Havas Media Network UK clients enrolled in sustainability model. A step forward or a dead end?
Havas Media Network UK has introduced an opt-out model, making sustainable media communications the default for clients. Its aim is to reduce emissions and align with media decarbonisation requirements.
Under the scheme, clients will be automatically enrolled in the opt-out model unless they choose to withdraw, transforming sustainability into an operational standard rather than an optional add-on.
There is no price difference for the sustainability model, and the framework is structured around four pillars: measurement, reduction, optimisation through assessment of emissions data, and creation through embedding sustainable behaviours into content.
Analysis: How is sustainability being defined?
Making sustainability the default is a positive move forward. It means the onus is not on clients to have to opt in. However, the definition of “sustainability” in this context requires clarity.
Jake Dubbins, co-chair of the Conscious Advertising Network, points out that the carbon efficiency used to serve an advert is just as important as the ad’s content.
He says: “The risk of a narrow definition, which only applies to the carbon used to serve the advert, is that an ad, which on the face of it, is ‘low carbon’, could be served adjacent to content that either denies climate change, denies the causes of extreme weather or denies that we should implement solutions.”
Is Dubbins right to be concerned? Last year, Havas had 18 fossil fuel clients worldwide, according to data published by Clean Creatives. The most high-profile of which is Shell. Havas won Shell’s global media account in September 2023.
When The Media Leader asked how the opt-out scheme would work with these clients, a Havas spokesperson clarified that the scheme is only being implemented in the UK for Havas Media Network clients, so it wouldn’t impact the agency’s international fossil fuel clients.
“Ultimately, we have to look at the whole problem here,” insists Dubbins. “Fossil fuel majors can have the most sustainable media plan in the world, but if the objective is to maintain the status quo and sell more fossil fuels, then really we are rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.”
The data issue
AI is now being used to create advertising assets and deliver them across platforms. Dubbins highlights it as “vital” that Havas Media Network UK can now report on the “emissions and energy mix of its entire supply chain, including the use of AI.”
In 2025, Google’s emissions rose by 51% since 2019, with a 27% year-on-year increase in electricity consumption. This was “primarily driven by increases in supply chain emissions”, according to The Guardian reporting on Google’s own sustainability reports. Scope 3 emissions increased by 22% in 2024.
In 2024, Meta’s net carbon emissions grew from 7.4m metric tons to 8.2m metric tons, with Scope 3 accounting for 99% of this.
Dubbins says: “If Havas works with Google or Meta platforms, how is it measuring the emissions of these ads, and how is it ensuring transparency of the energy mix used by those platforms?
“If fossil fuels are increasingly being used to power data centres, then I am not sure how this is ‘sustainable’.
“It could be like fixing the plumbing, having the best heating system in the world, but having no roof and no walls.”
Following successful integration and implementation across Havas Media Network UK, Havas says it wants to roll out the opt-out model across the rest of Havas UK’s creative, healthcare, and media clients in the UK and Ireland.
This is likely to prove less of a challenge than applying the opt-out model worldwide.