Good-Loop creates advertiser ‘block list’ tool for carbon-heavy publishers

Advertisers will be able to block publishers who do not meet a brand’s sustainability targets from their digital ad campaigns, using tools launched by purpose-led platform Good-Loop.

Part of the company’s Greed Ad Tag, a carbon measurement tool, the feature enables brands and agencies to set their own targets based on the amount of carbon-dioxide equivalent (CO2e) that each media owner generates per ad impression. Users select the emissions savings they want to achieve and then export the sites to their ‘block lists’ and ‘allow lists’.

Good-Loop claims advertisers can drastically reduce the emissions generated by their online campaigns without making trade-offs in performance. In one beta test, Brand Advance, the diversity media ad tech platform, cut its emissions by 18% — by working with 10 domains highlighted by the tool.

Ryan Cochrane, COO of Good-Loop, said: “It can sometimes feel a little daunting looking at the scale of digital advertising’s oversized carbon footprint and its impact on the environment. But despite the size of the task, advertisers can make a real difference right now by making simple changes to the way they run their campaigns.”

Good-Loop’s research says the average online ad campaign emits 5.4 tonnes of CO2e — half what an average UK consumer producers in a year (or a third of what a US consumer produces). The tool was also recently used to help reduce the carbon emissions of a global car brand’s digital campaign by an average of 41%, according to the company’s head of investment and sustainable media Claire Gleeson-Landry.

Editor’s note: Since publication, Good-Loop asked us to amend reference to the Brand Advance trial to say that the platform did not end up blocking 10 publishers, but cut emissions after 10 domains were “highlighted”.