Digital ad tech firms showcase carbon reduction wins

Industry leaders presented concrete emission reduction results during a March 12, 2025 webinar organized by IAB Europe, demonstrating that performance and sustainability can coexist in digital advertising. The presentations revealed specific technical approaches and measurable outcomes from companies implementing sustainability frameworks.

The session featured case studies from PubMatic, Impact Plus, Cedara, and Footprint, each showcasing different technological approaches to reducing the carbon footprint of digital advertising supply chains. These initiatives come as the industry grapples with data showing that globally, data transfer is expected to grow 40% annually, with video consumption accounting for 66% of mobile traffic and projected to reach 77% within five years.

According to the presentations, the urgency to take action both individually and collectively as an industry is real. For companies operating in data-intensive sectors like programmatic advertising, infrastructure appears to be where the greatest environmental impact can be made, either positively or negatively.

PubMatic's streaming technology reduces emissions by 2.09 tons

PubMatic, an independent global adtech company founded in 2006, partnered with Sindis and Group Nexus in France to implement adaptive streaming technology during a September 2023 campaign. The 10-week campaign demonstrated that sustainability initiatives could enhance rather than compromise performance metrics.

The campaign achieved a minimization of 2.09 tons of CO2 in the time frame of like 10 weeks, according to Greta Baranti, senior marketing manager for Southern Europe at PubMatic. The results included a 49% improvement in viewer rate over performance goals and a 31% increase in viewability over performance scores.

The technical implementation focused on data transfer optimization. The technology allows leveraging video campaigns while reducing data transfer, enabling successful video campaigns while minimizing environmental impact. The campaign achieved a 40% CO2 reduction from creative delivery and avoided 57% of data waste from creative delivery.

To illustrate the real-world impact, PubMatic calculated that the 2.09 tons of CO2 reduction equivalent to 25,610 fully charged smartphones, six flights from London to Madrid, or 16,000 kilometers driven by car. These calculations provide tangible context for the environmental benefits achieved through technical optimization.

Since 2022, PubMatic has operated 100% of its global data centers on renewable energy, representing what the company describes as a long and expensive journey requiring assessment of different opportunities where cheaper options don't necessarily mean more efficient ones.

Impact Plus scales L'Oreal program across 200+ campaigns

Impact Plus, which positions itself as a vertical solution for sustainable marketing, presented a comprehensive case study with L'Oreal Group spanning more than 200 campaigns across 27 hubs in multiple countries. Mario Cardona, Chief Operating Officer at Impact Plus, emphasized the importance of viewing sustainability as a key performance indicator alongside traditional media metrics.

The objective is to reduce the total volume of greenhouse gas emission but to monitor it like we can do in media, Cardona explained. The approach involves looking at unit indicators similar to cost indicators like CPM and CPC, but ranking them to incorporate sustainability as a measurable performance metric.

The L'Oreal collaboration began with small-scale proof points before scaling to enterprise-wide implementation. The methodology focused on three key stages: measurement to assess current emissions at granular campaign levels, reduction through identified opportunities, and scaling through automation and integration with existing adtech infrastructure.

Impact Plus developed what it calls "e-bidding solutions," which feed environmental data into bidding algorithms to automate emission reduction while maintaining campaign performance. The platform provides real-time assessment capabilities and helps identify optimal format placement strategies that maximize viewability and conversions while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.

The company released a practical step-by-step guide for organizations beginning their sustainability journey, addressing common concerns about leadership buy-in and performance impact. The guide provides ground-zero guidance on identifying internal sponsors, establishing timelines, and implementing measurement frameworks.

Cedara and GumGum achieve 38% reduction in bidstream emissions

Cedara, a carbon intelligence platform built specifically for the media industry, collaborated with contextual advertising platform GumGum to address emissions from programmatic advertising's most carbon-intensive activities. Eric Shih, Chief Operating Officer at Cedara, presented data showing that ad selection networks account for 50% of programmatic media emissions, with ad selection servers contributing another 35%.

The vast majority of emissions for businesses in programmatic will come from scope 3 emissions and those supply chain emissions come from the delivery media, Shih explained. Ad selection networks refer to the energy required for data transmission across networks supporting auction activity, while ad selection servers represent energy used at the server level to process bid requests and auction mechanics between supply-side platforms and demand-side platforms.

The collaboration focused on optimizing the bid stream through traffic shaping solutions provided by Serve Yield. GumGum implemented machine learning-powered systems to reduce the number of bid requests sent to demand-side platforms, sending only the highest-quality requests predicted to be monetized rather than wasted traffic.

The results were substantial: in the aggregate in 2023 with gum gum in this specific instance we looked at the bidding data and we saw really a massive reduction and requests being sent using the Serve yield it was at 161 billion requests down to 99 billion requests. This represented a 38% reduction in bidstream emissions.

The emission reduction translated to an average of seven tons of CO2 saved daily, equivalent to 299,000 kilometers driven by an average gas-powered vehicle annually. The case study demonstrates how technical infrastructure improvements can deliver both cost savings and environmental benefits without compromising auction effectiveness.

Cedara's platform measures comprehensive scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions for companies throughout the media ecosystem, with particular emphasis on scope 3 emissions since the majority of industry emissions stem from media delivery and operations. The platform now aligns with the Global Media Sustainability Framework, though it previously relied on methodologies from SRI and Alliance Digital.

Footprint achieves 44 tons of CO2 reduction for B2B client

Footprint, a sustainability consulting agency within the Labelium Group, presented a case study demonstrating 44 tons of CO2 equivalent avoided across several campaigns for a major B2B industry leader. Elisa Bavan, managing director at Footprint, emphasized the company's focus on integrating environmental metrics into existing performance measurement systems.

