In Canada, there are no regulations regarding the accounting of Scope 3 emissions for investments in marketing and advertising activities. CBC/Radio-Canada decided to address this gap.

Their project, named The Other Cost Per Click, was not about measuring the broadcaster’s full footprint. It focuses specifically on the carbon emissions attributable to advertising delivery across linear TV, streaming, digital, and audio channels.

Most Canadian companies use a traditional method for emissions measurement and estimate their emissions by multiplying ad spend by a flat emission factor. However, the resulting data is inaccurate as it neglects to differentiate between delivery types. It indicates that the only way to reduce emissions under that model is to spend less on advertising. That tells you nothing useful about how to buy better.

CBC/Radio-Canada’s response was to focus on activity-based measurement, working with Australian consultancy Net Zero Media to map every step in the ad delivery chain and assign a specific emission factor to each one.

What CarbonIQ measures

CarbonIQ covers the ad targeting and delivery chain: storage, handling, placement, distribution, network equipment, and a weighted share of consumer device usage proportional to advertising time. It does not include content production or the end purchase. Being precise about scope keeps the model credible.

The complexity increases as you move from linear TV to digital. Linear broadcasting goes from signal to tower to screen. Connected TV adds server layers. Programmatic adds infrastructure and multiple ad exchanges on top of that. Each additional hop has a carbon cost.

Programmatic advertising

CBC/Radio-Canada collaborated with Scope3 on supply path optimisation across its programmatic partners, removing those placing multiple bids without driving meaningful business outcomes. The impact:

• Up to 75% reduction in emissions per thousand impressions across certain programmatic channels

• A 96% reduction specifically for CBC Gem, its English-language streaming service

That kind of result is only visible if your calculator can distinguish programmatic from direct buying and measure at the line level.

How it reaches advertisers

CarbonIQ is offered free to any advertiser that requests it. A campaign ID goes in, a full emissions report comes back, broken down by channel, reach and frequency.

For advertisers, the demand is driven by connecting carbon intensity to campaign KPIs. When a lower-emission purchase also delivers better conversion or higher completion rates, the business case proves itself.

egta members can watch a recording of Mark Mandato’s presentation here.