The carbon method

What we count

Media-delivery emissions for the campaigns we manage: the estimated CO2e of serving your impressions, by channel. The framework is the Global Media Sustainability Framework, Ad Net Zero's standard, in its June 2025 revision, the same standard built into the IPA's media carbon calculator. Factors sit in the published per-impression range of roughly 1 to 5 grams CO2e for programmatic delivery, weighted by format: search text lightest, Shopping tiles light, display heavier, video heaviest at up to five times static display.

What the number can and cannot claim

• It can rank your channels by emissions weight and track your month-over-month direction. The ranking is stable across methodology updates.
• It can support supplier questionnaires and CSRD-adjacent Scope 3 requests, stated as a GMSF-aligned estimate.
• It cannot claim laboratory precision, and we never present it with false decimal places.
• It is never traded against performance silently: when a lower-carbon mix also earns better returns, as in the refill-goods engagement, the report shows both columns moving.

Our own estimate, published

The same method runs on CO2 Media itself each quarter: our managed media in aggregate, plus our operational footprint (a Bristol studio, rail-first travel, renewable-tariff electricity). The context that motivates all of it: programmatic advertising emits about 215,000 tonnes of CO2e monthly across five major markets, which the industry spent years not counting. An agency asking clients to print the column prints its own. The current quarter's figure appears in the about page alongside the date it was last computed.

The uncomfortable honesty clause

Paid advertising grows consumption; measuring its emissions does not make it carbon-neutral, and we do not sell offsets or use the word "neutral" anywhere. What we sell is efficient media with its costs visible: fewer wasted impressions (the waste write-up's £23,400 was also an emissions cut), lighter channel mixes where returns allow, and a number your sustainability report can defend. Brands wanting a greener-than-thou badge without the accounting are not our clients, by design.