UniLED has collaborated with OPEN Media, Electric Glue and Starling Bank to trial a new Digital Out of Home (DOOH) Screen Energy and Emissions Report.
This is the first time that ‘in-use’ DOOH screen energy use and emissions have been recorded live in-situ and reported at a campaign level and by audience
impact, for a brand and media agency.

The DOOH Screen Energy and Emissions Reporting functionality is being developed in the UniLIVE platform by UniLED, in response to an urgent need by the media industry to accurately measure and reduce its environmental impact. Its aim is to provide a singular, agreed methodology to capture a more efficient and
accurate picture of the energy usage of a DOOH campaign. This will assist vendors in identifying the most significant drivers of screen energy consumption and help make more targeted reductions. To make this effective industry-wide, UniLED has issued a ‘call to action’ for more media owners and vendors to agree
to share energy consumption data.

DOOH screens are one of the largest, most visible, and most trusted media formats on the market with a long legacy of innovation, funding, and action to improve their environmental impact. However, as a result of inaccurate media energy emissions reporting, or media carbon calculators relying on estimations and incomparable methodologies that can provide a distorted picture, they are often victims of inaccurate assumptions about their energy consumption.    

UniLED’s heritage in DOOH screen technology and award-winning third-party verification platform UniLIVE put it in a unique position to increase transparency and help reduce the complexity and fragmentation of energy emission reporting. It has existing connections to, and trusted relationships with the majority of buyers and 100% of UK media owners – granting it access, and permission to use their play, time and audience data for DOOH campaign reporting.

Brands, media owners and agencies are continuously looking for ways, not only to reduce their carbon footprint but also to adhere to multiple industry and company ESG, Climate or Net Zero pledges and promises. Not forgetting the regulatory reporting needs of the C-Suite.

What brands, media agencies and owners really need urgent help with is to be able to measure and report more accurately by having access to factually correct information. This will help them identify and focus on the priority actions to significantly reduce their media energy emissions. 

Abigail Cunningham at UniLED Software explained: “The industry is working in silos to address this problem and making progress in isolation but what we all need to address climate change is collaboration and transformative action now.

“With our heritage in screen technology and the DOOH independent verification space, we knew we had a unique opportunity to play our part in driving the change. We applaud OPEN Media, Electric Glue and Starling Bank for stepping up to the mark and supporting us with the development of our Energy Reporting Platform. However, we would like to issue a call to action for more vendors to collaborate with us – by agreeing to supply the data they have available (confidentially and safely) and contributing to the development and industry approval of a consistent methodology, we can work together to raise the bar for more accurate energy emission reporting! It’s a win, win for everyone!”

Hollie Webb, Head of Marketing Planning at Starling Bank said: “UniLED is taking progressive action to accurately measure DOOH screen energy emissions. At Starling, we consciously choose to work with partners that are pioneering more sustainable changes in the advertising industry. This joint initiative is a great example of that.”

 Mike Smith, CEO at OPEN Media added: “It was a no-brainer for us to agree to take part in UniLED’s Energy Reporting Platform trial. Everyone involved in the media industry, not only DOOH, needs to play their part in reducing carbon and energy emissions. However, this can only be achieved if accurate data and insight are available. We support UniLED’s call to action for more collaboration and sharing of information.”

UniLED is currently inviting agency partners, media owners and industry stakeholders to feedback on the first trial methodology. It is inviting collaboration to agree on consistent metrics and outputs and share learnings while continuing to develop the UniLIVE platform to efficiently process, analyse and verify the data.

 The next stage in the development of the Energy Reporting Platform is to ingest more of the available data and test campaign variables. This will help UniLED to produce learnings and guidelines with the aim of helping the DOOH industry make significant reductions in the emissions from ‘In Use’ DOOH screens, without reducing campaign quality and performance for advertisers.