Out Of Home Giant JC Decaux Now Rating Environmental Friendliness Of Its Ad Faces

October 17, 2024 by Dave Haynes

The French media company JC Decaux has developed and introduced an “Eco Design Index” that reflects the environmental friendliness of its street-level ad displays as well as the substantially different points of view about environmental issues in digital out of home.

Sustainability and what has been coined green signage are big issues and discussion points in Europe, while in Canada and the U.S.,, it comes up … but not very much.

JC Decaux’s index, reports German language content partner invidis, divides passenger shelters and the like into classes A to E, with A being the best rating. Analogue or digital OoH surfaces that are integrated into the street furniture are included in the evaluation. According to JC Decaux, the index is used to compare models within the same product family – according to the company, analogue and digital cannot be directly compared.

Decaux’s classification is based on its own criteria and the 16 environmental indicators of the European Commission’s EF method. The urban furniture portfolio was rated on a scale of 0 to 10 based on results from life cycle analyses.

The index takes into account the two main areas of “design and production” and “operation and use.” This includes, for example, which raw materials were used, how well they can be reused or how much energy they consume. The up-cycled passenger shelters, wooden passenger shelters or the refurbished passenger shelters from JC Decaux should receive a particularly good rating.

The method was developed with the agency Maobi and tested by EY. It applies not only to the company’s own products, but to all street furniture. It is intended to help with product development internally, and to help partners or local authorities select street furniture.

The aim is to publish a simplified guide with the first ratings in 2025.

I have been spending a lot of time lately talking to display companies about product evolution and marketplace demands. A lot of them have sustainability and recycling programs, and are probably ahead of marketplace demands, particularly in te biggest global market, the U.S. In that country, green issues come up among the largest customers because they may have environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs.

Or you have media companies who now look at their operating costs and start thinking about how they can reduce energy bills, which can be ghastly for very large displays and high-brightness ones used outdoors.