When you activate carbon intelligence so when you activate environmental metrics with a media mindset we can talk not just about total emissions but the same way we look at cost in media, Bavan explained. The approach involves analyzing carbon cost per thousand impressions and carbon cost per dollar invested, similar to traditional media efficiency metrics.

The implementation process began with seamless integration into existing management processes used by the advertiser and its agency ecosystem. Footprint provided carbon forecasting ahead of campaign launches based on media plans, established visualization of potential initiatives and optimizations, and agreed upon A/B testing protocols during campaigns.

The technical implementation included creative compression to reduce data transfer while optimizing for engagement, geographical placement targeting optimization, and connection device type optimization. Each initiative was quantified both for emission reductions and performance impact, ensuring that environmental benefits aligned with campaign objectives.

Real-time insights focused on carbon cost per engagement, impression, and click, enabling data-driven decisions that incorporated both media findings and environmental considerations. Post-campaign reporting included emissions reduced and avoided through specific initiatives, plus generalizable best practices for future campaigns.

The program's success enabled continuous improvement, with campaign-over-campaign reductions in carbon intensity compared to previously optimized campaigns. This progression occurred through team training to incorporate best practices by design, clear governance processes for progress tracking, and channel-by-channel innovation to add granularity similar to traditional media optimization.

Technical infrastructure drives largest emission reductions

The case studies reveal that the most significant emission reductions come from optimizing technical infrastructure rather than surface-level changes. Data transfer optimization, bidstream management, and server efficiency improvements deliver measurable results while often improving rather than compromising performance metrics.

Video content presents particular challenges and opportunities. With video consumption representing two-thirds of mobile traffic and growing, adaptive streaming technologies and creative compression techniques offer substantial emission reduction potential. PubMatic's partnership with Sindis demonstrated that streaming optimization could reduce data transfer requirements while maintaining or improving viewer engagement metrics.

Programmatic advertising infrastructure represents the industry's largest emission source, with auction activity and data transmission consuming significant energy. The GumGum and Serve Yield collaboration showed that machine learning can optimize bidstream efficiency, reducing unnecessary auction activity by billions of requests while maintaining monetization effectiveness.

Scope 3 emissions, representing supply chain activities, constitute the majority of digital advertising's carbon footprint. Companies measuring comprehensive emission profiles find that media delivery operations generate far more emissions than direct energy consumption, making supply chain optimization critical for meaningful emission reduction.

Industry standardization accelerates adoption

The Global Media Sustainability Framework, launched in June 2024 by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media and Ad Net Zero, provides standardized approaches for measuring greenhouse gas emissions across media campaigns. This framework addresses previous inconsistencies in measurement methodologies that hindered industry-wide progress.

Standardization will be key because Global Media Sustainability Framework will soon be launched but this will be very important for our industry because we'll have uniformity in what we are sharing, according to Impact Plus's Cardona. The framework promises to eliminate measurement as a barrier to sustainability initiatives.

IAB Europe's OpenGHG tool, launched in beta testing in August 2024, provides industry-standard emission estimation capabilities for digital advertising campaigns. The tool integrates the Media Sustainability Framework developed by GARM and Ad Net Zero, offering modular greenhouse gas models and custom default value sets.

Companies implementing sustainability programs report that standardized measurement frameworks enable easier collaboration with partners and agencies. Consistent metrics facilitate comparison between different technical approaches and campaign strategies, accelerating identification of best practices.

Why this matters

For marketing professionals, these developments signal that sustainability measurement will become as routine as tracking cost-per-click or conversion rates. The case studies demonstrate that environmental optimization often improves rather than compromises traditional performance metrics, creating business incentives beyond regulatory compliance.

The technical nature of the most effective emission reduction strategies requires collaboration between marketing teams and technical infrastructure providers. Creative compression, bidstream optimization, and server efficiency improvements demand partnerships with specialized technology vendors rather than simple campaign-level adjustments.

Budget allocation decisions increasingly incorporate carbon efficiency alongside traditional media metrics. As measurement standardization advances, carbon cost per impression may become a standard consideration in media planning, similar to how viewability and brand safety metrics evolved from optional to essential.

The scalability demonstrated by companies like L'Oreal and GumGum suggests that sustainability programs can expand from pilot projects to enterprise-wide implementations. However, successful scaling requires dedicated measurement infrastructure and integration with existing media buying platforms rather than standalone reporting systems.

Training and change management emerge as critical success factors. Companies achieving significant emission reductions invested in team education and governance processes, treating sustainability as a operational capability rather than a compliance checkbox.

Timeline

March 12, 2025: IAB Europe webinar presents case studies showing digital advertising supply chain emission reductions ranging from 2.09 to 44 tons of CO2

February 9, 2025: Comscore report reveals 72% of marketers plan to increase programmatic advertising investment, with Connected TV share doubling from 14% to 28%

October 19, 2024: InMobi Advertising partners with Scope3 to launch world's largest green media offering for mobile and in-app advertising

October 5, 2024: Industry study shows 79% of advertising executives consider environmental factors in ad spend, with 50% planning to decrease carbon impact

August 18, 2024: IAB Europe launches OpenGHG beta test, providing greenhouse gas emission estimation tool for digital advertising campaigns

June 2024: Global Media Sustainability Framework launched by Global Alliance for Responsible Media and Ad Net Zero

December 11, 2023: VIOOH partners with Cedara to measure and monitor carbon emissions, publicly sharing emission intensity per ad impression

September 2023: PubMatic implements adaptive streaming technology with Sindis for Group Nexus campaign in France

2022: PubMatic transitions to 100% renewable energy for global data center operations