The IPA has published a toolkit that aims to support agencies on their sustainability transformation journey.
Agents of Change: The Plan includes a four-step model for action. It seeks to give leaders the knowledge to formulate a sustainability plan that would work alongside their business plan.
The first step recommends agency leaders to identify and be open about where they want to take their business.
There are currently three types of agencies when it comes to their approach to sustainable business: those taking no action outside legal compliance; those making incremental changes; and those seeking to embed a sustainable mindset and create a net-positive approach.
There is a diagnostic tool to help agencies work out their place on the journey.
The second step in the model is to build foundations. This includes understanding context and risk, establishing a business case and engaging colleagues.
Thirdly, the model is encouraging action. It is asking agencies to look at the work they do, in terms of making choices on clients and campaigns, while also looking at the way they work to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
Finally, the model focuses on how agencies can help grow a movement for change through collaboration.
The toolkit was commissioned by the IPA Sustainability Action Group and authored by One Planet Communications.
Key barriers
The toolkit is accompanied by a report, also released on Thursday, that collated the experiences of agency leaders, agency sustainability specialists, advertisers, coalitions working for change in the industry, external activists and other trade bodies.
Agents of Change: The Expert View identified five key barriers for change: business as usual taking precedence; an incohesive industry; no-one telling “the whole story”; agencies underestimating risk; and clients not demanding change.
Tom Firth, chair of the IPA Sustainability Action Group and UK group managing director at M&C Saatchi London, said: “For this to be useful for agencies, it was essential that we understood where the industry is now — so thank you to everyone who contributed to this report.
“It was clear from these conversations that advertising industry leaders must be clear-eyed about the challenges they face and move fast to keep pace with clients, respond to changing legislation and regulation and react to the shifting expectations of talent.
“It is a time of both risk and enormous opportunity for the industry. This project is our first vital step in providing practical support to other IPA members to help them make sense of the agenda and begin to think strategically about the transformation required and the practical steps needed to change.”
