Multiple studies found that the internet generates a significant amount of global carbon emissions and advertising is one of the largest contributors to those emissions. But as our digital demands and internet usage grows daily, how do we circumvent the environmental impact of digital ads? Keep reading to learn how thousands of brands took the first step to becoming sustainable and reach net-zero emissions with GreenPMPs™, how we developed the solution in partnership with Scope3, and some of the amazing milestones achieved in a short period of time.
It started a few months ago, with a simple idea
As one of the leading global ad exchanges, Sharethrough manages billions of ad requests every single day, helping thousands of websites and apps to better monetize their content and advertisers to better reach a qualified audience. In other words, thousands of terabytes of data transact through our Cloud infrastructure every month.
A few months ago, we started noticing our constant efforts to optimize our data infrastructures and to make them more efficient were also allowing us to significantly decrease our carbon footprint. Even if we are fully aware that servers require energy - electricity - to run, being exposed to some carbon emission reports directly linked to our server consumption was an eye opener: as an industry player, we can have an impact in reducing the carbon footprint of digital advertising.
What if we could allow advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns, while at least maintaining the same level of performance and scale?
Then we did our homework
With this idea of being able to execute carbon neutral advertising campaigns at scale came a lot of questions:
- How to accurately measure the carbon emissions from an ad campaign?
- Where do the emissions come from, as there are multiple parties involved, from the advertiser to the publisher?
- How to optimize the supply path so that we reduce carbon emissions as much as possible, instead of simply compensating for those?
- How to deliver carbon neutral campaigns without affecting the performance of the campaign
- And how do we do all that without changing the execution habits of media buyers, so it becomes a scalable solution for our industry
- Etc.
We started by running a deep analysis on our overall company carbon footprint with 51toCarbonZero, taking into consideration our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, in order to better track the impact of our actions to decrease our carbon footprint. We also conducted human-centric research to learn about consumers’ understanding of the internet’s carbon footprint, which is surprisingly high. What we discovered was that 80% of consumers preferred brands that are actively working to become sustainable.
But something was missing. We needed to be able to access detailed and trustworthy data on carbon emissions from advertising supply chains and websites when delivering programmatic campaigns. We decided to partner with Scope3, a company specializing in measuring end-to-end emissions from across the media and advertising supply chain. After many hours spent working with the Scope3 team and integrating their data with ours, we finally were able to measure carbon emissions from every campaign delivered on Sharethrough Exchange. A major milestone was achieved: we had the carbon emission data fully integrated on our end, and now we needed to build a product that enables advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns.
The launch of GreenPMPs™
As mentioned earlier, we wanted to build a way for advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns while maintaining or increasing their performance. We created the industry-first solution for brands, advertisers and publishers to remove the carbon impact from digital ads: GreenPMPs™.
For all campaigns using the GreenPMPs™, Sharethrough measures the exact amount of carbon emissions generated - using Scope3 data - and allocates a portion of the ad spend towards funding carbon removal projects based on a campaign’s emissions. By default, GreenPMPs™ are also set up to target the most direct path to publisher inventory. Additionally, the Sharethrough team is constantly working at finding ways to reduce those emissions for future campaigns, by optimizing the ad exchange efficiency as well as providing publisher partners with tips and tools to reduce their own emissions.
Sustainability Milestones Achieved with GreenPMPs™
Brands and agencies have shown a lot of interest in GreenPMPs™since the launch a few months ago, demonstrating a real interest from the ad industry to become cleaner and greener.
More than 4,800 brands have delivered campaigns using the GreenPMPs™, and this number keeps increasing every day. More than 100 million grams of CO2e has been avoided thanks to the GreenPMPs™, which is the equivalent of the electricity required to heat 413 US homes for 1 month, or driving 13 times the circumference of the Earth with an average gasoline car!
And all that, while maintaining or increasing the performance of the campaigns!
Follow our real time progress at greenpmp.io.
We are thrilled to see such amazing results from the GreenPMPs™ initiative in such a short amount of time. But this is just the beginning, as we have only scratched the surface of what the industry can accomplish regarding sustainable advertising. I expect 2023 to be an exciting year for sustainability as we’re seeing more brands, agencies and publishers committing to reducing their carbon footprint. And if we’re to reach net-zero by 2030, we’re going to need help from all players in the ad tech industry.
Multiple studies found that the internet generates a significant amount of global carbon emissions and advertising is one of the largest contributors to those emissions. But as our digital demands and internet usage grows daily, how do we circumvent the environmental impact of digital ads? Keep reading to learn how thousands of brands took the first step to becoming sustainable and reach net-zero emissions with GreenPMPs™, how we developed the solution in partnership with Scope3, and some of the amazing milestones achieved in a short period of time.
