Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards: Recognising and advancing sustainability in advertising

As the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards enter their fourth year, they continue to provide both recognition for those excelling in sustainable practices and a vital measure for the industry’s efforts to tackle climate change. Hosted at Google’s West End HQ, this year’s breakfast briefing offered a unique chance to learn from recent winners and explore the steps needed to drive real transformation in the advertising sector.

Campaign editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier introduced three 2024 awardees who shared their sustainability journeys and offered valuable insights into the ongoing push for change. Watch the highlights video below. 

Fixing a broken system

Michael Hanbury-Williams, managing director of Greenbids, which helps advertisers such as Spotify reduce their carbon emissions while improving effectiveness, said the awards were a great way to inspire the industry to fix innate problems.

“The industry ad ecosystem is broken with too much advertising wasted, and wasted ads are wasted carbon.”

His claim to help advertisers cut carbon emissions by up to 35% while improving effectiveness made for a compelling rationale. “Sustainability is not a cost. You can have media quality and sustainability at the same time.”

Inspiring change through storytelling

Sky, a winner in the production category, demonstrated how embedding sustainability into a long-term strategy can transform a business. Hannah O’Donnell, Sky Zero business transformation manager, emphasised their commitment to using storytelling to drive behaviour change.

“It is a really integral part of how we do business,” said O’Donnell, “we look to embed climate storytelling across all genres.”

She outlined how Sky has used talent such as Romesh Ranganathan, and Sky programming such as Awesome Animals to mainstream the arguments for sustainability.

Sky has also launched the latest iteration of its Sky Zero Footprint Fund, offering £2m in media support to amplify the message that advertisers are leading the way in sustainability.

Jake Dubbins, managing director of Media Bounty, a fellow 2024 winner, said a more holistic approach to sustainability could help build trust in the ad industry.

He urged organisations to “use all of our skills to drive the agenda as quickly and as far as we possibly can”.

Winning insights from judges

Judges shared practical advice for those considering entering the 2025 awards, which launched on 1 March and will culminate in a ceremony at The Londoner Hotel.

Kate Waters, ITV: Awards inspire employees, generate valuable industry case studies and offer a moment to reflect on progress.

Laura Wade, Essence Mediacom: Even companies beginning their sustainability journeys can benefit by identifying their strengths and growth areas.

Sebastian Munden, Ad Net Zero: “What matters most is that your entry shows good intent and a commitment to driving positive change.”

Embedding sustainability in business strategy

After three years as a judge, Gerald Breatnach, head of strategic planning and insight at Google, pointed out the continual raising of the bar in terms of the quality of entries and said it was rewarding to see repeat entrants build on previous entries and win after several years of persistence.

The best entries are those that contextualise Net Zero activities to the business as a whole, he said.

“How does the work that they’re doing fit in with the overall business strategy? What’s the connection to the leadership and the purpose of the business?” he added. 

Breatnach said his biggest learning was the amount of great work taking place across businesses, often not driven by sustainability teams but by those at the coal face who had owned it and run with it.

On the shoulders of giants

Wade advised looking at past entries to see what had been achieved, because yesterday’s exceptional performance became today’s best practice.

“Understand what others have done and how you are improving on it, and highlight that,” she said.

Waters pointed out that it is important to take on board feedback and that is reason enough to enter an award, as the learning could be hugely beneficial.

“It can feel so scary to write an award entry, but you always get something valuable back and having been through the process, you will know what you need to do to produce a better entry,” she said.

Although entries have to be embedded in measurable proof, she called on them to use their storytelling powers. Too often, the story of a great idea is not foregrounded enough to make it truly shine. “Be the person who works out how to tell that story,” she said.

International horizons

With this year’s awards open to international entries, Munden said he expected to see even greater work lauded and lessons learned from around the world.

“It shows the universality of the challenge and the appeal of a great solution. I would love to see more customer-facing and public information campaigns,” he said.

Whereas the US government is taking climate action off the agenda, engagement with the UK government through the awards has been encouraging, with politicians invited to help judge the awards and fascinated by behavioural change action, said Spanier.

“They are really interested in these awards, and that’s not the case with all awards,” he said.

On the business front, companies use sustainability to signal who they want their partners to be, added Breatnach, who lauded the awards as a unique indicator of companies’ trajectories in this field.

“It’s a joyful day when I get to read through all the entries, because I leave so inspired and positive,” he added.

To learn more about Ad Net Zero, click here.