Ethics & Ecology

Ad Net Zero announces new advertising initiatives to combat climate change.

Day-to-Day Effort

“The goal of the Summit is to help equip every advertising professional, from brands, agencies, media owners and tech platforms, to understand the role they can play day-to-day to support the world-wide industry effort to shift to a more sustainable way of operating”– Sebastian Munden, Chair of Ad Net Zero and EVP and General Manager, Unilever UK & Ireland

Ad Net Zero, the UK advertising initiative to help the industry respond to the climate crisis caused by CO2 emissions, is marking its first-year anniversary with a special 2-day Global Summit. 

Ad Net Zero is made up of 70 leading companies from across the UK advertising industry, including the likes of Google, Facebook, Havas and Unilever. As part of the initiative, all members are committing to achieving net zero carbon emissions from their operations by the end of 2030 as part of a wider industry drive.

The Summit will take place on November 3th and 4th live from Glasgow at the same time as COP26, where the world’s leaders gather to look at measures needed to tackle the challenge of climate change. 

The Global Summit will be free to attend for any advertising professional from around the world and will provide inspirational content through thought leadership sessions and practical workshops. 

Online attendees to the Summit will hear from leaders in companies including Unilever, Mastercard, Pepsico, Havas, Dentsu, WPP, Facebook, Google, Sky, global and international trade bodies such as the World Federation of Advertisers, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority and isla, global advertising industry experts from the likes of Cannes Lions and Campaign and dynamic initiatives in this space such as ChangeTheBrief and AdGreen.

Sebastian Munden, Chair of Ad Net Zero and EVP and General Manager, Unilever UK & Ireland, says, “The goal of the Summit is to help equip every advertising professional, from brands, agencies, media owners and tech platforms, to understand the role they can play day-to-day to support the world-wide industry effort to shift to a more sustainable way of operating”. 

Anyone interested in attending the Summit online can register for a place.here.

Qualification and Best Practice

In addition, Ad Net Zero will be launching a training qualification for advertising professionals to fully equip people with the understanding to take responsibility for the carbon emissions related to the operations of advertising work day-to-day, as well as consider the role their work plays in promoting sustainable products and services. 

The training which will be available online to all ad professionals, in the UK and internationally, via the IPA’s globally recognised CPD platform is in the final stages of beta testing with Ad Net Zero supporters and will be available to the industry later this year.

During the course of 2021, Ad Net Zero supporters have also contributed to the development of a Best Practice Guide for all businesses in the advertising supply chain to help track, measure and reduce their carbon emissions. 

This Guide, which has also been rigorously tested by the Ad Net Zero supporter base, will be published at the Summit for everyone in the industry to access for free.

About Ad Net Zero

Ad Net Zero is headed in the UK by the Advertising Association, ISBA and the IPA and chaired by Unilever. The Global Summit is being funded by the Ad Net Zero supporter base which as of September 2021 has 70 organisations, representing the broad spectrum of the UK advertising industry, many of whom are also exploring how to accelerate positive action in international territories.