Global omnichannel media agency Assembly announced an enhanced commitment to developing sustainable media solutions that reduce the carbon footprint of media and marketing as a core enterprise-wide priority. To power these efforts, Assembly – a Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) agency – is launching Clean Media Lab with a media decarbonization minimizer as the first product available, starting in Europe and then rolling out globally. Recently, Assembly was named the first-ever Purpose-Led Agency of the Year atop Ad Age’s prestigious A-List, and Clean Media Lab is evidence of Assembly's ongoing commitment to "leaving the world better than we found it” while taking this commitment a step further to aid clients.
At launch, Clean Media Lab will explore and assess the current ecosystem of media decarbonization initiatives to identify pathways forward with maximal impact. In the long term, Clean Media Lab is focused on improving client outputs via a number of technology-based solutions like:
- a tool to audit the carbon footprint of clients' holistic media spend;
- a carbon scorecard to assess prospective publisher partnerships;
- a carbon emissions metric that can be universally applied and tracked across all parts of omnichannel campaign planning that is powered by STAGE, Assembly's proprietary technology
Ultimately, through Clean Media Lab, Assembly is helping clients minimize the total impact of their campaigns from strategy through to execution – allowing them to take meaningful steps towards their sustainability goals through the investment they make in media.
“Sustainability within our media products, services, and supply chain is a key pillar in our wider innovation strategy. We are fully invested in taking a deep, multi-faceted approach to developing Media solutions that are sustainable and progressive, including further investment in our technology to ensure global scale of the Clean Media Lab for all of our clients worldwide," said James Townsend, Global CEO of Assembly and the Brand Performance Network.
Clean Media Lab is the latest build to an existing suite of Sustainability + Impact initiatives across Assembly, ensuring sustainability and purpose are woven into all aspects of its business model and client engagements. The agency has already led market-defining work for Nike's Move to Zero Campaign, with emphasis on both media decarbonization and carbon offsetting through solar projects and planting trees.
On the efforts, Gaby Sethi, Global Head of Impact at Assembly said, "We simply can no longer ignore the impact that media campaigns have on our planet. Advertising adds an extra 32% to the annual carbon footprint of every person, and that's in the UK alone." Sethi adds, this isn't just a one-off initiative for us, it's how we need to think about campaigns from start to finish, and we're bringing the best minds together to make it happen."
Underscoring the agency's commitment, Assembly is joining Ad Net Zero in 2023, focusing most significantly on Action #3 in the organization's 5-point plan: curb emissions from media buying & planning. Assembly has also embarked on B Lab's rigorous B Corp certification process as this milestone reinforces and adds more formality around the agency's promise to balance purpose and profit to benefit clients' businesses.
Understanding the critical role suppliers and partners play in helping clients reduce carbon emissions from the way they advertise, Assembly has put its own business under the microscope and is measuring its operational carbon footprint with the goal of creating and publishing a transparent reduction plan in 2023.
This commitment is part of a larger focus at Stagwell on transforming media solutions through impactful technology to be announced throughout CES. Other announcements will come from the Stagwell Marketing Cloud and business agency GALE.