The Benefits of Replacing Spend Based Marketing Emissions in Corporate Sustainability Reporting

A ‘How to Guide’ on how to switch to the more precise ‘Activity Based method

Setting then reporting Net Zero targets is complex, time consuming and is therefore often a major business challenge drawing on resources and adding costs. And no, AI will not solve this especially in the short to medium term as without a true understanding of the requirements we cannot transfer this over to the robots.

The importance of compliant carbon emission data in all business sectors is increasing as the rollout of legislated reporting standards affect more and more businesses around the world. 

Today companies not only need to understand their own emissions from within their reportable operational boundary, they need to be clear on the often large Scope 3 carbon emissions coming from the external supply chains across multiple business activities.

This guide focuses on ‘Marketing Spend’, which is often an under-analyzed reporting area for a large number of companies.

Most corporate sustainability reports do include an emission figure for this item. These emissions are often ignored or just default to a simple spend based metric that relies solely on the budgeted spend.

While this approach is easy to implement unfortunately it both overstates the emissions and importantly, makes a pathway to reduction unavailable.

This simple guide (link here) is designed to give companies with medium to large marketing budget a method of delivering a lower carbon footprint from this important business function.

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.