IAB Italia releases digital sustainability white paper addressing carbon emissions

IAB Italia revealed a comprehensive white paper on digital sustainability on September 9, 2025, offering Italian advertisers with concrete methods to measure and scale back the carbon footprint of their digital promoting campaigns. The 57-page doc focuses particularly on the environmental influence of digital promoting and descriptions sensible approaches for firms to handle sustainability challenges of their advertising operations.

In line with the white paper, web alone consumes 10% of worldwide electrical energy and pollutes six instances greater than it did a decade in the past. The doc emphasizes that digital applied sciences account for between 8% and 10% of vitality consumption throughout the European Union. Analysis cited within the paper signifies that digital expertise emissions comprised 2% of worldwide CO₂ emissions in 2008, rising to three.7% by 2020, with projections reaching 8.5% by 2025.

The white paper presents a three-pillar method for addressing digital promoting sustainability: measurement, discount and optimization. Firms should first set up correct measurement programs to know their environmental influence earlier than implementing focused discount methods. The doc explains that correct measurement allows organizations to establish high-emission areas, set up real looking discount targets, monitor progress and talk transparently with stakeholders.

Italian firms have begun implementing sustainability initiatives in recent times, although digital promoting and communication weren’t initially prioritized as key motion areas. The paper notes that consciousness of the digital promoting {industry}’s function in international CO₂ emission discount has grown considerably, main {industry} gamers to think about sustainability as considered one of their main challenges.

The doc particulars particular practices for each sell-side and buy-side stakeholders. Publishers and supply-side platforms can implement World Placement Identifiers to trace promoting positions all through the digital provide chain, avoiding redundant impression processing and lowering environmental influence. The paper additionally recommends adopting “lazy load” strategies that enable net pages to load solely seen parts, lowering CPU utilization and CO₂ emissions.

For advertisers and demand-side platforms, the white paper suggests avoiding “Made for Promoting” web sites, which create content material solely for monetization by way of promoting. These websites usually generate synthetic visitors and inefficient impressions with low engagement charges. The doc additionally recommends optimizing provide path effectivity by working with fewer strategic companions to maximise efficiency whereas enhancing sustainability.

In line with IAB Italia, a number of European suppliers provide carbon emission measurement companies for digital promoting campaigns. These embody Scope3, Good-Loop, IMPACT+, Cedara and DK. The paper notes that main media companies together with WPP Media, Dentsu and OMG have developed frameworks for measuring carbon emissions from their campaigns.

The white paper references the World Media Sustainability Framework launched in June 2024 by Advert Internet Zero and the World Alliance for Accountable Media. This framework gives industry-standard approaches for calculating greenhouse gasoline emissions throughout media campaigns, addressing earlier inconsistencies in measurement methodologies that hindered sector-wide progress.

The doc presents a case research involving PHD Italia and IDM Südtirol-Alto Adige, which achieved 79% viewability charges on 15-second video pre-roll campaigns whereas compensating 3 tons of CO₂ emissions. This collaboration utilized Index Inexperienced Media Offers to scale back marketing campaign environmental influence whereas sustaining efficiency requirements.

Digital promoting campaigns generate emissions by way of a number of levels of their lifecycle, together with artistic manufacturing, technological infrastructure, information transmission and end-user system consumption. The paper explains that components resembling content material weight, technological infrastructure complexity, information middle vitality effectivity and media channel choice considerably affect environmental influence ranges.

The white paper gives particular suggestions for on a regular basis digital practices to scale back environmental influence. These embody organizing video conferences solely when vital, disabling cameras throughout calls to scale back environmental influence by as much as 96%, closing unused browser tabs and optimizing system vitality consumption by way of environment friendly energy administration.

IAB Italia organized a webinar on September 24, 2025, that includes Digital ADV Sustainability Working Group individuals to discover options for lowering sector emissions. The occasion addressed firms looking for to steer change towards extra sustainable, accountable and modern digital practices.

The doc emphasizes that measurement represents the elemental first step towards reaching digital sustainability. Out there options allow firms to know, monitor and scale back their environmental influence whereas contributing to a extra accountable digital future. The paper concludes that Italian market adoption of those measurement options has begun, although larger readability in service choices and relevant requirements stays vital.

