Tool helps advertisers estimate and contextualize the carbon footprint emissions generated by their digital advertising campaigns

Sharethrough, one of the top global independent omnichannel ad exchanges, announced the launch of its Carbon Emissions Estimator, a free tool to help educate the advertising industry on the approximate amount of carbon produced by a digital media campaign.

Advertisers can input details about a potential campaign, such as number of impressions, type of creative and the type of inventory, and the tool will calculate the estimated number of metric tons of carbon that the campaign will generate. The estimations are based on averages from hundreds of millions of impressions delivered using Sharethrough GreenPMPs (Private Marketplaces), using Scope3 as their carbon emission measurement partner.

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Digital ads produce more carbon emissions than one would think. In fact, 1 million ad impressions produce on average the same amount of carbon emissions as a single passanger’s round trip flight from London to Boston. While there are many factors that can affect a campaign’s carbon footprint, including the specific publisher inventory that is targeted, the effectiveness of the supply path, and the creative, the Carbon Emissions Estimator allows advertisers to better understand the environmental impact of their campaigns by providing tangible equivalencies, like the energy required to heat homes or charge smartphones.

“Digital advertising is often thought of as a more environmentally conscious alternative to print ads or mailers, because there’s no physical waste. However, the fact of the matter is that digital ads have an impact on the environment as well, even if we can’t see it”, said JF Cote, CEO of Sharethrough. “At Sharethrough we’ve taken actions to limit and reduce our carbon footprint as a company as well as providing ways for advertisers to deliver carbon-neutral programmatic campaigns with the GreenPMPs, which are already used by thousands of brands. The Carbon Estimator is a great addition to our toolkit to help the industry better understand the environmental impact of their campaigns and encourage them to take tangible actions.”

The launch of the Carbon Emissions Estimator comes on the heels of the announcement of Sharethrough’s inaugural Green Media Summit, which will convene experts, innovators, marketers and industry leaders to highlight the impact of environmental awareness in media. The event will be held on April 13 in New York City and features speakers from Clorox, American Red Cross, GroupM, Publicis, IPG, Horizon, The Trade Desk, IAB Tech Lab, Viant and more.

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