
There’s a lot of chatter in the marketing world about AdTech going green, but is anyone really walking the walk? Sure, we’re hearing promises of reducing carbon footprints, but concrete methods for actually measuring and delivering on those green claims? Not so much.
We’ve always believed in putting sustainability front and center because, for us, Faster is Greener by Nature.
We think it’s pretty simple—if you don’t have a way to measure your environmental impact, you can’t call yourself green

How Do We Calculate CO2 Emissions from Advertising?
First things first—ads don’t just pop up magically on your screen. Every time you see an ad, there’s a server somewhere working hard to send it to you. And guess what? Those servers use energy. A lot of energy. The more data transferred (think: heavy files, videos, banners), the more CO2 gets pumped into the atmosphere.
So we’ve created a simple formula to calculate the emissions from each ad.
We start by measuring the ad’s “weight” (or file size), then multiply that by how often the ad is served. Using research from the International Energy Agency (IEA), we know that transferring 1 GB of data requires about 0.06 kWh of energy.
Let’s break it down: a video ad campaign serving 100 million impressions in the UK typically generates about 4 tons of CO2—that’s the equivalent of taking a round-the-world flight! ✈️ But, with our leaner, greener ad-serving methods, we cut those emissions down drastically.

Why Lightweight Ads Are the Key to Lower CO2
Think of ad servers like marathon runners. The lighter they are, the faster and more efficient they can run. Similarly, the smaller your ad files, the less energy it takes to deliver them—meaning fewer CO2 emissions.
At Aderize, we make sure every ad we serve is as lightweight as possible. Other vendors might send you a 1300kb banner, but we’ve slimmed our ads down to around 200kb. That means, for 100,000 impressions, a standard banner would emit 2kg of CO2, while an Aderize banner emits just 319g of CO2. That’s an 84% reduction in emissions!
What’s the magic behind it? We often use WebGL technology, which processes graphics using the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) instead of the CPU. Why does that matter? The GPU uses about 30% less energy than the CPU, meaning our ads not only load faster, but they’re easier on the planet—and on your device’s battery life, too. 🌱🔋

Green Ad Serving: Powered by 100% Renewable Energy
Sure, we can make our ads as light as air, but what about the servers behind the scenes? Data centers are huge energy hogs, contributing a significant chunk of the world’s CO2 emissions. They need massive amounts of power to not only serve ads but also to keep cool.
Our secret weapon? We partner with ad servers that run on 100% renewable energy. 🌞💨 We’ve even earned a certification from the Green Web Foundation for our efforts. And when renewable energy isn’t an option in certain regions, we invest in carbon offsets to neutralize our emissions.
In 2020, thanks to our renewable energy purchases, our ad server’s market-based Scope 2 emissions were zero. That’s right—zero. We also invest in renewable energy certificates (I-RECs, RECs, REGO) to ensure our global network is as green as possible.
We’re not just talking about sustainability—we’re making it happen. By reducing ad weight, optimizing energy use, and partnering with green data centers, we’re leading the charge toward a cleaner, greener AdTech industry. And that’s not just a buzzword; it’s our promise to the planet.
Ready to join us in the green revolution? Let’s make a smaller carbon footprint, one click at a time!
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