Little things make BigGreen things happen
BigAds is turning green, ‘BigGreen’ in fact, to offset its digital advertising carbon footprint.
The BigGreen program is the latest innovation from Australia’s most progressive martech company.
Big is teaming up with environmental not-for-profit, Greenfleet, to offset the tonnes of carbon produced each year by its online activities in digital advertising to help protect our environment and communities from the impacts of climate change.
“The amount of carbon produced by digital advertising is shocking. So, we decided at Big that we need to do whatever we can to reduce our carbon footprint. We don’t know anyone else in the industry that’s taking the same kind of action, but we are happy to be the first,” explained Big CEO David Green.
“As they say, it’s the little things make BIG things happen, and if we inspire other companies to do the same, we will all be winners.”
Digital advertising activities are big CO2 emitters. According to studies, each digital ad impression is estimated to emit between 0.096 for standard banners and 1.19 grams of CO2 when it comes to video. Australia’s top digital sites are estimated to emit 833,000 tonnes of carbon from ad impressions per year. That’s the equivalent emissions of a quarter of a million cars.
Big estimates the total number of advertising deals created via its Buddy platform could produce as much as 50 tonnes of carbon each month.
“Our ethos at Big is to do everything we can to be a trusted and responsible organisation. We are a market leader in digital advertising and we want to be leading the way in the push towards a carbon neutral digital advertising industry,” said David Green.
Under its BigGreen program, Big will offset every tonne of carbon emitted due to its ad activity with Greenfleet, a not-for-profit Australian environmental organisation on a mission to protect our climate by restoring our forests. Greenfleet has planted 10 million trees in over 500 forests across Australia and New Zealand since 1997. These forests will capture more than 4 million tonnes of CO2-e over their lifetime.
“We are proud to be partnering with an Australian organisation like Greenfleet and work together to protect our environment and restore our forests.”
Background information:
- Scope3, a US-based emissions data company co-founded by former AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley, worked with global programmatic platform MiQ to measure the footprint of more than 300 million global digital ad impressions with a view to create carbon neutral campaigns. On average, a global impression emitted one gram per impression. Australia, however, is almost 20 per cent worse than the global average.
How Much Does an Ad Impression Emit Carbon? | by Mikko | Art & Technology | Medium
- Since 1997, Greenfleet (www.greenfleet.com.au) has planted 10 million trees in over 500 forests across Australia and New Zealand. These forests will capture more than 4 million tonnes of CO2-e over their lifetime. These forests provide critical habitat for native species. In 2021, Greenfleet planted more than 120 hectares of protected habitat for koalas and this is particularly important as koalas have recently been reclassified to endangered in New South Wales, ACT and Queensland. They ensure that the forests are legally protected for up to 100 years so that they can grow to their full potential and have a long-term, positive impact on the climate and the planet.
