Green Supplement Media Week Special

Green issues have been steadily climbing the social and political radar over the past decade, culminating in Al Gore launching a $300m, three-year climate change campaign to motivate US politicians earlier this month.

The media sector - with the exception of BSkyB, the first media company to declare itself carbon neutral in 2006 - has arguably been slower than other industries to adopt environmentally friendly policies into everyday practice.

But, as our examples from companies such as Google and the Guardian show, media organisations are now working hard to prove their green credentials.

On the agency side, agencies must show evidence of green campaign planning to meet clients' increasingly high environmental expectations. If agencies fail to explain the provenance of a campaign, they could bring accusations of greenwash down on the client's head, as consumers naturally complain to the client, not the agency.

And the cost of actually running an ad campaign makes shocking reading, as our How green is your medium? feature shows: a typical two-week TV campaign produces the equivalent of the carbon emissions produced by 2.8 people in a year.

So, whether media owner, agency or client, Media Week hopes our special report will help raise awareness of how the media sector can leverage green concerns to work towards environmentally sensitive communications planning.

Harriet Dennys
Features Editor