WPP makes industry-leading net zero commitment

Yesterday on Earth Day, WPP announced a new commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions in its operations by 2025 and across its entire supply chain by 2030.  

To deliver net zero emissions from WPP’s operations, electricity will be 100 percent renewably sourced by 2025.  

Within WPP’s supply chain, the two largest sources are the production of advertising content and the placement of content in media channels from television to press, radio and online.  

WPP is the first in its industry to include media in its net zero commitment. 

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, says: “By including emissions from the placement of advertising in our net zero commitment – a first for our industry – we aim to raise the bar for the whole sector.  

“Two-thirds of our top clients have committed to set their own science-based reduction targets and we can play an important role in helping them to meet those targets in their operations and across their supply chains.  

“We look forward to working with all our partners – many of whom have already made great strides in this area – to develop standards that will benefit the industry, our clients and our wider communities.” 

Through GroupM, WPP’s media investment operation, WPP aims to work with media partners to develop industry-wide standards for measuring and eliminating the carbon emitted from the placement of advertising in the media.  

GroupM is consolidating its existing carbon calculators to allow a single view of emissions across channels in key markets and make them available to clients at scale. Carbon data will increasingly be integrated into media partner procurement requests, and all media plans provided to clients will be net zero by the end of the decade. 

Hogarth, WPP’s creative production business, has pioneered “Sustainably Made”, which combines innovative virtual production techniques with industry-leading measurement tools and in-built carbon offset, to allow clients to produce work with a net-zero impact. WPP is also a founding member of AdGreen, an initiative to remove the negative environmental impacts of production. 

With an independently assessed annual carbon footprint of 5.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e), WPP’s net zero commitment will have a significant impact in reducing the emissions associated with the advertising sector. 

And in line with best practice, WPP will submit its emissions reduction targets to the UN-backed Science Based Targets initiative for independent validation. 

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