(Adds quotes, background)
LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - WPP said on Thursday it
planned to make the world's largest advertising company reach
net zero carbon emissions by 2025 by incorporating many of the
virtual production solutions it has developed during the
pandemic.
Announcing on Earth Day what it said was the industry's most
ambitious climate target, the British company said it would also
work with media partners in television and online to ensure its
supply chain is a net zero producer by 2030.
"WPP is the world's largest buyer of advertising space,
managing more than $60 billion in media spend on behalf of our
clients, and the world’s largest producer of advertising
content," Chief Executive Mark Read said. "So we have the
opportunity to make a real difference."
WPP, which owns such agencies as GroupM, Ogilvy and
Hill+Knowlton, said the pandemic had accelerated innovation in
virtual production technology and reduced the need for staff to
gather at carbon-intensive location shoots.
The firm, which competes with Omnicom, IPG
and France's Publicis, said it would work with its
media partners to develop an industry wide standard for
measuring the carbon that is emitted through the placement of
advertising.
"(Its media buying arm) GroupM is consolidating its
existing carbon calculators to allow a single view of emissions
across channels in key markets, and make them available to
clients at scale," it said.
The group added that it expected carbon data to increasingly
become part of the information that is requested when ad firms
pitch to run ad campaigns for brands.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by James Davey/Guy
Faulconbridge)