Scope3x5: Omayra Cruz, Director, Business Development, Scope3

Our Director of Business Development, Omayra Cruz, discusses her journey to Scope3, her role in advancing industry partnerships for decarbonization, and the educational approach she brings to help stakeholders understand and embrace sustainable practices.

This series offers a glimpse into the lives of the change makers at Scope3 and what’s driving them to create a more sustainable ad industry.

What led you to Scope3 & what are your core responsibilities?

Scope3 had been on my radar for some time before joining, as I found assessing the carbon impact of digital media and advertising fascinating. In my previous role, I engaged publishers in conversations about this new area, so when the opportunity arose, I jumped at it, drawn by the leadership team's vision and expertise in driving transformation within the industry.

I’m responsible for building new partnerships with publishers and platform partners who leverage Scope3 solutions to help buyers activate against and measure the impact of sustainability on media quality. A significant part of my role is education – helping prospective partners understand the positive correlation between growth and sustainable media, how it fits into their business, and how they can drive better efficiency, effectiveness and use of budget while simultaneously contributing to their clients’ own decarbonization goals.

What do you do every day?

I focus on ensuring that green media equals good business. This involves aligning stakeholders across the buy and sell sides, as well as the technology layers that power transactions, to ensure that greener media delivers strong performance, cost-effectiveness, and revenue growth. It's about making decarbonization not just an ethical choice, but showing how it’s the smarter business decision as well.

What’s your call to action for advertisers?

Be willing to look at your data and take accountability for understanding the impact of your media practices. While there are, understandably, many competing priorities in advertising, the importance and advantage of sustainability cuts through the noise.

Advertisers need to be proactive and leverage their knowledge to make better, more informed choices that align with both performance and corporate governance goals. As our Chief Commercial Officer, Brenda Tuohig, often says, "You know what better looks like."

If Scope3 could achieve one thing over the next five years, what would you want it to be?

I want Scope3 to be a model for what it means to decarbonize an industry.

As our CEO, Brian O'Kelley, points out, no industry has fully decarbonized and maintained it as the new status quo, despite some making important progress. We have the opportunity to not only decarbonize the media and advertising industry but to set an example for other sectors. Advertising could be the first industry to reach net zero–why not?

While media and advertising generates significant carbon, it is more straightforward to address compared to harder-to-abate emissions, like those from concrete or petrochemicals. We have the means to make this happen for advertising and in doing so actually make advertising work better with less waste and greater impact.

What is one lifestyle change you have made to become more sustainable?

Honestly, I’ve always been committed to sustainability. I've been a vegetarian my entire adult life, my family has always had just one car (which is now an electric vehicle), and we are intentional about avoiding food waste and reducing consumption in general. We aim to be deliberate in the choices we make every day.