WPP is pledging to reach net zero carbon emissions in its operations by 2025 and across its entire supply chain by 2030. To deliver this, electricity will be 100% renewably sourced by 2025.
Within WPP’s supply chain, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the company’s emissions, the two largest sources are the production of advertising content and, chiefly, the placement of that content in media channels from television and press to radio and online.
WPP says it’s the first in its industry to include media in its net zero commitment.
CEO Mark Read says: “WPP is the world’s largest buyer of advertising space, managing more than $60 billion in media spend on behalf of our clients, and the world’s largest producer of advertising content. So we have the opportunity to make a real difference.
“By including emissions from the placement of advertising in our net zero commitment – a first for our industry – we aim to raise the bar for the whole sector.
“Two-thirds of our top clients have committed to set their own science-based reduction targets and we can play an important role in helping them to meet those targets in their operations and across their supply chains.
WPP’s GroupM media operation is consolidating its existing carbon calculators to allow a single view of emissions across channels in key markets, and make them available to clients at scale. Carbon data will increasingly be integrated into media partner procurement requests and all media plans provided to clients will be net zero by the end of the decade.
Hogarth, WPP’s creative production business, has pioneered ‘Sustainably Made’ which combines virtual production techniques with industry-leading measurement tools and in-built carbon offset so clients can produce work with a net-zero impact. WPP is also a founding member of AdGreen, a new initiative to remove the negative environmental impacts of production.
