Estimate The Carbon Footprint of Your Digital Advertising
The hidden impact of digital
Whilst physical advertising assets (e.g. a newspaper ad) create emissions in a way that’s straight forward to visualise, the footprint of digital advertising is a little more abstract.
Whether its a Google Search Ad on a video on TikTok, emissions are generated at every stage of the often complex lifecycle of a digital ad.
Understanding your footprint is a key first step to spotting opportunities to reduce emissions. It can be an illuminating exercise, identifying both quick changes alongside embedded challenges to tackle longer term.
A full carbon assessment will set out emissions your business generates across its operations, including through ad production and media buying.
CO₂e Stands for kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, a standard unit in carbon accounting that represents the total greenhouse gases associated with an activity, measured as the equivalent amount of CO₂.
How are the emissions estimated?
Here are some of the components and considerations used when estimating the CO₂e of a company's digital advertising campaigns.
Asset size is crucial in carbon accounting for adverts because larger files require more data transfer, processing power, and network infrastructure energy, leading to higher emissions.
Optimizing asset sizes minimizes energy use across data centers, user devices, and network pathways, reducing the environmental impact and enhancing user experience with faster loading times.
Longer exposure times may mean the display runs at a higher brightness for extended periods, and device processors work harder to load dynamic or high-resolution content.
On the server side, delivering continuous ad impressions to connected devices consumes more energy in data centers, which often rely at least partially on fossil-fuel-generated electricity.
Ad allocation is about deciding when and where ads appear online. It affects carbon emissions because showing ads frequently or in busy online spaces uses more energy across servers, networks, and devices.
By placing ads efficiently and thoughtfully, company's can reduce energy use and lower their carbon footprint.
Broadcasting an online ad has its own environmental impact, as it relies on energy-hungry data centres and network systems to reach viewers.
High-quality video ads or ads displayed across multiple platforms require even more energy, increasing the carbon footprint. So, every ad shown online uses power and adds to our environmental impact.
The environmental impact of viewing an online ad depends a lot on the type of device used. Each device—whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or computer—has its own carbon footprint.
Manufacturing these devices requires raw materials and energy, creating emissions, and once they’re disposed of, they contribute to electronic waste.
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