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Earth Day may have already come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the opportunity to reflect on how we can protect the future of our home planet has passed. And, given the bleak outlook recent reports have presented on the health of our environment, it’s critical these conversations continue year-round.
Projections on the trajectory of climate change are growing ever more dire, with targeted carbon emissions goals looking increasingly out of reach barring swift and major regulatory and/or corporate changes. The severity of the situation even led to UN Secretary General António Guterres’ recently calling for countries to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies, calling these corporations the “godfathers of climate chaos.”
In the face of all this, organizations continue to tout their climate pledges and roll out marketing campaigns—or, depending upon who you ask, PR stunts—demonstrating their commitment to environmentally friendly values and practices. But as the scientific community continues to sound the alarms on the coming climate crisis, many sustainability-minded consumers are making it clear that they aren’t buying what brands are selling. And with consumers increasingly looking to corporations for leadership on the climate crisis, the old methods of green marketing just aren’t good enough.
The past few years have seen a major step forward in the advertising industry’s efforts to combat inaccurate and anti-science climate claims, as Google, YouTube, Pinterest, and others announced policies banning ads for (any monetization of) content that denies climate change.
But for marketers, there is still a significant amount of work left to do in the green space, considering that consumers are increasingly skeptical of many brands’ Earth-friendly sustainability claims. Case in point: 52% of people globally report they have encountered misleading or false information about brands’ sustainability efforts. At the same time, emerging GenAI technology both holds great promise for advertising teams and poses a significant climate challenge due to its energy usage. Given these complexities, marketing leaders looking to authentically champion sustainability must be proactive and intentional in both how they approach climate- and sustainability-focused advertising, and in how they leverage new technologies like AI.
If you take only one thing away from this article, let it be this: Consumers today don’t have time for sustainability claims that your brand can’t back up. More than half of Canadian consumers distrust brands’ “green” or sustainability claims, while 67% of global consumers feel that brands only involve themselves with social issues like sustainability for commercial reasons.
Beyond consumers’ greenwashing concerns, recent months have seen a flurry of regulatory activity to combat greenwashing, with the EU approving a new greenwashing directive that imposes stricter regulations on companies’ sustainability claims and the Canadian government passing new corporate greenwashing rules into law in late June. The new regulations in the EU tackle the issue of generic and/or unsubstantiated claims, introducing very specific rules for how and when companies can make environmental and sustainability claims. Similarly, the new law in Canada prohibits companies from representing “a product’s benefits for protecting or restoring the environment or mitigating the environmental, social and ecological causes or effects of climate change that is not based on an adequate and proper test.”
Amidst this heightened regulatory action and consumer distrust, advertising leaders and their teams must be intentional and authentic in the claims they make. A particularly helpful resource for evaluating sustainability claims is the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Guidance on Environmental Claims, which identifies six key principles for marketers who want to establish their brands as trustworthy and avoid greenwashing accusations.
In essence, advertisers must accept that when it comes to the environment and sustainability, the bare minimum isn’t good enough anymore—so if that’s all you have to tout, then it’s probably not worth sharing. Consumers (particularly young consumers) will see right through it, and—depending on how egregious your exaggerations are—call you out on it.
Indeed, marketers should embrace what might as well be the new climate advertising Golden Rule (or, in this case, Green Rule): “If you don’t have anything meaningful to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Since its public debut in late 2022, generative AI has garnered significant attention—both within digital advertising and beyond. In fact, 77% of agency professionals believe it is the trend that will most shape the next decade of digital advertising.
But this emerging technology comes with a hefty price tag—specifically when it comes to its energy usage. According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2024 forecast for global energy use, the average energy demand of a ChatGPT request is nearly 10 times that of a typical Google search. If ChatGPT were to be used for the nine billion searches that happen daily, this would require nearly 10 additional terawatt-hours of energy each year. That’s more energy than 952,000 average US households use in a year!
Businesses who value environmental responsibility must understand this aspect of generative AI to ensure their campaigns are energy efficient. Though there are many ways this technology can streamline campaigns, being intentional about its use and staying abreast of new developments in more energy-efficient ways to leverage GenAI can help mitigate potential climate impacts. By using generative AI thoughtfully, teams can significantly reduce unnecessary energy consumption, thereby supporting sustainability and responsible business practices.
When it comes to planet-conscious marketing, the most successful brands will be those that find creative ways of addressing climate change that feel authentic to their existing images.
Take Patagonia, for example. In 2011, the outdoor apparel brand made waves with its “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad on Black Friday, where it broke down the specific environmental cost of making one of its items (down to the amount of water used and carbon dioxide generated) and encouraged audiences to buy only what they need. Since then, it has launched a Worn Wear initiative, where consumers can both trade in their own used gear and purchase others’ pre-loved items, thus further reducing their environmental impact.
And in 2022, Patagonia’s owner Yvon Chouinard set a new bar for corporate environmental leadership when he made Earth the company’s only shareholder, pledging all profits to the fight against climate change. Over the years, Patagonia has consistently used clever, on-brand marketing to advocate for good—all while backing up their efforts with real, measurable action. Though not all brands will go to the same lengths to demonstrate their commitment to the environment, advertising teams can look to companies like Patagonia for inspiration for how to meaningfully engage in the climate change conversation.
Lastly, when you’re running your sustainability-focused digital advertisements, make sure they appear alongside content that reflects those same brand values—and, ideally, support the kinds of publishers that promote similar ideals. Work with partners that prioritize brand safety and take advantage of programmatic solutions like block lists, allow lists, and high quality inventory such as programmatic guaranteed and private marketplaces (PMPs) to eliminate the risks of problematic content and/or sites that endorse climate-damaging products or industries. In prioritizing brand safety, you can turn yourself into a trusted messenger that’s more likely to appeal to values-driven consumers.
Digital marketing leaders and their teams are at a critical juncture in their approach to sustainable advertising. Amidst escalating climate warnings, there is no space for greenwashing—a fact that is underscored by the recent flurry of regulation aimed at curtailing such misrepresentations. Additionally, industry professionals must be aware of the energy costs of generative AI, and use those insights to inform how and when they leverage the technology within their campaigns.
To succeed in this evolving landscape, teams must embrace transparency and authenticity, steering clear of misleading claims and unsustainable practices. By embracing ethical advertising strategies that meet consumers’ demands for transparency as well as new regulations, fostering creativity that aligns with their unique brand values, and approaching new technology intentionally, marketers can not only build trust with consumers, but also contribute meaningfully to the urgent global need to address climate change.