Suggestions for Advertisers

Primarily based on the IAB Italia white paper evaluation and present {industry} developments, advertisers ought to implement a scientific method to digital sustainability that balances environmental duty with marketing campaign efficiency targets.

Fast Implementation Steps

Advertisers ought to start with measurement infrastructure institution earlier than pursuing optimization methods. In line with the white paper, firms should first perceive their present environmental influence by way of correct carbon footprint evaluation instruments. The doc recommends deciding on measurement suppliers able to delivering constant methodologies throughout a number of marketing campaign cycles, as inconsistent measurement approaches forestall significant year-over-year comparisons.

The evaluation section ought to quantify CO₂ emissions generated by digital campaigns to ascertain inner benchmarks. This baseline measurement turns into important for subsequent optimization efforts, notably given the absence of standardized {industry} benchmarks. Firms ought to doc emission ranges throughout totally different marketing campaign parts together with artistic codecs, system varieties, media channels and writer partnerships.

Provide Chain Optimization Methods

The white paper emphasizes provide path optimization as a important lever for emission discount. Advertisers ought to audit their present programmatic provide chains to establish redundant intermediaries that enhance each prices and carbon emissions. Every further step within the promoting provide chain generates community requests, information synchronization and server load, contributing to increased vitality consumption.

In line with the doc, present promoting impressions can traverse greater than 15 middleman steps, representing important inefficiency. Collaboration with fewer strategic supply-side platform companions allows improved efficiency whereas lowering environmental influence. Advertisers ought to prioritize direct relationships with publishers and consolidate expertise partnerships to attenuate provide chain complexity.

The implementation of World Placement Identifiers helps monitor promoting stock all through the digital ecosystem, stopping duplicative processing and lowering vitality consumption. Advertisers can work with demand-side platforms to examine bid streams and optimize buy paths primarily based on carbon effectivity metrics alongside conventional efficiency indicators.

Inventive and Format Optimization

Digital promoting artistic parts considerably affect marketing campaign carbon footprints by way of file measurement, processing necessities and information transmission wants. The white paper recommends adopting “lean promoting” rules that optimize artistic weight with out compromising message effectiveness. Heavy video content material, uncompressed pictures and complicated animations require further bandwidth and processing energy, rising vitality consumption throughout the supply chain.

Advertisers ought to set up artistic tips that specify most file sizes, most well-liked compression codecs and length limits for video content material. The doc references IAB Europe’s LEAF software as one useful resource for lowering artistic weight whereas sustaining visible high quality. HTML5 codecs usually provide higher effectivity in comparison with conventional wealthy media implementations.

Format choice choices ought to incorporate carbon emission concerns alongside attain and engagement metrics. In line with the white paper, show codecs usually produce decrease emissions than video codecs throughout each creation and consumption phases. Video content material requires extra vitality for copy in comparison with static show commercials, making format combine optimization an vital sustainability lever.

Concentrating on and Viewers Methods

Environment friendly concentrating on reduces promoting waste whereas minimizing environmental influence by way of decreased impression volumes. The white paper emphasizes that ineffective concentrating on results in monumental promoting waste by serving irrelevant messages to uninterested audiences. This inefficiency will increase community requests and vitality consumption with out producing enterprise worth.

Advertisers ought to implement high-quality viewers information and exact segmentation methods whereas avoiding over-targeting that generates disproportionate request volumes. The doc recommends monitoring impression high quality repeatedly to optimize campaigns and scale back emissions. Frequency capping prevents extreme message repetition to particular person customers, lowering redundant community visitors and enhancing model notion.

The adoption of interoperable identification options can considerably scale back vitality consumption related to cookie synchronization processes. Conventional cookie matching generates quite a few requests between platforms to establish customers uniquely. Shared identification frameworks like Unified ID 2.0 decrease this community visitors by offering widespread consumer identifiers throughout the promoting ecosystem.

Stock High quality and Model Security

The white paper identifies “Made for Promoting” web sites and ad-cluttered domains as important sources of inefficient emissions. These environments usually generate synthetic visitors and low-engagement impressions that waste promoting budgets and enhance carbon footprints unnecessarily. Advertisers ought to implement up to date blacklists and collaborate with model security suppliers to exclude this stock from their campaigns.

