Sustainability Whitepaper: Actionable Steps

The IAB New Zealand Sustainability Working Group has developed a whitepaper to support the digital advertising industry adopt more sustainable practices. It provides concise and useful advice for agencies, publishers and advertisers, including social and environmental considerations and economic benefits. Plus an implementation framework, useful terms, helpful Q&As and extra resources if you want to dive deeper. 

The IAB New Zealand Sustainability Whitepaper sets out actionable steps for agencies, publishers, and advertisers to reduce emissions and future-proof their organisations. At 14 pages long, it's a manageable read designed to be immediately helpful. 

It outlines some practical steps to reduce the environmental impact of digital advertising, including these 5 key points:

1. Optimise the supply chain: Cut down unnecessary intermediaries (resellers), reduce duplicate bid requests, and streamline supply paths.

2. Design lighter creative assets: Compress files, shorten videos, and use efficient formats to lower energy use.

3. Adopt green hosting: Choose servers and partners powered by renewable energy.

4. Use smart delivery: Techniques like lazy loading (only loading ads when visible) reduce wasted data transfers.

5. Measure emissions: Track grams of CO₂ per 1,000 impressions (GCO₂PM) to benchmark and compare campaigns.

It provides practical advice on how brands should behave to build trust and avoid 'greenwashing' and explains how greener practices can improve efficiency and reduce costs - the magical sweet spot 🌟

Globally, rules and regulation around sustainability are tightening quickly and Aotearoa is expected to follow, so brands and businesses that act early will benefit. Digital advertising sustainability is no longer a future ambition, it is today’s challenge.

IAB New Zealand Members can download the full Sustainability Whitepaper via this link

Thank you to the following members of the IAB New Zealand Sustainability Working Group for developing this resource:

Ella Fitton, Sustainability Working Group Lead, Head of Digital Advertising Operations, NZME

Nick Boulstridge, Independent Consultant

Rob Clifford, Customer Success Manager, Integral Ad Science

Lizzie Grant, Regional Director of Partner Development APAC, Index Exchange

Christina So, Group Digital Planning Director, FCB Aotearoa

Hayden Tan, Programmatic & Ad Technology Manager, Stuff

For further information or to become an IAB New Zealand Member, please get in touch.