OpenX Talks Sustainability at This Year’s Advertising Week: Powerful Strategies and Real Solutions

Sustainability in adtech is imperative and attainable. At OpenX, we’re working to get there, and we joined other industry leaders at Advertising Week New York this year to share impactful choices that organizations can make, advice for navigating complex business decisions and real-world examples of success.

OpenX CEO John Gentry joined Advertising Weekly Chairman and CEO Matt Scheckner for a conversation at the start of the conference about the possibility of transformational achievements — and the advances OpenX has made so far. We’ve set the bar high, but we’ve also shown that change is feasible. We have reduced our carbon emissions by more than 96%, are officially certified as a CarbonNeutral® company and are committed to gaining Net-Zero certification. 

These achievements didn’t happen without careful planning and strategic business changes. OpenX replatformed its infrastructure, shifting to Google Cloud to drastically reduce carbon emissions. We worked with internationally recognized leaders to inventory and verify our carbon accounting. We became the first ad exchange to gain official CarbonNeutral®  certification. Each of these steps took us further along our journey to environmental accountability, and Gentry and Scheckner shared how this important process is open to — and necessary for — everyone in advertising.

“It is a journey; that’s the keyword. Don’t be under the illusion that there’s an endpoint,” says Gentry. He explains the steps any organization needs to take to make a real difference: “There’s a framework: measure, remove, reduce — and then certify and verify.”

Later in the week, Bill Wescott of Brain Oxygen LLC and consultant to OpenX on the “Path to Net-Zero” will talk with Krystal Olivieri of GroupM and Choreograph and Stephen Woodford of Advertising Association and Ad Net Zero about the need for real action in advertising.

To get real about sustainability, organizations need to face the challenges that come with making tough decisions, but they also need to see the tremendous opportunities available. Wescott, Olivieri and Woodford will chat about actionable change, like the development of a transparent and industry-wide standard for emissions measurement in media. They’ll share options for investing in carbon removal projects and real-world examples of organizations who are navigating this complex process — from GroupM’s Media Decarbonization Framework to Ad Net Zero’s plan to broaden its climate initiative.

Join the discussion to get a strong grasp on the impact of advertising on the environment, consider the power of supply-chain changes and hear how other advertisers are measuring, reducing and offsetting their carbon emissions.

OpenX is dedicated to making the advertising industry more sustainable. We know the impact our industry has on the planet, and we’re committed to making it a positive one. We’re grateful for the chance to move this powerful conversation forward at this year’s Advertising Week.

Download our newly released eBook to get smart on what sustainability means for your advertising strategy, and learn more about OpenX’s path to sustainability.