How Can Advertising Businesses Lower Their Carbon Footprint?
Ever since global warming became a recognized threat to humanity, we have all been making countless efforts at reversing the damages done due to industrialization. While we focus on lowering our carbon footprint in the advertising industry, it’s important not to overlook other aspects of the business. Legal aspects, for instance, are crucial. If you’re considering forming an LLC for your advertising business, these legalzoom llc service insights could provide valuable information and simplify the process for you.
For instance, blockchain technology where cryptocurrencies need mining recently came to light due to the amount of energy it requires to function. The systems created also produced high emissions, not helping.
Similarly, the advertising industry is one of the culprits that needs to slow down and take stock of its activities. On average, both traditional and digital advertising is highly carbon intensive, but the effects are pretty disguised. To make reforms, we need some system-wide changes to be integrated. This post will help us take a deeper look into four ways that the advertising business can curb its carbon footprint.
- Measure your benchmark carbon costs: Every business has a carbon footprint that they may or may not be aware of. In today’s world, this complacency cannot be afforded, which is why advertising agencies are urged to take stock of their reach and the impact they have on the environment. It also comes down to the use of traditional means where you can find the extensive use of paper and natural resources to create flyers, cards, and banners. In digital advertising, the use of heavy machinery to create display ads that are lit up 24/7 creates light pollution in cities. Use the month of January to account for the overall carbon costs that your brand may leave through its activities, both directly and indirectly. In the long run, it will also help you with CSR activities.
- Invest in carbon off-setting activities: This may seem like an offensive proposition to many environmentalists at the start but has some meaning in the long term. While planting 1000 trees for every 1000 grown trees being felled does not solve the immediate problem, there are other more thoughtful ways of creating short and long-term off-setting solutions that reduce the overall impact on the environment. As per research, an ad campaign can produce up to 5.4 tons of carbon dioxide. Using a few of the Gold Standard Carbon Offsets will help to start your journey. Once you have a system in place, it is easier for your teams to follow rank.
- Rely on digital advertising over physical: While digital advertising has its CO2 emissions to worry about, print media makes a huge impact when speaking about the use of paper and its wastage. Instead of relying heavily on print campaigns, why not move to smarter ways like programmatic TV advertising? Programmatic TV advertising refers to the data-motivated automation of advertising transactions purely with the audience’s viewership ratings. It switches the industry standard of ads, where digital marketing experts depend on show ratings to decide the ideal viewers for their ads. These ads can hence be used in a targeted manner, only impacting certain sections, rather than being broadcasted to emit heavy CO2. This can also motivate advertisers to limit their biddings when it comes to selling ad spaces, reduce display times, and make the most of the showings rather than focus on bulk advertising.
- Mind your digital assets: Every computer and digital device used emits a certain amount of carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. Many digital advertising methods still lean on downloading media to the end user’s mobile or computer. This infers that one of the greatest additions to these emissions inside the digital advertising industry is the deployment of creatives on their own! However, this also becomes the place where we can create the maximum impact by taking small steps. A simple change can lead to a chain reaction, such as SVG files in lieu of JPG or PNG formats can significantly reduce the file size. In the long run, you receive three benefits instead of one- reduced carbon emissions, reduced file sizes, and improved performance due to low latency.
Final Word:
Summarizing the measures mentioned above, it can be made possible for digital advertising to run successful campaigns with their impact on the planet. Not only can advertising be used prudently but also integrated with the latest technologies- which are more environmentally conscious in 2023. We hope that this piece helps you arrive at wiser decisions, especially when it comes to making sustainable choices that benefit all the parties involved. Conscious consumers would, in the end, support conscious advertising.
