5 Things You Should Know About the Global Media Sustainability Framework

The advertising sector recently took a huge stride forward on the path to a more sustainable ecosystem with the launch of the much-anticipated Global Media Sustainability Framework.  

Now in the sole ownership of Ad Net Zero after GARM was forced to close following legal action by X owner Elon Musk, the initiative is the culmination of what has been over a year of close collaboration from parties across the length and breadth of the industry.

Here at Impact Plus, we’re delighted to be involved in the creation of the first iteration of the new framework and continuing discussions around its development. Launched at Cannes Lions this year, it aims to standardise the way advertisers, publishers and agencies evaluate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by their ad campaigns.

Although only the first step, the new framework, which has attracted widespread support across Adland, plays a crucial role in providing a common language and currency for the industry to rally behind in its mission to tackle digital advertising's oversized carbon footprint.  

But at 67 dense pages long, covering everything from standards, methodology and best practices, you can be forgiven if you haven’t had the chance to read the new document from cover to cover just yet. But, since Ad Net Zero has taken over sole ownership following the dissolution of GARM in August, now’s the perfect opportunity to get to grips with it.

To help save you time, we’ve put together the five key things you should know about the new framework and how working with the right sustainability platform can help:

The original article was published on the Impact Plus blog.

1. Don't think it affects you? Think again

It would be easy to think the new framework doesn’t really affect you, that it’s something for someone with “sustainability” in their job title to worry about. Besides, there’s already a bunch of existing frameworks and it’s only voluntary, right?

But this new framework looks set to change everything. While French industry bodies and private companies have largely be responsible for developing them in the past, this new framework is the result of industry-wide collaboration between over 120 organisations, spanning 42 markets. Just to give you some sense of the numbers we are talking about, the process included 53 marketers, six media agency holding companies, 31 media owners, 27 industry associations and 23 media sustainability solutions, collaborating across a series of six working groups.

Some big players took part too. Companies and organisations involved in the launch include the WFA, the ANA, Diageo, Dentsu, Google, GroupM, Havas, IAB, IAB Europe, L’Oreal, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Mastercard, Meta, and Impact Plus, of course -- to name but a few. 

So, with near universal acceptance, global reach and the fact that it will cover all ad channels in the future, it means that regardless of whether you work on the advertiser-side, publisher-side, or any company in between, this new framework will have an impact on the way you work.

2. But there's no need to panic

Although we’ve said the new framework changes everything, there’s no need to panic, regardless of what stage you are at in your sustainability journey.

For those of you who haven’t started yet, it’s a great place to begin your sustainability journey. The framework simplifies the sustainability vendor selection process, with Ad Net Zero support providing a common currency when evaluating emissions and interoperability between vendors. So, any decision you make about which vendors to use will be focused on how well their solutions meet your needs rather than spending time looking at how their models differ from each other.   

Meanwhile, for those who have already put in place various guidelines around how to measure, benchmark and reduce your ad emissions, it’s not a huge change from what has been done previously and it should be relatively easy to apply the new framework retrospectively.

That’s because, while significant, the new framework is not a radical departure from the work that has been done before. It was built with previous standards in mind (particularly for Digital, Alliance Digitale’s SRI methodology, and OneFrame for other channels) and created following a lot of input from leading GHG measurement vendors. It’s also consistent with the IPCC and GHG Protocol approaches used in other sectors.

There is also a lot of help out there – starting with choosing the right sustainability platform to help guide you through the process.

3. A continuous journey towards greener advertising

Another crucial point to make about the new framework is that this is just the first step on a much larger journey.  

There is still a lot of work to be done and the framework will continue to evolve as the industry strives for more precise evaluations of emissions.  

Below is a chart outlining the steps that are planned to be taken in future iterations:

That’s because, while several media channels and their formulas are already included in the framework, some of the default key data, to be used when the ideal data point isn’t available, is missing. That means that everyone implementing the framework must still work using their own assumptions. .  

Until we have them, aligning the different methodologies available across the market continues to be a challenge. That’s why it’s a key focus for the current Wave (2), listed as ‘Emissions Data Hacks’.

Having a unified framework won’t just help to align these ‘assumed’ values, it also opens the door to allow the industry to push to resolve how to obtain the missing data and provide ever more accurate calculations.

Because of this constant evolution of the framework and adjustment of data points, working with a dedicated sustainability platform is crucial in helping you keep ahead of the curve when changes are made. Impact Plus will be keeping abreast of all the changes on our blog.

4. The frameworks are actually not that complicated to understand - especially if you are working with a sustainability partner 

While the report can be daunting at 67 pages long, each filled with a lot of talk about ‘principles’, ‘emissions approaches’, ‘materiality’ and ‘data specificity’, every channel has its own emissions framework that’s easy to follow. Especially if you only focus on the two parts you need to, which are written in much plainer language.

Each of these channel frameworks outline the following:  

• A workflow that shows the different stages of the lifecycle of an ad, from production to consumption;
• A table which defines the functional units, emissions from the data sources required and the formula to combine those elements into an emissions calculation.

For example, below is a chart looking specifically at the workflow (A) for the Digital channel.

As you can see, it covers the different steps of an ad’s journey and provides a blueprint.  

Meanwhile, the image below shows a snippet of the table (B) that looks more closely at the Distribution phase. In it, you can see from the ‘Ad Space Selection’ step that there is a sub-step called Real-time Bidding (RTB) that generates emissions by servers processing the transmission.

These emissions scale in line with the number of impressions, number of paths/requests made, and the calculation time required. Finally, there is a formula to calculate the emissions from this step. This is repeated to define every step and sub-step from each phase in the workflow that produces emissions.

This is a fantastic step towards greater transparency, helping everyone easily understand and use the same language to discuss the various metrics, data points and steps that determine emissions. However, in practice it can still be complex to implement.  

With activity being a combination of different channels, platforms, creative types, connection types, ad selection processes etc, it quickly becomes a complex system to maintain on your own, and that doesn’t even include the data visualisation, insights or reduction tracking and simulation that typically go along with this raw environmental data to make the best use of it.  

For that reason, we would recommend working with a dedicated vendor(s) to ensure the right implementation, and the maintenance in the future. If you have your own reporting systems and data capabilities, it is usually possible to integrate the data directly from these tools to power your own reporting and optimisation systems.

5. There are things you can do right now

So, now you know significant change is happening across the industry, what are you going to do about it?  

There’s already a lot of frustration within the industry at a perceived lack of action across Adland to tackle advertising emissions. But rather than wait, there are things you can do right now to help. Following the launch of the new framework, there’s never been a better time to get started, especially if you haven’t already engaged with a sustainability measurement vendor.

To help, we have put together some handy further reading links for you to explore.  

The first place we recommend you investigate is this action guide, which is a much quicker way to familiarise yourself with the new guidelines. The 10-point guide covers the following areas:

• Selecting the right sustainable suppliers and infrastructure
• Optimising creative assets for media decarbonisation
• Sustainable media planning and buying

Of course, if you would prefer to delve directly into the report itself, you can read it here.

If you have any other questions about the framework, or queries around sustainability in digital advertising in general, we suggest getting in touch with your sustainability partner, or reach out to us here.