• by Larissa Faw , October 9, 2020

UK-based Purpose Disruptors, a coalition of 1,300+ members of the marketing communications industry, is seeking to measure the greenhouse gas emissions driven by advertising through a new metric the group is calling “Ecoffectiveness.” 

The goal is to calculate and report the incremental uplift in greenhouse gas emissions associated with all sales that are attributable to the coalition’s advertising.

This will then create a core data set from which improvements can be tracked.

The intent is to establish an industry standard measure "Return on CO2e" (the revenue generated for every metric ton of CO2 equivalent emitted) in order to provide a consistent approach that allows for comparison across sectors and campaigns. 

An evaluation tool will identify where headroom exists and what methods can be used to reduce impact while maintaining profitability.

The methodology will be introduced at the IPA’s Effworks Global conference on October 15 using data from previous IPA Effectiveness Awards winners, with a focus on the 2018 Grand Prix winning case study from Audi. 

Purpose Disruptors network members Ben Essen, Chief Strategy Officer at Iris and Caroline Davison, managing partner at ELVIS, will share their work to date as open source, inviting ad industry professionals to join the development of the tools and data set.

Although the initial network is comprised solely of UK agencies, the organization hopes to create an international data set by ensuring its events are accessible to all interested participants. Effworks is free to attend. More details and tickets are available here.   

Purpose Disruptors will also be holding a free followup event in November that will help industry participants to apply the framework to their own work. 

“Achieving a net zero society is a worldwide challenge,” states Davison. ”While the Ecoffectiveness methodology is given context through UK-focused case studies, Effworks, as a global conference, provides the perfect platform to launch this new metric to an international audience.”