Guardian sales team certified ‘carbon literate’
The Guardian has trained its entire sales team to be certified “carbon literate” in what it claims is a world first for any media owner.
The training course was created by The Guardian‘s sustainability team and was based on the outlet’s own climate journalism. It is accredited by the Carbon Literacy Project, a UK charity dedicated to helping inform and empower people to take action on the climate emergency.
Obtaining a Carbon Literate certification means that all staff in The Guardian‘s ad team “understand[s] the carbon costs and impact of everyday activities and the ability to help reduce emissions on an individual, community and organisation basis”.
As previously reported by The Media Leader, the ad department is just the first team within Guardian Media Group to obtain the certification — the rest of the organisation intends to also complete the training course.
Following the completion of the programme, staff were compelled to commit to a number of individual and team actions that the publisher estimates will prevent up to 20,000kg of CO2-equivalent emissions.
Guardian staff asked to make pledges as part of climate training
Carbon calculators, such as those created by purpose-led ad platform Good-Loop, have found that an average online ad campaign emits 5.4 tonnes of CO2 — equivalent to nearly half of the average annual carbon footprint of a person in the UK.
Guardian Advertising has more broadly made three commitments on top of its existing policy to refuse ads by oil and gas companies.
It is developing a new tool to measure campaign carbon emissions to help clients make informed decisions about the carbon impact of their media spend. In addition, it is implementing AdGreen, an Ad Net Zero initiative aimed at reducing emissions from advertising production. The latter is particularly applicable to The Guardian‘s pre-existing commitment to sustainable production practices in its content partnerships.
The publisher will also make available the Carbon Literacy workshop to the broader industry via its quarterly Agency Council update and regular meetings with key clients and partners.
As a result of the training, 97% of participants said they felt “more knowledgeable about climate change and confident about identifying actions that will reduce their team’s carbon footprint”.
Meanwhile, 84% said they now feel confident talking to clients and colleagues about the climate crisis — up from 28% before the workshop.
“The climate crisis is the defining issue of our times,” commented Guardian Media Group director of advertising James Fleetham. “It’s an increasingly important conversation in advertising and that’s right — but we have a lot to learn.”
Fleetham added that he was “pleased” to “equip our team with the knowledge and confidence to talk about it with customers, using our world-class reporting”.
According to Guardian Media Group’s director of sustainability and operational transformation Julie Richards, the publisher has cut its company-wide emissions by over 40% over the past five years.
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