Lost In Found Podcast: John Osborn of Ad Net Zero

Advertising’s Response to the Climate Crisis and What You Can Do To Help

THEM: There’s no denying this truth: The climate emergency is an existential threat. The temperature of the planet is rising. We need to limit global warming to +1.5°C or future generations will find it very hard to survive.

YOU: I make funny commercials that sell people sustainable composting equipment. They’ve even won Cannes Lions. Surely I’m not part of the problem.

THEM: The average shoot day emits the equivalent of 2.2 tons of CO2 gasses into the atmosphere.

YOU: … service… not great here… I’m on location… let me call you ba-

On the latest episode of the Lost In Found podcast, our ECD Tom Christmann talks with John Osborn, director of Ad Net Zero USA, a global initiative that aims to help the advertising industry measure and reduce the carbon impact of developing, producing, and running advertising to net zero.

Many agencies, brands and production companies are already finding ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. And Ad Net Zero wants to help them continue that trend. But don’t worry. You don’t have to stop shooting original content. Or give up quality. “Creative is [still] king,” says Osborn, who worked at creative powerhouse BBDO for over 20 years, ending his tenure there as CEO. “But we want to arm producers with the right tools to enable them to lower the carbon footprint.”

Ad Net Zero isn’t the only organization focused on helping the ad industry save the planet, as John readily acknowledges. “In the States,” he says, “there's a great organization run by a very dynamic leader named Gabi Kay. It's called Green The Bid. It's a nonprofit and they've done a lot of research and they've got a lot of case studies around how production can begin to lower the carbon footprint.”

TOP 5 THINGS YOU CAN DO

Here are five ways to make your shoot greener, according to the Green The Bid resource guide:

1. Get rid of single use plastics. Yes there will always be gels and the like, but let’s kick out regular single use. During Covid, aluminum disposable water bottles and paper wrapped compostable bamboo cutlery are a good replacement for disposable plastic on set.
2. Eliminate unnecessary travel. Be rigorous in working out ways to limit travel for the shoot. Where travel is absolutely vital, keep a record of miles and accommodation used and offset at the end of production. You can calculate flights here and accommodation here.
3. Tackle food waste. Methane has even more environmental impact than CO2 and is totally avoidable. Use clear signage to ensure people know how to sort and dispose of waste, and be sure to book the correct haulage for compost, recycling, and waste.
4. Go digital. There are apps for everything now. Digital pre-pro books, digital call sheets. You name it. Make your printer obsolete, and the trees will thank you!
5. Offset carbon use. After reducing, reusing and donating, offsets are a final step in acknowledging the carbon use we just can’t avoid. Here is an example of where you could offset your carbon impact.

“In Europe,” says Osborn, “there’s ADGREEN. It's a calculator. Think of ADGREEN almost as a Hemi engine you can put into the ecosystem of tools within an agency. They've got over 530 different case studies under their belt in the last year, and they've done some real hard analysis on all those variables and they have shown, you know, the trade offs that can happen when decisions are made using that calculator.”

Acting as one industry is critical, says Osborn. No one organization can do it alone. One of the goals of Ad Net Zero is to train producers and business affairs people at agencies and brands to use the tools that are out there, including those created by organizations like Green The Bid and ADGREEN. But trade organizations are an important part of the mix, as well. “We wouldn’t be on this call right now,” says Osborn, “if the ANA, the 4As and the IAB wasn’t firmly entrenched as a foundational supporter of AD NET ZERO here in the States.”

Some organizations are more blunt about it. Clean Creatives, for instance, recently hacked Ad Net Zero social media platforms on launch day in protest. Clean Creatives doesn’t think the industry should be making ads for oil companies and other brands that are big carbon polluters. But Osborn still praises their efforts. “Ironically,” he says, “we’re both trying to lower carbon emissions in different ways.”

This episode isn’t all climate change. John also gives us his take on innovation in advertising, how peer-to-peer messaging is the ultimate medium, and he gives us his take on the ads in this year’s Big Game. His favorite spot: The Farmer’s Dog. The spot, a film about a dog and a girl growing up together, eschewed celebrity and embraced authentic storytelling. As Christmann remarks in the episode, “It's so funny that all these companies and brands are still doing these celebrity-laden ads when there are real stories being told every day.”

Catch+Release is proud to be an approved Green The Bid vendor. As advertisers, it's crucial that we take responsibility for our impact on the environment. By joining initiatives like Ad Net Zero, Green The Bid, and ADGREEN, we can work towards reducing our carbon footprint while still creating impactful campaigns.