This post is a prequel to a series on improving the environmental sustainability of marketing communications.
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If Life Cycle Assessment for marketing communications would be a mean feat, measuring carbon footprint, a subset of LCA, would considerably simplify the process of evaluating its environmental impact, while still allowing for identifying greatest impacts and baselines for reduction.
Carbon footprint
Carbon footprint is “the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted over the full life cycle of a product or service or in a financial year for a business”.
Because carbon dioxide is a major man-made greenhouse gas and because its measurement is more straightforward (and cheaper) than LCA, carbon footprint analysis has gained significant traction in the ecologically-minded business community.
According to Andrew Winston, competition in carbon footprinting software is “fierce”. I have found these comprehensive tools on the market for measuring the total carbon footprint of your marcom activities:
- CO2 Counter by the Gaia Partnership
- EcoPublicité by PriceWaterhouseCoopers
- Noughtilus by Clownfish
- Marketing Carbon Calculator by Etetra
Except for Etetra’s, these tools reside behind tall pay walls, so it’s hard to assess how they work, how accurate they are, what results they deliver, or what clients they serve.
Several free online calculators can help measure the carbon footprint of different parts of your marketing operations, such as
- events
- online media
- packaging
- printing in-house or commercially
- vehicle travel
- website use
Similar to all free online calculators or tools, accuracy and customization are an issue. But these tools will allow you to dip your toe in the complex waters of carbon footprint measurement and analysis.
Alternatively, as with LCAs, outsourcing the calculation of your marketing’s environmental footprint to a specialized third-party would probably be more efficient. Plenty of carbon footprint consultants operate in the marketplace, though to my surprise, I could find few individuals or companies who do that in Portland, Oregon, a presumed hotbed of sustainability.
However, other than the Sustainable Advertising Partnership of the Institute of Sustainable Communication, it’s unclear who, if anyone, specializes in the footprinting of marketing efforts. It seems carbon footprinting of marketing communications is a curve that’s ahead of the next curve.
No demand, no supply?
The main reason for the scarcity of entities measuring the environmental footprint of marketing communications seems to be weak demand. Few companies seem to be interested in doing this, though as with many other environmental sustainability initiatives, lower footprint leads to lower cost, among other things.
For those enlightened corporations that want to reduce their marketing’s environmental impact, scale becomes an issue: the carbon footprint of corporate marketing communications must be large enough for any measurement and reduction efforts to yield meaningful and cost-effective results.
Two other reasons may work to prevent companies from accounting for their marcom’s eco footprint: the role of marketing and total carbon management. Rather than a strategic business function, marketing remains a utilitarian tool in many business people’s minds. And, most companies focus on the footprint of either their entire operations or value chains of individual products.
What’s your take? Do you, or a company you know, Â measure or plan to measure your marcom’s carbon footprint?
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Measuring the environmental impact of marketing, Part 1
Image credit:Â barockschloss
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An excellent point, Peter.
Perhaps businesses are reluctant to establish their carbon footprint for fear such a discovery may be perceived as ‘bad press’. Customer and company ignorance of the footprint in question may be preferable to an ugly, official number.
Of course, this could be massaged into a PR opportunity: establishing that footprint is the first step toward reducing it.
Oh, for the days when companies vie for ‘lowest carbon footprint in the industry’ (without relying on offsets)!
As always, an interesting post.
Keep up the good work.
@Mike: You imply that companies would publicize their marcom footprint. That may not necessarily be the case, or necessary. Unless there’s a certification system in place for the environmental footprint of marketing communications, companies can (should?) keep that information to themselves and work on reducing it for purely internal purposes. Besides, marketing a new-and-improved footprint of marketing may defeat the whole purpose of the exercise.
Read the comments on the reprint of this post on Sustainable Life Media’s Sustainable Brands Weekly.