just operational issues; they are carbon issues. If we are serious about sustainability, we must confront them head-on.
The advertising industry has increasingly been taking steps to tackle these hidden costs with trailblazing media solutions and initiatives. The Global Media Sustainability Framework is a notable example of how the industry is now geared towards ensuring consistency and transparency across the ecosystem. Encouraging businesses to decarbonise their operations and accurately promote sustainable products, services, and behaviours.
In recent years we’ve seen progress across the supply chain. Scope3 is earning recognition for helping the advertising industry measure carbon emissions. DSPs like StackAdapt, Yahoo and FreeWheel have implemented solutions to tackle bid request duplication, one of digital advertising’s biggest sustainability challenges. Tools like our Equativ GreenPMPs™ allow advertisers to reduce emissions from their campaigns by removing high-emitting sites , turning transparency into actionable decision-making. By showing precisely where emissions occur across campaigns and connecting investments to carbon removal projects, advertisers have the insight they need to act responsibly. Sustainability, in this sense, is not a trade-off with performance but rather enhances efficiency and strengthens trust.
Beyond emissions, sustainability in advertising requires us all to embrace accountability. The industry has long wrestled with reputational challenges, from promoting high-carbon activities to inadvertently funding low-quality or misleading content. As recent discussions around greenwashing and “green-hushing” show, transparency is critical. If advertisers hide their environmental impact—or exaggerate it—they undermine credibility. Open reporting, traceable supply chains, and principled media buying are not just ethical imperatives; they are essential to restoring public trust and aligning the industry with global climate goals.
Innovation extends into streaming and connected TV as well. Server-side ad insertion, optimised infrastructure, and smarter delivery pipelines can drastically reduce the carbon footprint of data-intensive media. When Horizon Media mandated that all their campaigns shift to GreenPMPs™, they cut campaign emissions by over 50% while improving performance. These results prove that eco-efficient advertising is indeed possible and proving to be commercially viable.
When assessing the current state of affairs, I’ve seen momentum gathering across the industry, as many brands, agencies and tech providers are applying carbon-conscious strategies to routine advertising practices. Instances of collaboration between stakeholders in the advertising supply chain to advance sustainability efforts worldwide are also more commonplace. There’s definitely awareness of a shared responsibility to reduce carbon emissions and realise greener supply chains.
However, there’s still a lot of ground to be made.
Last year, António Guterres delivered a strong critique of the media’s role in the climate crisis, chastising fossil fuel advertisers for operating as ‘enablers of planetary destruction. To receive that message in a constructive manner, sustainable media must be embedded into the DNA of advertising, not merely treated as an optional add-on.
This is about more than tools and technology; there’s also a human element and personal enthusiasm. My concern for the environment began as a child in the 1980s. My sisters and I monitored our family’s recycling and water use, instilling habits that shaped the rest of my life. That early awareness evolved into a professional mission: if digital advertising has an outsized impact on emissions, we have a duty to act, innovate, and share solutions across the ecosystem. This commitment has inspired initiatives like the upcoming Green Media Summitand continues to guide our efforts toward making every impression as responsible as it is effective.
Across the pond and worldwide, recent grassroots awareness events like Zero Waste Week and high-level platforms like the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit, equally represent opportunities for people to address their environmental impact. Their purpose has always been bigger than the timeframe we busily cram them into. More than a tribute, these are timely wake-up calls challenging us to measure impact and embrace accountability.
By combining transparency, innovation, and principled decision-making, we can transform an industry often seen as part of the problem into one of the first to reach net-zero. The opportunity is here, the tools are developing, and the path is becoming clearer. What is needed now and always is the collective will to realise it.
Frank Maguire
Frank Maguire is SVP Product Marketing & Sustainability at Equativ. With a career at the intersection of digital advertising and sustainability, Frank has spearheaded research into how people engage with advertising, helping brands and agencies adapt to shifting media behaviours. A passionate advocate for sustainable innovation, he has completed a Sustainability certificate at Harvard Business School and has been instrumental in pioneering industry-first initiatives, including the launch of GreenPMPs™ and the Green Media Summit.
