InMobi’s Commitment to Sustainability

Adtech as an industry is advancing in leaps and bounds. The last decade has seen digital advertising taking the forefront, so much so that global digital ad spend is expected to grow by 9.7% in 2024, as compared to just 0.9% for traditional advertising. 

This steep rise, however, brings with it substantial environmental costs. Over time, digital advertising, and by extension, programmatic advertising technology, has become a silent but significant contributor to the global carbon footprint. Programmatic advertising generates an astonishing 215,000 metric tons of carbon emissions each month across five major global economies 

Digital ad campaigns, despite taking active steps to streamline campaign paths and adopt sustainable practices, have been only partially successful in their efforts. A striking statistic reveals the impact of ad campaigns on our environment: A single ad campaign delivering 1 million impressions emits the same carbon footprint as that of 1 passenger on a round trip flight from Boston to London.  

The current advertising emission scenario demands decisive action from stakeholders across the advertising supply chain. This transformation is not just a response to growing environmental awareness, but a necessary adaptation in an industry where digital efficiency and ecological responsibility must coexist. The necessity for this shift arises from an urgent need to mitigate the digital carbon footprint, ensuring that the advertising technologies of tomorrow are not only advanced but also aligned with the global commitment to environmental stewardship.  

Adtech players have long overlooked their true environmental impact, given the lack of significant Scope 1 (direct) and Scope 2 (energy in operations) emissions. However, the serving of trillions of daily ad impressions - including the need for data storage, network, analytics, and auction processing - requires a substantial indirect energy contribution; energy which is responsible for a sizable carbon footprint. As such, Scope 3 emissions, which occur from a company’s participation in the advertising value chain, account for a major chunk of advertising emissions.  

At InMobi, we are making a clear commitment to take the next big steps - get our house in order and work together with our industry clients and partners to build a more sustainable digital advertising ecosystem.  

Our approach to emission reduction, however, has not centred around just Scope 3 reduction, but has been a holistic combination of commitments and goal setting exercises aimed at mitigating our carbon footprint, and adopting and marketing green media products that would further the cause of sustainable advertising. Our focus has been twofold- 

• Adhere to the latest media quality standards, offering green media products to our buyers to help them (and us) measure and reduce the impact of their campaigns 
• Pursue more sustainable practices in our operations, optimising for energy use, waste, procurement

In 2023 we made notable advancements towards a sustainable future at InMobi. Some of the steps taken include: 

• Committing to set near and long-term company-wide emission reductions in line with science-based net zero with the SBTi 
• Joining Ad Net Zero and committed to the coalition’s 5-point action plan 
• Partnering with supply chain emissions leader Scope3, to create transparency on media-related emissions across our inventory, launching in 2024 

As  we embark on our 2024 journey, in line with our commitment to science based net zero, we aim to: 

• Formalize our commitment, by submitting our emission reduction targets to SBTi 
• Get our house in order, and keep reducing the environmental impact from our operations 
• Embrace sustainable media products & latest media quality standards, to deliver better performance with lower emissions 
• Engage our clients & partners to drive collective impact 

At InMobi, we aspire to a culture of innovation that drives sustainable tech to foster a positive impact for a more purposeful approach to AdTech. Read our Sustainability snapshot to learn about our journey so far & what lies ahead in 2024!