It started a few months ago, with a simple idea
As one of the leading global ad exchanges, Sharethrough manages billions of ad requests every single day, helping thousands of websites and apps to better monetize their content and advertisers to better reach a qualified audience. In other words, thousands of terabytes of data transact through our Cloud infrastructure every month.
A few months ago, we started noticing our constant efforts to optimize our data infrastructures and to make them more efficient were also allowing us to significantly decrease our carbon footprint. Even if we are fully aware that servers require energy - electricity - to run, being exposed to some carbon emission reports directly linked to our server consumption was an eye opener: as an industry player, we can have an impact in reducing the carbon footprint of digital advertising.
What if we could allow advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns, while at least maintaining the same level of performance and scale?
Then we did our homework
With this idea of being able to execute carbon neutral advertising campaigns at scale came a lot of questions:
- How to accurately measure the carbon emissions from an ad campaign?
- Where do the emissions come from, as there are multiple parties involved, from the advertiser to the publisher?
- How to optimize the supply path so that we reduce carbon emissions as much as possible, instead of simply compensating for those?
- How to deliver carbon neutral campaigns without affecting the performance of the campaign
- And how do we do all that without changing the execution habits of media buyers, so it becomes a scalable solution for our industry
- Etc.
We started by running a deep analysis on our overall company carbon footprint with 51toCarbonZero, taking into consideration our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, in order to better track the impact of our actions to decrease our carbon footprint. We also conducted human-centric research to learn about consumers’ understanding of the internet’s carbon footprint, which is surprisingly high. What we discovered was that 80% of consumers preferred brands that are actively working to become sustainable.
But something was missing. We needed to be able to access detailed and trustworthy data on carbon emissions from advertising supply chains and websites when delivering programmatic campaigns. We decided to partner with Scope3, a company specializing in measuring end-to-end emissions from across the media and advertising supply chain. After many hours spent working with the Scope3 team and integrating their data with ours, we finally were able to measure carbon emissions from every campaign delivered on Sharethrough Exchange. A major milestone was achieved: we had the carbon emission data fully integrated on our end, and now we needed to build a product that enables advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns.
The launch of GreenPMPs™
As mentioned earlier, we wanted to build a way for advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns while maintaining or increasing their performance. We created the industry-first solution for brands, advertisers and publishers to remove the carbon impact from digital ads: GreenPMPs™.
For all campaigns using the GreenPMPs™, Sharethrough measures the exact amount of carbon emissions generated - using Scope3 data - and allocates a portion of the ad spend towards funding carbon removal projects based on a campaign’s emissions. By default, GreenPMPs™ are also set up to target the most direct path to publisher inventory. Additionally, the Sharethrough team is constantly working at finding ways to reduce those emissions for future campaigns, by optimizing the ad exchange efficiency as well as providing publisher partners with tips and tools to reduce their own emissions.
Sustainability Milestones Achieved with GreenPMPs™
Brands and agencies have shown a lot of interest in GreenPMPs™since the launch a few months ago, demonstrating a real interest from the ad industry to become cleaner and greener.
More than 4,800 brands have delivered campaigns using the GreenPMPs™, and this number keeps increasing every day. More than 100 million grams of CO2e has been avoided thanks to the GreenPMPs™, which is the equivalent of the electricity required to heat 413 US homes for 1 month, or driving 13 times the circumference of the Earth with an average gasoline car!
And all that, while maintaining or increasing the performance of the campaigns!
Follow our real time progress at greenpmp.io.
We are thrilled to see such amazing results from the GreenPMPs™ initiative in such a short amount of time. But this is just the beginning, as we have only scratched the surface of what the industry can accomplish regarding sustainable advertising. I expect 2023 to be an exciting year for sustainability as we’re seeing more brands, agencies and publishers committing to reducing their carbon footprint. And if we’re to reach net-zero by 2030, we’re going to need help from all players in the ad tech industry.
Behind Headlines: 180 Seconds in Ad Tech is a short 3-minute podcast exploring the news in the digital advertising industry. Ad tech is a fast-growing industry with many updates happening daily. As it can be hard for most to keep up with the latest news, the Sharethrough team wanted to create an audio series compiling notable mentions each week.
