This Little Green Leaf Means Your Ad Was Renewably Powered

Adtech firm Viant today released a new carbon label for digital ads.

The label, which shows up as a small green leaf in the corner of an ad (similar to the AdChoices label), communicates to viewers that the ad was powered with renewable energy as part of Viant’s Adtricity sustainability program, which launched in February 2023. Through the program, Viant buys renewable energy credits equivalent to the amount of energy used in the ad’s delivery.

“The carbon label is the idea of [bringing] transparency to the consumer … that the ad was fully powered by renewable energy and there were no carbon emissions in reaching them with that message,” said Tim Vanderhook, co-founder and CEO of Viant. “That will appeal to both the buy side and the sell side.”

Viant partners with Scope3 to measure emissions by channel and impression level, and then neutralizes that footprint through the purchase of RECs.

Clients can opt in or out of the Adtricity Supply Decarbonization Initiative, and roughly one-dozen clients chose to neutralize their ad buys through Viant’s demand-side platform last year, including agency Novus Media, which represents brands like Family Dollar and Valvoline.

“Viant has shown exceptional innovation and leadership in driving carbon reduction in digital advertising,” Rob Davis, president and chief marketing officer at Novus Media, said in a statement. “Starting with transforming client media investments into renewable energy credits, Viant has now expanded to tackle the entire supply chain’s decarbonization.”

Betting on carbon neutrality

As of 2023, Viant is carbon neutral across all three scopes of its business thanks to its investment in RECs. This means it has no impact on the scope 3 emissions of its brand partners—something Vanderhook hopes will become a competitive advantage as climate regulations ramp up and the need to curb emissions across all scopes becomes more prescient.

(Scope 1 emissions refer to those created by items that a company owns or controls, scope 2 refers to those generated as a result of purchased heat and electricity, and scope 3 emissions are generated by a company’s supply chain, employees, the use of a product or its end of life.)

“Brands seem to be slow to the prioritization of sustainability efforts through paid media,” Dave Kersey, chief media officer for GSD&M, told ADWEEK. “Perhaps Viant’s effort will create more exposure and meaning for brands to consider their role in this from a paid perspective.”

Another buyer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the added cost of neutralizing ad placements will turn most performance-minded clients off of the label.

“We definitely like to see more companies putting forward carbon-neutralizing tactics like this that generate their own intrinsic value outside of just simple media value,” said Stephen Frey, director of integrated media planning at Media by Mother. “As marketing dollars continue to decline as companies ask more from their marketing teams, any opportunities to create value are always welcome.”

Preempting industry standards

The release comes just two weeks ahead of the Cannes Lions Festival, where the Global Alliance for Responsible Media is expected to announce an industrywide standard on digital media emissions measurement, called the Global Media Sustainability Framework. It is the result of working groups that GARM and Ad Net Zero teamed up to form in October.

One media agency executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, questioned the value of Viant launching this label before GARM’s standards have been released. While Viant is a member of Ad Net Zero, the exec pointed out that a carbon label would be more useful if it were a pre-competitive project, similar to the Global Media Sustainability Framework.

“It should not be a competitive advantage to be doing the right thing,” they said. “By virtue of it not being someone else’s, you’re going to find a reticence or a reluctance to use it.” That could result in a proliferation of similar labels, creating confusion and mistrust among consumers.