Japan's marketing industry is starting to decarbonize. Here's how

Marketing, like so many essential corporate activities, generates emissions. Annual global carbon emissions from digital advertising, including all processes related to the production, distribution and consumption, are estimated to be around 60 million tons.

Tackling this problem will not only just reduce emissions — it can also educate a range of stakeholders and help drive sustainable development for capitalism as a whole.

While regions such as Europe have made strides in addressing environmental issues, other countries, such as Japan, lag behind. Tapping the expertise of a global network and finding new ways to work together can bridge key gaps in Japan and other economies.

Japan has a highly developed marketing industry, even compared to other developed countries. There exsts significant potential to reduce emissions in the country, where digital and paper advertisements coexist in densely populated urban areas and commercial events flourish.

Key to any decarbonization process is partnership. However, up until now, there had been no widespread, systematic collaboration across the marketing industry for the purpose of decarbonization. The good news is that this is beginning to change.

Dentsu’s Decarbonization Initiative for Marketing is working to build a movement for decarbonization in the Japanese marketing industry. The company launched this sustainability initiative with the aim of visualizing and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in supply chains related to marketing and communication activities in Japan.

The advertising production and marketing processes, emission factors, trade customs and language of Japan differ from those in Europe and the United States, so a bespoke approach was required.

A core aspect of the initiative is cross-industry collaboration. More than 20 leaders from organizations including the Japan Advertising Agency Association, the Japan Association for the Promotion of Creative Events and the Japan Ad. Contents Association have met for bi-weekly discussions since October 2023, alongside agencies, media representatives and event companies.

Part of the initiative aims to promote the development of globally compatible emissions visualization tools in the areas of advertising and content production by collaborating with Ad Green.

It also aids the development of more sophisticated and globally recognized industry-standard GHG emissions visualization tools in media delivery, digital and events by participating in Ad Net Zero, the UK-based organization helping the advertising industry tackle climate change. Dentsu holds regular review meetings with stakeholders, including with other companies, to discuss the ideal state for the industry as a whole to realize a low-carbon society.

Not only has the initiative allowed partners to share knowledge with peers, it is also moving to define common industry standards by setting up working groups within advertising industry associations to lead unique collaborations.

Marketing is an area that comprises not only advertising agencies, but also diverse stakeholders such as business clients, production and event companies, and media and platform providers, so it is paramount to maintain transparency and neutrality when setting standards.

By collaborating with industry players to create tools for carbon visualization, the aim is to gradually increase the number of companies that make it a stated goal to achieve decarbonization. Establishing common standards allows companies to compete with each other in creating innovative solutions towards that goal.

This initiative delineates the phases of mergers, collaboration and competition, encouraging marketing firms and others to compete against each other towards a shared goal. It does so by clarifying what needs to be achieved via industry collaboration and what must be done through the individual efforts of each company to create added value. It demonstrates that working to achieve decarbonization can also be source of competitiveness.

From this experience, three key lessons have emerged:

1. The power of involvement

Although companies work for profit, when confronting common challenges on a global scale, taking the initiative to create change and demonstrating the power of involvement by making connections can create real change.

2. Think globally, act locally

This means to start by doing what you can in your own field while keeping a larger goal in mind. In this case, Japan's marketing industry is looking forward and taking action over what it can control.

3. Collaboration with like-minded partners

Collaboration helps to create a culture of positive thinking that positions the challenge of climate change not as a "difficulty" but as a joint effort to reach long-term goals. This is essential for any serious attempt to move the climate needle.

Japan's advertising industry is working to foster greater buy-in for global climate action by collaborating on carbon visualization tools and exploring deeper decarbonization. Shared goals, such as establishing common standards championed by the Decarbonization Initiative for Marketing and dentsu, aim to spur competition in developing innovative decarbonization solutions, driving progress in Japan and amplifying marketing’s climate impact.