The annual global carbon emissions resulting from digital advertising, including production, distribution, and consumption processes, reach approximately 60 million tons.
Addressing this issue will contribute to reducing emissions, as well as raising awareness among stakeholders and promoting sustainable development within the capitalist model.
Despite the significant progress Europe has made in addressing environmental issues, some countries, such as Japan, are lagging behind in keeping up with environmental efforts.
Japan has an exceptionally advanced marketing industry, where there are significant opportunities to reduce emissions, especially in crowded urban areas, where digital and traditional advertisements coexist alongside active commercial events.
The positive news is that Japan has begun to undertake extensive and systematic collaborations across the marketing industry to decarbonize, according to the World Economic Forum.
Decarbonizing the marketing industry
Dentsu led Japan's launch of a carbon removal initiative with the goal of creating an inclusive movement to achieve carbon neutrality in the Japanese marketing industry.
The company launched a sustainability initiative to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the supply chains associated with marketing and communications activities in Japan.
Japan is characterized by unique advertising and marketing production processes, emission factors, business customs, and a distinct language, which necessitates a customized and specially designed approach to meet its unique needs.
The initiative revolves around cross-sector collaboration, where over 20 leaders from prominent organizations such as the Japan Advertising Agencies Association, the Creative Event Promotion Association, and the Japan Advertising Content Association, in addition to advertising agencies, media companies, and event companies, have held biweekly discussions since October 2023.
A key part of the initiative aims to develop global and standardized carbon emission monitoring tools in the fields of advertising and content production through close collaboration with the Ad Green organization.
In addition, the initiative contributes to the development of advanced and internationally recognized tools for monitoring and evaluating greenhouse gas emissions in the field of digital advertising and events through collaboration with Ad Net Zero, a UK-based organization that aims to help the advertising industry tackle climate change.
Widespread cooperation
Dentsu, the company responsible for the initiative, holds regular meetings with stakeholders, including other companies, to discuss the ideal industry vision for achieving a low-carbon society.
The initiative allows partners to exchange knowledge and contributes to setting unified industry standards by forming working groups within advertising industry associations, thereby supporting innovative collaboration.
The field of marketing encompasses a wide range of stakeholders, including advertising agencies, business clients, production companies, events, media providers, and platforms. Therefore, it is essential to maintain transparency and neutrality when setting standards.
