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Tech vendor Good-Loop—with a mantra of building ad solutions that have a more positive impact on the world—is letting publishers use its carbon measurement, reduction and recommendations product, Good Measures for Publishers, for free. Advertisers pay $5,000 monthly to access Good Measures.
Publishers can sign up for an emissions audit now, with the tool launching in August, Good-Loop announced at the Cannes Lions Festival.
“We must stop telling advertisers that they are reducing their emissions by blocking publishers: That is wrong and factually incorrect,” Will Luttrell, chief technology officer at Good-Loop, told ADWEEK. “When you block publishers, you have done nothing to decrease your own carbon emissions.”
Publishers have been irked at being overly penalized by advertisers’ attempts to go green on two counts. Third-party tech vendors like Good-Loop and Scope3 have introduced tech layers for brands to block higher-carbon emitting publishers (without telling those publishers), restricting them from earning ad revenue. Some tech vendors then charge publishers a fee to either reduce emissions or get them off the naughty list, added Luttrell.
Carbon blocklists have impacted a much smaller portion of publisher revenue than brand safety blocklists.
Good-Loop’s recommendations
In the dashboard, publishers will see factors in their scope 3 emissions (which differ from advertiser emissions) including page weight, number of ad units and sell-side supply path analysis. Scope 3 emissions include those from the supply chain, not owned or controlled by the advertiser. For some digital media companies, this accounts for 95% of emissions.
Reduction recommendations will include criteria like trimming the weight of the page, reducing font files or ad slots and ways to declutter the site.
Instead of offering buyers a blocklist, Good-Loop will let them know there is a top 25% of publishers that have taken steps to reduce carbon emissions.
Alternatives like Scope3 offer some free access for publishers, like their percentile ranking for emissions compared with other web properties, as well as emissions over time and supply paths. It offers more details for a fee.