Multiple studies found that the internet generates a significant amount of global carbon emissions and advertising is one of the largest contributors to those emissions. But as our digital demands and internet usage grows daily, how do we circumvent the environmental impact of digital ads? Keep reading to learn how thousands of brands took the first step to becoming sustainable and reach net-zero emissions with GreenPMPs™, how we developed the solution in partnership with Scope3, and some of the amazing milestones achieved in a short period of time.
It started a few months ago, with a simple idea
As one of the leading global ad exchanges, Sharethrough manages billions of ad requests every single day, helping thousands of websites and apps to better monetize their content and advertisers to better reach a qualified audience. In other words, thousands of terabytes of data transact through our Cloud infrastructure every month.
A few months ago, we started noticing our constant efforts to optimize our data infrastructures and to make them more efficient were also allowing us to significantly decrease our carbon footprint. Even if we are fully aware that servers require energy - electricity - to run, being exposed to some carbon emission reports directly linked to our server consumption was an eye opener: as an industry player, we can have an impact in reducing the carbon footprint of digital advertising.
What if we could allow advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns, while at least maintaining the same level of performance and scale?
Then we did our homework
With this idea of being able to execute carbon neutral advertising campaigns at scale came a lot of questions:
- How to accurately measure the carbon emissions from an ad campaign?
- Where do the emissions come from, as there are multiple parties involved, from the advertiser to the publisher?
- How to optimize the supply path so that we reduce carbon emissions as much as possible, instead of simply compensating for those?
- How to deliver carbon neutral campaigns without affecting the performance of the campaign
- And how do we do all that without changing the execution habits of media buyers, so it becomes a scalable solution for our industry
- Etc.
We started by running a deep analysis on our overall company carbon footprint with 51toCarbonZero, taking into consideration our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, in order to better track the impact of our actions to decrease our carbon footprint. We also conducted human-centric research to learn about consumers’ understanding of the internet’s carbon footprint, which is surprisingly high. What we discovered was that 80% of consumers preferred brands that are actively working to become sustainable.
But something was missing. We needed to be able to access detailed and trustworthy data on carbon emissions from advertising supply chains and websites when delivering programmatic campaigns. We decided to partner with Scope3, a company specializing in measuring end-to-end emissions from across the media and advertising supply chain. After many hours spent working with the Scope3 team and integrating their data with ours, we finally were able to measure carbon emissions from every campaign delivered on Sharethrough Exchange. A major milestone was achieved: we had the carbon emission data fully integrated on our end, and now we needed to build a product that enables advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns.
The launch of GreenPMPs™
As mentioned earlier, we wanted to build a way for advertisers to deliver carbon neutral campaigns while maintaining or increasing their performance. We created the industry-first solution for brands, advertisers and publishers to remove the carbon impact from digital ads: GreenPMPs™.
For all campaigns using the GreenPMPs™, Sharethrough measures the exact amount of carbon emissions generated - using Scope3 data - and allocates a portion of the ad spend towards funding carbon removal projects based on a campaign’s emissions. By default, GreenPMPs™ are also set up to target the most direct path to publisher inventory. Additionally, the Sharethrough team is constantly working at finding ways to reduce those emissions for future campaigns, by optimizing the ad exchange efficiency as well as providing publisher partners with tips and tools to reduce their own emissions.
Sustainability Milestones Achieved with GreenPMPs™
Brands and agencies have shown a lot of interest in GreenPMPs™since the launch a few months ago, demonstrating a real interest from the ad industry to become cleaner and greener.
More than 4,800 brands have delivered campaigns using the GreenPMPs™, and this number keeps increasing every day. More than 100 million grams of CO2e has been avoided thanks to the GreenPMPs™, which is the equivalent of the electricity required to heat 413 US homes for 1 month, or driving 13 times the circumference of the Earth with an average gasoline car!
And all that, while maintaining or increasing the performance of the campaigns!
Follow our real time progress at greenpmp.io.
We are thrilled to see such amazing results from the GreenPMPs™ initiative in such a short amount of time. But this is just the beginning, as we have only scratched the surface of what the industry can accomplish regarding sustainable advertising. I expect 2023 to be an exciting year for sustainability as we’re seeing more brands, agencies and publishers committing to reducing their carbon footprint. And if we’re to reach net-zero by 2030, we’re going to need help from all players in the ad tech industry.
Founded in 2015, Calibrate is a yearly conference for new engineering managers hosted by seasoned engineering managers. The experience level of the speakers ranges from newcomers all the way through senior engineering leaders with over twenty years of experience in the field. Each speaker is greatly concerned about the craft of engineering management. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted yearly in September, from 2015-2019 in San Francisco, California.
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