Broadsign, Sustainability Platform Scope3 Partner On Comprehensive CO2 Footprint Modelling For DOOH Networks

March 6, 2025 by Dave Haynes

You don’t get the sense energy conservation and greenhouse gas issues are going to get much attention in the U.S. anytime soon, but it’s something much of the rest of the world is looking at and in some cases putting rules and regulations around. To that end, the Canadian, DOOH focused CMS and programmatic company Broadsign has started working with a NYC company that does carbon modeling and measurement.

Broadsign and Scope3 have announced a partnership they collectively say sets the stage for more accurate, comprehensive carbon modelling of DOOH ad campaigns, with the intent of meeting the need of brands who want to limit carbon emissions across their businesses, including consumer marketing.

As a result of the collaboration thus far, says PR, agencies and brands leveraging Scope3’s carbon measurement platform can now access DOOH property and format emissions data for over 1 million screens globally when planning DOOH and omnichannel campaigns. Available insights include average CO2e per impression for DOOH screens by country and venue category. 

Scope3 users can view this data alongside similar insights from web, mobile, social, CTV, and other channels for more seamless carbon-conscious media planning and reporting. While DOOH is proven to augment omnichannel campaign performance, the data now available on Scope3’s platform also demonstrates its carbon efficiency on a per impression basis, reaffirming previous studies that illustrate the medium’s carbon-efficiency advantage over other channels. 

Key findings based on the data collected by Scope3 and Broadsign to date include:

• DOOH is the lowest carbon-emitting marketing channel on a per/impression basis (in countries where DOOH benchmarks are available). 
• The primary source of DOOH carbon emissions comes from the electricity that powers the screens. Key factors include operating hours, brightness settings, and the electricity grid mix.
• Approximately 95% of Broadsign-contributed screens fall at or below the median emissions level, considering factors like country and venue category.
• Opting for high-quality, low-emitting screens that deliver strong performance without increasing carbon output and optimizing campaigns for time of day can help advertisers reduce emissions, as certain hours may benefit from a more sustainable energy grid mix or higher foot traffic.

“There’s a preconceived notion that DOOH is a high-emitting channel, but the data tells a more accurate story that accounts for its unique nuances,” says David Fischer, GM, Global Ad Tech Platforms, Scope3. “Broadsign’s expertise, insights, and extensive inventory data are helping us refine our DOOH carbon measurement modeling to shed more light on the medium’s impact. Agencies and brands that use Scope3 to inform omnichannel media strategies can now better understand DOOH’s emissions, and media owners can set their inventory apart by offering insight into the carbon footprint of their screens.”

“Scope3 is the ad industry standard for carbon measurement, so partnering with them in the interest of the broader ad industry was a natural next step,” adds Bryan Mongeau, CTO, Broadsign. “As companies look to implement more sustainable practices, reducing ad campaign emissions will be an area of increasing focus, and our collaboration with Scope3 provides a strong foundation to support this demand. It not only provides invaluable insights today but also paves the way for future innovations like dynamic campaign planning and real-time media plan adjustments based on carbon intensity; we’re just getting started and have only begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible.”

Editor’s note for PR people: See what these guys did here … useful quotes that explain the value and relevance, rather than expressions ike pleased, delighted, thrilled, etc, etc.

Florian Rotberg of German-language content partner invidis has an interesting take on this here …

Broadsign’s sustainability initiatives are no coincidence. The programmatic DooH boom is significantly increasing the carbon footprint. Instead of a single campaign motif (ad spot) for thousands of screens, hyperlocal individual creations are now mostly developed that have to be transferred individually from the cloud to each endpoint.

In the past, it was enough to transmit the loop with six campaign motifs once a week; today it can be dozens of motifs per day; and in extreme cases, several times more per week. Video-based campaigns with near-real-time creations, such as those for major sporting events, also mean that massive amounts of data have to be transmitted. Not to mention event streaming, which has so far been the exception in the DACH (central Europe) region.