November 5th, 2009

Carbon Footprint of Marketing Communications

Recently I was fortunate enough to speak at the annual DMA conference in San Diego and after at their CSR committee meeting about the carbon footprint of media specifically of digital media.   And while this topic is not high on most marketers’ agenda, it is a topic that needs to be considered none the less.  As companies do Life Cycle Analysis (LCAs) for their products, the one piece that often gets overlooked is the impact of marketing and communications.  Considering all of the focus on Green Marketing these days, how can we not be asking the question about the “greenness” of the marketing campaign itself?

Timberland is one company that has considered this in looking for ways to lessen the impact of their marketing campaign for the Earthkeepers product line through using a mix of recycled materials, repurposing billboards and purchasing offsets.  We expect more to come on this topic as the DMA continues to educate their members and organizations like the Institute for Sustainable Communications continue to push this question.

We would be interested in knowing if you have considered the impact of your marketing communications efforts when telling your sustainability story.