GroupM Announces Coalition for Media Decarbonization

Leading brands unite to drive industry standards for measurement and advance reduction efforts.

London, New York, San Francisco, Sydney (November 10, 2022) — GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, today announced the creation of a client coalition that unites nearly 20 leading advertisers — collectively representing $10B in global advertising investment — with a shared commitment to accelerate the decarbonization of the world’s media supply chain.

GroupM’s establishment of the coalition follows the introduction of a proposed global framework for measuring ad-based carbon emissions in July 2022. Coalition members are committed to the establishment of a common approach to measuring ad-based carbon emissions and will work with GroupM and the industry more broadly to test and improve GroupM’s proposed measurement framework. The coalition will also insist on accurate, standardized emissions reporting by platforms, publishers, and media suppliers. Collectively, the coalition will advance and incentivize efforts across the industry to reduce the total amount of carbon created by the placement and consumption of advertising.

“We introduced our global framework in July with a goal of uniting the industry around a common set of measurement standards to accelerate our collective media decarbonization efforts. On this issue, we know we can achieve more, together, than we can with separate and disparate action,” said Christian Juhl, GroupM’s Global CEO. “The coalition we’re announcing today sends a clear message that decarbonization and supply chain sustainability is a top priority for media decision makers and the brands and businesses they represent.”

Founding members of the coalition announced today include GroupM, its agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker, EssenceMediacom and mSix&Partners and clients Audible, AXA, Bayer, Danone, Deutsche Telekom, L’Oréal, Mars, Paramount, Sony, TalkTalk, and Tesco.

“The passion our clients have for this initiative underscores the importance of this issue to the world’s leading advertisers and the momentum that is building across the industry for a united approach,” said Krystal Olivieri, Global Chief Innovation Officer at GroupM and Choreograph. “By creating a coalition to focus on the decarbonization challenge, we will provide an important forum for collaboration across companies and channel our shared energy into new technologies and solutions that will make advertising one of the cleanest industries in the world.”

The Media Decarbonization Coalition is inspired by the success of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), which was co-founded by GroupM in June 2019 to set more consistent brand safety controls and guidelines across the industry.

“The most important and immediate step we can take to address the climate crisis is to align on a single set of industry standards for carbon measurement,” said Kieley Taylor, Global Head of Partnerships at GroupM. “This step is crucial to create a common language across the advertising ecosystem so we can go beyond measurement debates to focus on reducing and eliminating ad-based carbon emissions with our partners. Fighting climate change is the challenge of our lifetimes, and we’re excited to show the world the impact we can make when we all work together.”

A steering committee made up of representatives from coalition companies and chaired by Olivieri will govern and set the agenda for the coalition’s activities. Committee representatives will participate in workstreams, share learnings from their companies’ sustainability activities, evaluate initiatives executed inside and outside the coalition, provide feedback on proposed vendor solutions, and pursue opportunities for collaborative innovation.

While the coalition is currently comprised of GroupM client companies, organizations that are not clients but who are committed to decarbonization may register their interest in joining by reaching out to [email protected]. Coalition members benefit from opportunities to pioneer best practices and principles, peer-based learning, early insight into vendor and partner initiatives, and advancing their efforts to achieve their own Net Zero and decarbonization goals.

Quotes for Attribution

Evan Kory, Executive Director, Global Media at Audible: “At Audible, we prioritize sustainability and are excited to bring our passion for finding innovative, scalable solutions to systemic issues to help set new standards for sustainable marketing and media decarbonization,” said.

Jérôme Amouyal, Media Performance Insights Director at AXA: “AXA’s 2022 Future risks report has revealed that Climate change is now perceived as the most important risk across all continents. We urgently need to develop a better understanding of the full carbon impact of our media investment in order to reduce and align it with Paris Agreement targets. Joining this coalition makes obvious sense as we pursue these goals.”

Patricia Corsi, Chief Marketing, Digital and Information Technology Officer at Bayer, Consumer Health Division: “Sustainable action is core to our values and our efforts to reduce carbon footprint across our value chain. We’re proud to join the Media Decarbonization Coalition with MediaCom, GroupM and others as part of our Bayer Media For Good program to bring about critical change in the way marketers think about sustainability and make a tangible impact on reducing advertising’s carbon emission.”

Catherine Lautier, VP, Global Head of Media & Integrated Brand Communication at Danone: “We’ve been committed to the sustainable shared value creation model that underpins our vision ever since we established our dual economic and social project 50 years ago. It’s exciting to work with partners that align with our goals, especially in this important area and we’re looking forward to joining GroupM and others to create a more sustainable future across our value chain.”

Rankin Carroll, Chief Brand and Content Officer, Mars Wrigley: “At Mars, we are committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions across our full value chain, including all of our scope 3 emissions. That means we need to make every corner of our business more sustainable, including our media. We strongly support this work to establish a unified, science-based approach to measuring carbon emissions generated by advertising. We see a clear benefit to having a consistent set of standards and look forward to working with GroupM and other like-minded companies to share best practices and encourage adoption.”

Lee Sears, EVP, Ad Sales, Digital & Events, Paramount: “As global media organizations with the unique ability to reach millions of people all around the world, it’s incumbent upon us all to use our position to secure a healthy and sustainable planet for future generations. At Paramount, we’re proud to unite behind GroupM’s Coalition for Media Decarbonization, which complements our own Peak Sustainability campaign, to accelerate our industry commitments and drive meaningful change.”