AdGreen's carbon calculator, specifically designed for the ad production industry, goes live today (29 September), with more than 130 brands, advertising agencies and production companies registered to use the tool.
Sebastian Munden, Unilever UK & Ireland's executive vice-president and general manager, and Ad Net Zero chair, has urged the ad industry to use the carbon calculator, explaining that Unilever brands would be putting it into practice in their production processes.
"The AdGreen carbon calculator is a brilliant tool for every ad professional involved in the process of producing ads," he said. We will be embedding its use into production of Unilever ad productions going forward.
"I urge everyone to register for the tool, collect the levy and embed the use of a carbon calculator like this in their working practices. As an industry, we have to take responsibility for the carbon emissions involved in advertising production activities and take rapid steps to reduce them."
Created with support from Unilever, Adam & Eve/DDB, Havas UK, Havas Studios and Biscuit, AdGreen claims the calculator will allow production service companies to collaboratively measure the carbon impact of their projects and identify the highest carbon-producing activities. A bespoke tool for the advertising production industry, it was developed by Alchemy Digital and BAFTA Media Technology, the duo that created the Albert carbon calculator for the film and TV industry.
The calculator works by allowing everyone working on a project to enter information about four key areas of production: travel and transport; energy and fuels; materials; and catering. This enables users to build up a picture of the carbon impact of their production. The tool will also allow production teams to create draft carbon footprints for projects, and to cut out unnecessary emissions at the procurement and planning stages, before the impact is caused.
Jo Coombes, project director at AdGreen, said: "If we truly want to reach net zero, then we need to start measuring and understanding our carbon impact. The information generated by this tool will help companies make informed decisions in relation to internal reduction targets and become more carbon literate in the process.
"Not only that, but draft footprints can be created at script stage, which will allow creative teams to see if they have inadvertently baked emissions into their scripts. Similarly, it'll mean that clients can see the carbon data on work they're commissioning and make informed decisions at the procurement stage."
Free at the point of use, the calculator project is funded by the AdGreen levy – a 0.25% charge on production spend, paid by participating advertisers, and collected by their agencies before being passed to AdGreen each quarter.
AdGreen is backed by a consortium of companies including Adam & Eve/DDB, APR (Advertising Production Resources), Google, Havas UK, Havas Studios, MullenLowe, Publicis Groupe UK, Sky, WPP and Unilever. The need to track, measure and reduce carbon emissions involved in ad production is an essential part of Ad Net Zero, the UK advertising industry's plan to reach net zero by the end of 2030.
Over the next week, AdGreen will host a series of free webinars to provide more information on how to use the carbon calculator. In addition, the AdGreen carbon calculator will be showcased at the, for which attendance is free.
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