Get Ready for GMSF: Power Up Your Sustainability with Intelligent Emissions Insights

Following the latest Ad Net Zero guidance, the complete Global Media Sustainability Framework (GMSF) is on the horizon, signalling a pivotal shift towards greater environmental accountability in our industry. For media owners, this isn't just about compliance; it's a chance to innovate, attract environmentally conscious advertisers, and build a truly sustainable future. The key to thriving in this new era lies in understanding and effectively managing your emissions data with intelligence.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with GMSF, it incorporates a series of voluntary industry standards compiled by global industry body, Ad Net Zero, to standardise consistent, comparable measurement of GHGs from digital, television, print, audio, outdoor and cinema channels.

So, now you know GMSF is coming – how can you, as a media owner, not just prepare, but excel? The answer lies in embracing a sophisticated approach to emissions tracking and leveraging those insights to build compelling "green" ad products.

Enter CarboniQ from Net Zero Media – a purpose-built solution designed to make GMSF implementation not only achievable but advantageous. Forget complex spreadsheets and manual calculations. CarboniQ offers an out-of-the-box platform that empowers you to understand and report on the carbon emissions associated with every single advertising proposal you generate.

But CarboniQ goes beyond basic reporting. It provides three distinct yet interconnected layers of emissions intelligence, enabling you to build truly innovative green ad products across your entire media portfolio:

Layer 1: Intelligent Power Management – The Core of CarboniQ

At the heart of CarboniQ lies its sophisticated power management intelligence. This layer provides a dynamic management of energy profiles across multiple dimensions:

• Location: Pinpoint energy production and related emissions based on the specific geographic locations of your operations and the delivery of your media campaigns.

• Supply Mix: Factor in the varying carbon intensities of different power sources, distinguishing between renewable energy and fossil fuel-generated power.

• Time Dimensions: incorporate the variability of power supply mix over time, enabling the application of day parting as a definable strategy in emissions optimisation.

This granular insight into your power footprint forms the bedrock of accurate emissions calculations and allows you to make informed decisions about energy efficiency and sourcing, ultimately driving down your environmental impact.

Layer 2: Seamless GMSF Calculations Across All Media Channels

Building upon the power management intelligence, CarboniQ seamlessly applies GMSF-aligned methodologies to calculate emissions across diverse media channels. Whether it's digital advertising (considering data transfer, server energy, and delivery), print (factoring in paper sourcing, production, and distribution), out-of-home (analysing display energy and materials), or broadcast (assessing transmission and operational power), CarboniQ handles the complexity.

This ensures that every proposal you send out includes accurate and standardised emissions data, making it easy for agencies and advertisers to understand the environmental impact of their campaigns and optimise toward your more sustainable options.

Layer 3: Business-Specific Carbon Factors – Tailored Precision

Net Zero Media understands that a one-size-fits-all approach to emissions calculation isn't sufficient. CarboniQ’s third layer incorporates carbon factors specific to your unique business operations at multiple levels:

• Corporate Level: Incorporate the overall organisational carbon footprint (applicable to advertising services) and apply at a granular level.

• Channel Level: Account for specific emission factors related to each of your media channels, reflecting their distinct operational characteristics and default attributes.

• Inventory Level: Incorporate data related to specific advertising inventory, such as their physical properties, energy efficiency of particular digital ad units or the recycled content of print materials.

• Campaign Level: Fine-tune calculations based on the specific parameters of each campaign, such as targeting criteria, audience and delivery volumes (both projected and actual).

By integrating these business-specific carbon factors, CarboniQ delivers a level of precision which provides a truly accurate and defensible picture of your emissions. This empowers you to offer highly transparent and credible green ad products.

By leveraging these three powerful layers of emissions intelligence, CarboniQ enables you to move beyond basic GMSF compliance and actively develop innovative, environmentally conscious advertising solutions. Imagine offering clients "low-carbon digital packages" optimised for energy efficiency during off-peak hours, or highlighting the reduced footprint of OOH campaigns utilising renewable energy-powered consumption.

For instance we have seen from work with clients in Australia, how much more energy efficient street furniture like a digital Smart Frame is than a digital Supersite. Your Smart Frame carbon cost for 1,000 impacts is approximately 54g as compared to 325g for a digital Supersite.  Similarly if you run a 30s Youtube ad at 8pm in prime viewing time, when a high percentage of grid energy is generated from fossil fuels, you are using 22% more energy, than an ad running mid-afternoon (333 gCO2ePM Impacts vs 407 gCO2ePM Impacts).

"The arrival of GMSF is a watershed moment for our industry, demanding a more sophisticated understanding of our environmental impact," says Damien Thomson, CEO of Net Zero Media. "CarboniQ is designed to be the intelligent engine that powers this transition for media owners. By providing granular insights into energy consumption, seamless GMSF calculations, and business-specific carbon factors, we're empowering our clients to not only meet the new standards but to actively shape a more sustainable and prosperous future for media."

Don't wait for GMSF to become a hurdle. Embrace the opportunity to become a leader in sustainable media. With CarboniQ from Net Zero Media, you have an out-of-the-box solution to understand your emissions, build innovative green ad products, and confidently navigate the evolving landscape of responsible advertising. The time to power up your sustainability strategy is now.

About Net Zero Media:

At Net Zero Media, we are driving a future where the advertising industry takes decisive action to reduce its carbon emissions. 

Recognising the critical need for specialised technology to measure these Scope 3 emissions, Net Zero Media was founded by a collaboration of senior executives from the marketing, advertising, software and sustainability industries who developed CarboniQ to accurately measure the environmental impact of every advertising campaign across all media channels.

Our mission is to transform the advertising landscape by integrating media planning expertise with advanced technology and a deep understanding of climate science. We empower the industry to navigate complex challenges and deliver sustainable solutions, driving decarbonisation.