Volvo Car Australia said that GroupM Australia’s agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker, MediaCom and Essence have taken the first major step to decarbonise the programmatic media supply chain by partnering with Good-Loop, a B-Corps certified advertising platform, to measure, offset and reduce the carbon cost of clients’ digital campaigns.

An advertisement’s carbon impact is related to the size of the files and data transfer required. GroupM has run tests on client campaigns in partnership with Good-Loop, measuring the emissions from online display and video ad campaigns, offsetting the carbon and planting trees to make them carbon negative.

Volvo said that the partnership will establish GroupM as the first agency holding group in Australia to offer carbon offsetting and climate-positive activities across Display and Online Video, including reforestation, habitat protection and coral reef restoration.

Volvo Car Australia managing director Stephen Connor said that as a mobility provider “we recognise that we’re part of the problem of climate change and have a responsibility to act.”

“Volvo is pleased to support the carbon offsetting initiative launched by GroupM Australia, which is in line with our commitment to being part of the solution to address climate change by reducing our direct and indirect emissions,” he said.

“By reducing emissions across our entire value chain, we are aiming to become a climate-neutral company by 2040. We want to be a force for good and have a positive impact on society.

“This means doing the right thing when conducting business and the expectations we place on business partners like GroupM Australia. Via this partnership through our media agency Mindshare, it means we can begin to pay forward by participating in climate positive activities like tree planting that will actually help us reduce CO2.”

GroupM Australia and New Zealand CEO Aimee Buchanan said: “In our ambition to be responsible for shaping the next era of advertising and making advertising work better for people, ensuring that we make advertising more sustainable is key.

“We’ve launched Alpha, as a whole-of-business strategy because we believe we have a responsibility to take positive action for the current generation of kids – Generation Alpha. 

“There is no greater motivation than that. Helping decarbonise digital media in Australia is the first step.”

GroupM’s partnership with Good-Loop is part of Alpha, its new sustainability strategy in Australia. Alpha represents GroupM’s commitment to shaping the next era of media for future generations of Australians.

Generation Alpha is the current generation of kids born before 2025, who will become the largest generation ever. The partnership will establish GroupM as the first agency holding group in Australia to offer carbon offsetting and climate-positive activities across Display and Online Video.

Launch partners for the partnership include Volvo, NAB and Foxtel.

“Digital media might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but we know that every ad and every impression has a carbon impact,” said Ms Buchanan.

“Ultimately, the goal is to reduce carbon emissions, and right now, we can now offer our clients a simple solution to first measure, and then offset carbon emissions from digital media campaigns, and then move towards climate positive activities.

“Volvo understood and embraced this initiative from the get-go, and we’re pleased to have them as a partner on this journey.”

Mr Connor said that by rolling out a new family of pure electric cars in coming years Volvo aims to become a fully electric car maker by 2030 “which is one of the auto industry’s most ambitious electrification plans.”

“This is part of our ambition to become a climate neutral company by 2040, as we work to consistently cut carbon emissions across our business,” he said.

“We seek to reduce the lifecycle carbon footprint per average car by 40 per cent by 2025, including through reducing carbon emissions in our supply chain by 25 per cent, by 2025.

“Congratulations to GroupM Australia for its innovative approach to reducing the carbon costs of digital media. I look forward to supporting this initiative in Australia as part of our global ambitions on climate change.”

By Neil Dowling