Cannes, Commitments and Carbon Compensation

Many in the industry are making their way to Cannes this weekend to kick off one of the biggest weeks of the year for the ad industry. As a company dedicated to reducing carbon emissions, we're often asked, "how can you be obsessed with sustainability and make the justification to fly to France?"

We get it, international air travel and sustainability don't really go hand in hand. But, the reality is Cannes is a major industry event that provides a lot of value to our business and will help us make progress in areas that really move the needle toward decarbonizing advertising.

That said, we recognize there's a carbon cost that comes along with our attendance and we are doing our best to be intentional with our actions and how we show up.

That comes in the form of taking responsibility for what we can as we work to change the industry and focus on building (and growing adoption of) solutions that will meaningfully reduce the advertising's impact on the planet.

The carbon cost of getting to Cannes We partnered with scientists at Carbon Direct to measure the travel (train + air) emissions of each Scope3 employee attending Cannes and will be compensating via our curated portfolio of high quality carbon removal projects.

While offsetting doesn't truly make progress toward decarbonization, compensating for our travel using Carbon Direct is the best way to mitigate the carbon footprint generated from flying. It's also one small way to ensure the emissions from getting there don't overshadow the real progress we are making on reduction efforts across the industry.

We're striving for progress, not perfection.

And with so many others making commitments to sustainability, we wanted to provide the opportunity for our partners to take these small steps, too. We're excited Adform, Immediate Media, Perion - Undertone, and ShareThrough have joined us.

As we put this program in place, it's important to note that not all carbon credit projects are created equal. There are many cheap travel offsets being offered, and it's critical to select a reputable partner with a science-backed portfolio. What sets our portfolio apart?

• $100 average cost of carbon
• Project diversity
• Net carbon removal
• Monitored long-term
• Fosters inclusion of communities
• Low risk of re-releasing carbon
• Removes carbon that would otherwise not be removed

If you're interested in reading more about the science behind compensation, carbon credits, and offsets, Carbon Direct has several great resources available (we suggest starting with these blogs on carbon credits and the risks and nuances of offsetting).

Executing events with sustainability in mind Beyond thinking about our travel, we worked hard to ensure sustainability was at the core of our decision making for our presence at Cannes. Creating our space and planning our own partner experiences on site was no exception.

This year, we took several small steps to minimize our carbon footprint:

• We utilized an existing event space and worked with a local company to source our furniture, which will be stored for future events or donated to organizations in need
• Live plants and reclaimed wood were used to bring our branding to life, and our events team developed a plan to recycle or repurpose all paper materials following the event.
• Our caterers are sourcing local ingredients and avoiding food groups that contribute excessive greenhouse gas emissions

Planning for 2024 and beyond At the end of the day, there is still work to be done on all fronts when it comes to making advertising (and our industry as a whole) more sustainable.

On travel, organizations can begin to consider high-quality compensation into their events budgets. On event execution, the industry should continue exploring creative ways to limit our carbon footprint. On how the ad industry operates, we need to build with sustainability in mind and ensure we're creating solutions that help deliver the most effective advertising with the least impact on the environment.

We're looking forward to seeing our partners in Cannes, sharing our knowledge for how the industry can start to measure and reduce, showcasing some of the progress already being made in reduction, and engaging in discussions on how to continue the positive momentum advertising's sustainability movement.