Invalid visitors filtering represents one other important optimization space, as fraudulent impressions eat vitality with out offering any promoting worth. Superior monitoring instruments can establish and filter suspicious visitors patterns, lowering marketing campaign emissions whereas enhancing efficiency metrics. The doc recommends establishing high quality thresholds that forestall promoting supply to environments with poor viewability or engagement charges.

Viewability filtering ensures commercials attain customers who can really see the content material, eliminating waste related to non-visible impressions. Setting viewability thresholds above 70% and using third-party verification companies gives higher management over impression high quality and related carbon emissions.

Expertise Platform Choice

The selection of promoting expertise platforms considerably influences marketing campaign environmental influence by way of infrastructure effectivity and provide chain optimization. Advertisers ought to consider platform companions primarily based on their sustainability commitments, measurement capabilities and operational effectivity alongside conventional efficiency metrics.

Platforms that make the most of renewable vitality sources for information middle operations, implement server effectivity applications and supply detailed carbon reporting capabilities provide benefits for sustainability-focused campaigns. The white paper notes that some expertise suppliers have begun integrating carbon optimization straight into their platform interfaces, enabling real-time emission discount choices.

In line with {industry} developments tracked by PPC Land, main platforms together with DoubleVerify and TikTok have carried out carbon measurement capabilities, whereas VIOOH achieved 90% lower emissions than industry standardsby way of infrastructure optimization.

Efficiency Integration and Reporting

Sustainable promoting practices ought to complement slightly than compromise marketing campaign efficiency targets. The white paper emphasizes growing measurement frameworks that stability carbon emission discount with main marketing campaign targets together with model consciousness and conversion metrics. Advertisers ought to establish further key efficiency indicators resembling consideration charges that allow format and placement optimization whereas sustaining branding effectiveness.

The mixing of carbon value per thousand impressions and carbon value per greenback invested gives sustainability metrics akin to conventional media effectivity measurements. This method allows optimization choices that take into account each monetary and environmental effectivity concurrently.

Reporting frameworks ought to normalize outcomes relative to marketing campaign budgets to allow correct comparability between totally different marketing campaign flights. The white paper recommends establishing trade-off analyses between carbon emission targets and first marketing campaign targets to information optimization choices successfully.

Steady Monitoring and Optimization

Digital sustainability requires ongoing measurement and refinement slightly than one-time evaluation. After establishing baseline measurements, advertisers ought to implement steady monitoring to trace progress in opposition to emission discount targets. The white paper outlines a cyclical method involving measurement, optimization implementation and outcomes verification.

Subsequent marketing campaign flights ought to incorporate learnings from earlier sustainability assessments to refine concentrating on, format choice and platform decisions. The doc emphasizes that optimization alternatives exist primarily in the course of the media planning section, the place advertisers preserve best management over artistic choice, media combine and writer partnerships.

Common evaluation of recent {industry} instruments and measurement suppliers ensures entry to improved sustainability capabilities because the ecosystem develops. The speedy tempo of innovation in carbon measurement and discount applied sciences requires ongoing analysis of rising options that would improve environmental efficiency with out compromising promoting effectiveness.

Timeline

Abstract

Who: IAB Italia, the Italian affiliation devoted to interactive promoting, revealed the white paper with contributions from {industry} consultants together with representatives from Azerion, ENI, Google, Havas, IAS, Index Alternate, Mediamond, Ogury, PubMatic and Taboola.

What: A complete 57-page white paper outlining methods for measuring and lowering carbon emissions from digital promoting campaigns, overlaying measurement methodologies, finest practices for publishers and advertisers, and sensible implementation steps for Italian firms.

When: Revealed on September 9, 2025, with an accompanying webinar held on September 24, 2025, to debate implementation methods with {industry} stakeholders.

The place: The initiative targets the Italian digital promoting market, although the methodologies and frameworks referenced align with European and international {industry} requirements together with the World Media Sustainability Framework.

Why: Responding to rising regulatory necessities, stakeholder expectations and {industry} recognition that digital promoting contributes considerably to international CO₂ emissions, with web consumption representing 10% of worldwide electrical energy utilization and digital expertise emissions projected to achieve 8.5% of worldwide emissions by 2025.