Mindshare & Scope3 Create Bespoke Emissions Dashboard for Digital Campaigns

Mindshare, the media services company that is part of GroupM and WPP and Scope3, the collaborative sustainability platform decarbonising media and advertising, have created a bespoke Emissions Scorecard to help clients understand the carbon emissions of their digital media campaigns.

For the first time, Mindshare’s clients will be able to gain insight into near real-time carbon emissions of their digital media activity at both a macro level (business category, brand, country and publisher) and micro level (creative format, media type, ad environment).  Throughout the past year and a half, the joint efforts of the Mindshare and Scope3 teams have been focused on fine tuning how emissions are measured while creating a pioneering emissions reporting tool for brands.

Aligning with GroupM's carbon decarbonisation methodology, the Mindshare Emissions Dashboard was built with Scope3 to report emissions of digital media activity. This will enable marketers to make informed decisions when it comes to balancing the need for greener media with the need for positive business outcomes.

“By giving marketers a 360-degree view of the carbon impact of their digital media activity, the dashboard enables change-making conversations and discussions with advertising and publisher partners,” as stated by Dhruv Menon, Director at Mindshare. “More importantly, it will also empower media practitioners to make sustainable media buying choices with a goal of eventually reducing 50% of all digital emissions by 2030.”

The Emissions Dashboard was created as part of the Mindshare ‘Report, Reduce, Remove Initiative,’ a sustainable step-by-step approach to optimise investment to greener choices across the media supply chain, while ensuring minimal disruption to business needs. Being the only group in the industry that is committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), it is essential to Mindshare as an agency to put into practice their reduction efforts without compromising on performance.

June Cheung, Head of JAPAC for Scope3 said that the collaboration with Mindshare to create the Emissions Scorecard was a great example of how Scope3’s emissions data can be harnessed to drive meaningful change.

She noted; “Scope3 emissions data pinpoints exactly where marketers can take simple, yet meaningful, actions to reduce the carbon footprint of their digital advertising. It simultaneously helps the industry more clearly see and de-fund waste across the ad ecosystem. This type of industry-wide change is only possible if marketers have the tools that allow them to make informed decisions. By being able to access emissions data directly alongside campaign data, like the Mindshare Emissions Dashboard, sustainability is no longer an afterthought, it becomes a valuable lever for improving campaigns.”

According to Scope3’s Q2 2023 State of Sustainable Advertising report, combined, digital display and streaming ads produce 7.2M metric tons of emissions every year. Broken out by channel, display advertising accounts for just over half—3.8 million metric tons—and streaming contributes 3.4 million metric tons to the global number.  As one of the world’s largest media investment agencies, Mindshare has taken the responsibility to address the impact of its digital media on the environment, and to lead the industry toward more sustainable media practices.

Scope3 has been a global partner of GroupM since <15th November 2022