Ad Net Zero, a trade organization founded in the UK in late 2020, supports an it-takes-a-village approach to combating climate change.
Members from across the supply chain include the 4A’s, ANA, IAB, Cannes Lions, Dentsu, Havas, Omnicom, Unilever, Reckitt, PubMatic and Index Exchange.
The group is calling for cross-industry collaboration to reduce advertising’s overall carbon footprint through efforts such as cutting down on nonessential travel and establishing cross-discipline “green team” working groups to drive awareness and change at the company level.
The ad industry is in a unique position to galvanize global action, says John Osborn, a longtime agency executive who took the reins as director of Ad Net Zero in the US, speaking on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks.
“We’re sort of on the clock here, and there’s an opportunity and a need for … advertising to do what it has done throughout history,” Osborn says, “which is to come together to try and address a very important and significant problem that we all face.”
But cleaning up the planet can get a little messy.
When Ad Net Zero launched its US chapter in February, a climate change advocacy group called Clean Creatives used the news as an opportunity to pressure Ad Net Zero for not requiring that its members cut ties with clients that operate in the fossil fuel industry.
Clean Creatives commandeered the @AdNetZero Instagram, Twitter and TikTok accounts, which hadn’t yet been claimed, and used them to call out Ad Net Zero for not taking a stand on fossil fuel companies.
Ad Net issued a statement at the time, noting that “there are many voices and views on the issue of sustainability, and it is important to hear them all.”
Osborn’s reaction is to say “touché” and move on.
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“They had some fun with us … [but] we’re all, at the end of the day, looking to do the same thing, which is to create a better, cleaner, more sustainable planet, right?” Osborn says. “It’s probably wrong for Ad Net Zero to be spending our own precious energy fighting with another group that is trying to ultimately drive to the same result.”
Also in this episode: The ongoing challenge of calculating emissions, avoiding the greenwashing trap and why Osborn’s spirit animal is an owl.
For more articles featuring John Osborn, click here.
