AdGreen’s Carbon Calculator Now Live
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
AdGreen has today launched its bespoke carbon calculator for the advertising production industry. The new tool has been designed with support from practitioners from companies including Unilever, adam&eveDDB, Havas UK & Havas Studios, and Biscuit.
It aims to ensure advertising agencies, production companies and production service companies are able to collaboratively measure the carbon impact of their projects and identify the highest carbon producing activities.
Sebastian Munden, Chair of Ad Net Zero and EVP and General manager, Unilever UK & Ireland, said “As an industry, we have to take responsibility for the carbon emissions involved in advertising production activities and take rapid steps to reduce them. The AdGreen carbon calculator is a brilliant tool for every ad professional involved in the process of producing ads – 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.”
The tool is free at the point of use, as the 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 that comprise adam&eveDDB, 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 end 2030, which is advocating the use of tools like AdGreen’s.
The calculator works by allowing users to enter information in four key areas that relate to a production. By inputting data related to activities such as travel and transport, energy and fuels, and materials and catering, users can build up a picture of the carbon impact of their production. The tool is designed so that everyone working on a project can help to add information into the tool allowing greater oversight and understanding of where the biggest carbon impacts lie.
The AdGreen carbon calculator is the result of the AdGreen team’s experience in the industry, and of IP and expertise gathered over the past 10 years from AdGreen’s strategic partner, albert. Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been invested in time and resources during the past decade, which has resulted in the development of a bespoke tool for the advertising production industry.
It was designed by Alchemy Digital and developed by BAFTA Media Technology Limited – the same duo who created the albert carbon calculator for the Film and TV Industry. Future developments planned include bid process functionality so that projects can be compared by not just budget and treatment, but environmental impact too. A reporting dashboard will also be added, allowing users to pull information required for company carbon reporting.
The calculator release follows on from the launch of the AdGreen Levy which was introduced in June 2021 as a way to help keep AdGreen’s tools, resources and training free at the point of use for all. The Levy is a recommended 0.25% of the cost to produce an advertising asset – or just £2.50 per £1,000 of relevant spend.
Anyone interested in finding out more about the calculator is invited to join one of AdGreen’s free webinars taking place over the coming week – more details can be found on their events page here.
September 30th, 2021 at 20:14 @885
This is just super duper! We can all be woke and add no value, just like me. Is there a way to tweet out our carbon righteousness? Can we create a logo with a poting teen with braids?