At Climate Week NY 2024, Marketers Look Beyond Net Zero

The Change Climate Project, formerly known as Climate Neutral Certified, wants brands to think beyond net zero.

The nonprofit was founded in 2019 to create a more reliable, climate-focused certification that would allow environmentally conscious consumers to put their dollars toward brands that have made a commitment to reduce and offset their carbon emissions. Now, the company has a new carbon fee model that aims to move beyond the “carbon neutral” framework of net zero to better align with EU regulations and avoid scammy carbon offsets.

It was one of many announcements during Climate Week NY that shed light on where the marketing and advertising industry stands on climate, where momentum is building in the agency world, and which players activists have in their crosshairs.

Net Zero’s false promise

While there’s a plethora of environmental labels currently on the market—more than 200, by some estimates—the goal of the TCCP’s label was to cut through the noise and demand a higher level of commitment and investment from companies.

Over the last year, though, voluntary carbon offset markets have come under fire for selling scammy credits, and major brands dropped net zero targets—realizing it’s harder and more expensive than expected without cheap offsets.

But while American regulators have shied away from stricter regulations on carbon emissions, European regulators have gone in the opposite direction.

The TCCP founder and CEO, Austin Whitman, knew the company’s approach needed to shift away from language around carbon neutrality, as that had been tainted by carbon offset scandals. At the same time, it’s more important than ever that companies measure and reduce their emissions—if not because they want to slow climate change, then at least to meet the requirements of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which requires large companies to measure and report the greenhouse gas emissions that they generate.

“[We’re] transforming the neutrality framework, which required companies to measure their emissions and then compensate for them, and then create forward-looking reduction actions,” Whitman explained. “We’re replacing that with an internal carbon fee model, so every company who gets certified will have to adopt an internal carbon fee that becomes the basis for a budget for their climate transition.”

TCCP released the new framework this week at an event with Allbirds and the Environmental Defense Fund. It also announced a new consumer-facing certification called The Climate Label, which it will roll out starting in 2025.

Serviced emissions

On the agency side, ad industry network Purpose Disruptors released a separate framework based on the United Nations’ Race to Zero campaign, also during Climate Week NY.

While it retains the language around net zero, it also offers a six-point framework for professional service providers to reduce “serviced emissions,” or those that a company is responsible for based on the work they do for clients. For ad agencies, that’s known as advertised emissions.

“By adopting this work, it will help the industry graduate beyond the focus on operational emissions to change its output and influence in society—away from driving unsustainable consumption and towards embedding the values, attitudes, and lifestyles that will help us live within planetary boundaries,” Jonathan Wise, co-founder of Purpose Disruptors, said in a statement.

Purpose Disruptors worked with two agencies, Oliver and M&C Saatchi, to develop a case study on how this framework applies to agency work.

“It’s time for a new type of sustainable business leadership,” Lucy Usher, U.K. sustainability lead at Oliver, said in a statement. “You don’t have to eat the elephant all at once—learn from others like us, use the Serviced Emissions Action Areas to take your next steps, and become an active participant in building a resilient economy.”

Ripe for disruption

Lastly, activists on the ground at Climate Week NY were focused on expanding networks of climate-minded creatives, educating on greenwashing, and calling out the ad agencies working for major fossil fuel companies.

Clean Creatives released its annual F-List on Tuesday, calling out 590 agencies for their work with Big Oil. Creatives for Climate, a global network of environmentally-conscious ad industry employees, hosted events for ad professionals and influencers.

“It’s the perfect time for adland to be reminded about the UN Secretary-General’s call for a fossil ad ban,” said Lucy Von Sturmer, co-founder and initiator of Creatives for Climate.