Every second, over 6,000 tweets are sent, 4.5 million videos are watched on YouTube, and 3.5 billion Google searches are made daily. Behind these statistics lies an often overlooked reality: the environmental cost of our digital lives. The same is true for digital marketing. Every ad served, video streamed, and click tracked adds to this growing footprint.
The conversation around sustainability in marketing is gaining momentum. As a digital marketing agency, Semetis recognizes the evolving responsibility of marketers in this era of digital abundance. Beyond the pursuit of performance and engagement, we are inspired to consider how our strategies can also contribute to a more sustainable future. From small optimizations to industry-wide shifts, every step matters. While we celebrate the impressive reach and engagement of our campaigns, we rarely stop to ask: could we achieve the same impact in a more sustainable way?
Understanding the Hidden Cost of Digital Campaigns
Every online action comes with a carbon footprint. Data centers, the backbone of our digital world, consume 1-2% of global energy—comparable to the aviation industry. Websites, ads, and videos require vast amounts of energy to operate, much of which still comes from non-renewable sources. For example, a single high-traffic campaign can generate emissions equivalent to those of several households in just one day.
Despite this, these costs remain largely invisible to marketers and brands. Conversations still revolve around metrics like click-through rates and conversions, leaving the environmental impact in the shadows. But what if we could measure it? Understanding the carbon footprint of our digital campaigns is the first step to making more sustainable choices.
From Awareness to Action: Measuring the Invisible
The first step toward sustainability is understanding the problem. At Semetis, we consider the use of certain tools to provide our clients with actionable insights into the carbon footprint of their campaigns, helping them make informed and sustainable decisions. Free tools like CommToZero, developed by the Belgian association UBA, make this easier by allowing marketers to calculate the carbon footprint of their digital campaigns. The process is straightforward: you input key details about your campaign—such as the platforms used, ad formats, impressions, video durations, and hosting choices—into the tool. Whether it’s for display ads, video campaigns, or social media, CommToZero can provide an emissions estimate tailored to any type of campaign. This makes it possible to pinpoint the areas contributing the most to your carbon footprint, whether it’s heavy video streaming, excessive ad impressions, or energy-intensive servers.
Shifting the Mindset: Small Steps, Big Impact
Sustainability doesn’t require an overnight transformation. Change happens incrementally, with small, deliberate actions that accumulate into meaningful progress. This is the essence of a shift-minded approach: starting where you are and moving forward.
To do so, Semetis is actively searching for more actionable actors on the market, such as Scope3. Scope3 provides carbon emissions measurement in media and advertising, basing its insights on the Global Media Sustainability Framework (GMSF). This industry-standard methodology ensures their data is consistent, transparent, and actionable.
With this foundation, Scope3 doesn’t just measure emissions—it helps optimize campaigns by highlighting ways to reduce carbon impact while maintaining performance. One of their simplest solutions is Climate Shield, a one-click tool that dynamically removes high-emission inventory from media buys. By activating pre-bid segments in Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs), Climate Shield minimizes ‘climate risk’ in campaigns, making sustainable media practices easy to implement without compromising results.
Why is this important? Because understanding these impacts is the first step to making better choices. By being informed, we can identify where emissions are highest and find ways to reduce them. But it doesn’t stop there—it’s equally important to share this knowledge with our clients. Helping them see the environmental impact of their campaigns not only fosters transparency but also positions us as proactive partners in building more sustainable marketing strategies.
Conclusion
The environmental cost of our digital world isn’t something we can afford to ignore forever. As marketers, we’re in a unique spot to spark change, raising awareness is the first step—acknowledging that every ad served, every campaign launched, carries a footprint that we have the power to reduce.
Change doesn’t require perfection, but it does require action. Small, deliberate steps—like measuring campaign emissions, optimizing media buys, and using tools available on the market—can pave the way for a more sustainable future. At Semetis, we believe that by taking responsibility for the impact of our campaigns, we not only align with the growing demand for sustainability but also position ourselves as leaders in a necessary industry shift.
Alizée Valvason
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