The Drum Awards for Agency Business: agencies committed to Ad Net Zero lead nominations

This new category has been introduced in recognition of how agencies are doubling down on their commitments to becoming sustainable businesses, with a strong sustainability action plan now so critical in attracting staff and clients.

Agencies big and small, networked and independent entered, with our wonderful judges scoring them on ambition and their commitment to leading the way in sustainability. So, here’s a closer look at those in the running.

Propellernet

Propellernet is making strides to become a pioneer in taking climate action beyond Net Zero. Its managing director, Sam Zindel, is confident in its role and places the planet as a key stakeholder in its business. Over the last 18 months, Propellernet has already achieved some milestones such as: measuring its carbon footprint and reducing it by over 20% across scopes 1, 2, and 3 on a science-based Net Zero pathway.

The agency has also committed to investing 5% of profits to tackling climate action and is a certified B Corp. With 500,000 trees planted in Madagascar and Mozambique and an aim to planting a million by the end of 2023, Propellernet has offset 15 years of carbon emissions towards and has targets of offsetting all historic emissions for its 19 years of operations by December 2022.

Nuevo

Nuevo is a group of creatives on a journey to build the world’s most purpose-driven creative agency. Whether it’s partnering with Tomorrow’s Forests or donating profits to climate-changing projects, it has developed a number of processes that allow it to deliver world-class campaigns with the smallest amount of impact on the planet it is striving so hard to protect and sustain.

The agency’s processes are helping to reduce the carbon footprint of a typical creative production by up to 50% while the remaining is then offset through credible and transparent partners that share the same values as Nuevo. Clients such as Canada Goose, Ernst & Young, and Ordnance Survey have all benefited from Nuevo’s approach to creative production and sustainability projects.

Led by chief executive Jax Davey, Nuevo is striving to continuously bridge the gap between creativity and sustainability with this blueprint present in every action taken as an agency.

Momentum Worldwide

Make it Matter is Momentum Worldwide’s company-wide strategy for ensuring every decision it makes has the environment at its heart. The agency is fully dedicated to embodying sustainable leadership.

Led by global sustainability director Selina Donald and her team, the challenge was to make this initiative credible and tangible. Change needed to come from the everyday actions of its people on the ground and from the top. Once the agency held intensive assessments throughout every company level, the five main areas it needed to shape Make it Matter around became clear.

The target is to cut its carbon footprint to 50% by 2030. Momentum then made the leap to be the first global experiential agency to invest in and launch software that allows it to account for its carbon footprint, wastage and materials used.

To date, Momentum has engaged its global supplier network with a strategy workshop, educating its people on sustainable decision-making through its green skilling programs and embedded eco-friendly materials via the circular economy into its creative and production processes.

Media Bounty

As a business that operates according to a triple bottom line principle of ’people, planet and profit’, Media Bounty has recognized its responsibility of cutting CO2 emissions and is striving to bring staff, clients and industry peers along with it on its journey.

Taking it one step further, the agency also focuses on biodiversity, the extinction crisis, plastics in our oceans and more. Media Bounty firmly believes that the best Net Zero strategy is an integrated one, so it has woven low-carbon initiatives into the fabric of the agency: from creative production to media planning.

In the last 12 months, it has brought together like-minded brands, organizations and partners to increase its impact. It has produced campaigns that highlight the importance of climate action (at Cop26) as well as encouraging the British public to move towards a more sustainable future with plant-based products (Crackd) and ethical pension funds (Make My Money Matter).

Forster Communications

Forster Communications focuses on using communications to build a regenerative economy that works for people and the planet. As a founding UK B Corp and UN Global Compact signatory, Forster has won 11 Best-for-the-World Awards in recognition of its approach and impact in partnership with its clients, through its business, and across its community.

In 2019, Forster declared a climate emergency and in January 2020 launched its Climate Positive Plan. It chose to go beyond the emissions it produces to include its whole value chain and the wider community. Two years on, it has successfully achieved a major milestone of ensuring that all Forster suppliers have net-zero commitments.

It became one of the first carbon-neutral PR agencies in the UK and encouraged 52% of its clients to set carbon emission reduction goals. And on top of becoming a dairy, meat and paper-free workplace, Forster divests its pensions and banking from fossil fuels and incentivizes employees and clients to travel more sustainably.

Total Media Group

B Corp accreditation has benefitted Total Media in its talent retention, recruitment appeal, cost savings and in attracting like-minded clients, although it is adamant it is more than just a box-ticking exercise. In order to be a business that upholds the highest standards of ethics while making a substantial difference to the world, the agency wants to take its people with it on the journey.

Through the dedication of its employees and its green team, Total Media has been able to hit its target of becoming carbon neutral three years before its 2025 goal and eight years before the Ad Net Zero target.

This also includes becoming the only independent media agency offering clients completely neutral media, which is a great step in reaching its goal of becoming a completely carbon-zero business.

For more information about the awards and how you can attend/watch the results, head over to the dedicated site.