When Carbon-Neutral Isn’t Enough
Whether they’re chasing the allure of the Triple Bottom Line or spurred on by the rise in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and consumer cries for corporate sustainability, you’d be hard-pressed to find a company these days that’s not pushing an environmental agenda. The rallying cry is almost always the same: “we’re on a mission to be carbon neutral by 20XX.”
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great message. It’s this kind of responsible stewardship we need if we’re going to change the tide of climate change.
The thing is, as business owners, we can do more. We need to do more. And at JXM, we are doing more.
In our minds, carbon-neutral isn’t enough. We’re pushing to be carbon negative.
Identifying a negative to create a positive
The path to becoming a carbon-negative agency begins with data. If you know anything about JXM, you know that we love data. Yet, as a digital firm with a distributed team, measuring our carbon impact is challenging. We’ve done a lot of introspection to identify our agency’s output—and taken action not just to offset it, but to ensure we’re carbon negative against real, measurable metrics.
Our commitment to building out a carbon-negative process doesn’t only apply to operational sustainability; it also extends to our clients and our execution of their campaigns. We want every impression, click, view, like, follow, and dollar of revenue generated to reduce the environmental impact of advertising.
Beyond revenue and other results, we want our clients to enjoy the pride that comes with making an impact. They should feel good about running ads knowing that the commerce they’re creating stems from environmentally responsible efforts. And, they can position themselves as a responsible company that ultimately fosters goodwill toward new and loyal customers alike.
When you embody positive change, don’t be surprised if positive results follow.
Turning hydrocarbons into carbon credits
So what, exactly, does a carbon negative impact look like? As is the case with all things at JXM, we strive to see it through a results-driven lens. The process needs to generate outcomes.
Our process involves investing in carbon credits and reforestation efforts, with a goal that not only mitigates the energy used to serve advertising but replaces it by more than 100%.
To put this into real numbers:
Every 100 megatons (mT) of carbon that our advertising efforts emit, we cover with a combination of carbon credits and replanting of trees. From there, we add credits for an additional 100mT to ensure we’re going far beyond simply mitigating the impact. The result? We’re effectively improving the climate, one ad at a time.
In aligning carbon offset metrics with the core objectives of campaign efforts, we’re working to expand the definition of success in advertising. Would you rather generate a print marketing ad that gets 10,000 impressions or plants 100 trees? Why not both? Environmental stewardship isn’t tied to the success of your campaign, but they can coexist. At JXM, we’ve taken the time to build out an approach that captures both.
The quest to make Captain Planet proud
Why does a marketing and advertising agency care about climate change? Why go through all the trouble of identifying our carbon footprint and pursuing efforts to far offset it? In short: because we care. Melding commerce to the cause of environmental action isn’t a new idea, but it’s one we’re passionate about.
30-some-odd years ago, a blue-skinned superhero with a green mullet told a generation of kids, “the power is yours!” while flying around and saving the planet from villains with names like Captain Pollution, Doctor Blight, and Looten Plunder. Even back then, the threat of climate change was imminent and easy enough for any kid to understand. And while we’re still guilty of watching cartoons today, now that we’re all grown up, we’ve realized that it really is up to us to become Planeteers.
Climate and commerce need to coexist
We believe that economic growth and environmental stewardship don’t need to compete with each other. To the contrary, as economic incentives naturally align with lessening the impact of advertising activity, further growth will stem from those efforts. It’s the Triple Bottom Line concept.
For those less familiar, the Triple Bottom Line states:
“Firms should commit to measuring their social and environmental impact—in addition to their financial performance—rather than solely focusing on generating profit, or the standard bottom line.”
People, profit, and the planet are the three pillars of this concept. It’s a philosophy that we believe in deeply because it enables environmental stewardship without pushing extremes. In other words, you can still feel good about turning a profit, as long as you’re not doing it at the expense of the people or the environment. It’s about finding and toeing the line that’s inclusive of better business practices and productive advertising efforts.
JXM’s emphasis on carbon-negative results is an asset for companies seeking Triple Bottom Line results. Brands can focus on developing their own internal sustainability controls, while knowing that their marketing and advertising operations are already contributing to a net-negative carbon output.
Help us help you help the planet
As companies big and small seek to answer the call for sustainability, they’re taking broad action. It’s important not to overlook the tremendous potential of environmentally-minded advertising. Not only is there an opportunity to reduce your carbon footprint, but there’s also tremendous potential to create a net positive for the environment with every ad run.
Let JXM introduce you to carbon negative advertising, where environmental benefits and marketing ROI don’t need to be mutually exclusive. Our process helps bring you one step closer to the many benefits of the Triple Bottom Line while fostering a future where commerce and climate coexist in harmony.
By our powers combined, we can make Captain Planet proud.
