Marketing isn’t exactly “free.” Every design tweak, shoot, event, or pixel pushed through the internet - it all leaves a footprint. If you’ve never tested your website’s carbon output, there are already tools out there that can help you do that, like WebsiteCarbon.com↗. Add to that the omnistreamed digital ads, bloated tracking scripts, and auto-playing video, and you’ll start to realise that brands and products popping up on your screen create more than just aesthetic pollution.
Marketing is perceived as the loudspeaker for sustainability: the team shouting about what the business is doing elsewhere. But the function itself leaves a footprint that’s rarely addressed. A study of 139 service-sector managers found that leaner, more efficient ways of working directly improved environmental and social outcomes, not just productivity. Turns out, the way a marketing department organises itself can be part of the sustainability equation too.
And it’s not just the process. The outputs matter too.
According to the Acceptable Ads Committee (↗), Digital advertising pumps out roughly 7.2 million metric tons of CO₂ every year across 30 countries, with streaming video ads emitting more than twice as much per impression as static display formats. Every tracker or extra file attached to a campaign adds weight. Research on web tracking (↗) shows they inflate data transfers by about 21%, translating into emissions on the scale of tens of millions of tonnes globally. Want to know the best part? Removing ads and trackers from news sites doesn’t just shrink a visitor’s carbon footprint by up to 70% (which remains an abstract concept), it actually makes browsing smoother and faster. A cleaner web, less digital pollution, and happier users.
So, why should marketing only talk about sustainability, when it can actually practice it? From how teams are structured to which formats get produced, or which campaigns get scrapped altogether - marketing can embody sustainable values from the inside out.
Lighter, Leaner, Smarter
We're not going to offer an exhaustive checklist to do marketing by, rather encourage you to simply consider trading extravagance for impact. Oversized for purposeful. Confusing for pactical.
Start with leaner processes. Fewer approval loops, smaller teams, and quicker decisions. Less bureaucracy means less time and energy wasted, not to mention - happier people. Also, be picky with partners. Work with local creatives, independent creators, or boutique consultancies that don’t need to fly in a dozen people for a brainstorm or bury your project in corporate glitter.
Next, embrace the “LITE” mentality. Open up to lightweight websites with fewer scripts and trackers. Challenge your web design team on that front. Ask them what they find could be done to trim the unnecessary fat and keep the website fit for purpose. When is the last time your media team favoured static ads over autoplaying video? Are you sure the newsletters that get sent out don’t load like a cinema trailer? Ultimately, it’s not just greener, it’s faster, cheaper, and usually performs better.
Balance the spend. Not every product needs a full-blown influencer circus or a media blitz. Test smaller formats, go local, reuse content, and stop chasing reach for reach’s sake. Sometimes modesty and quiet gets you more attention.
And yes, sometimes the most sustainable move is to kill the campaign altogether. Pull back when something feels overproduced or misaligned. Trust that the right message, simply told, can travel on its own. Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket” proved it back in 2011, turning restraint into brand power. Mars followed suit, upcycling old M&Ms and TWIX campaigns under its “Healthy Planet Productions” initiative, while others simply chose not to launch influencer activations or lavish store displays at all. Less fluff, more credibility.
Finally, measure the measurable across your media buying, digital assets, and vendor chain. Make sustainability, marketing LITE or your minimalistic efforts a conscious decision checkpoint, rather than an afterthought.
The Sweet Spot
Maybe sustainability’s best-kept secret is that it also makes marketing better. Less clutter, more clarity. Fewer pop-ups, more purpose. When you strip away the noise, what’s left actually resonates. Users stay longer, brands feel more human, and everyone wins. It’s cleaner, calmer and, ironically, more effective. Sustainable marketing isn’t just good ethics - it’s good design. Doing right by the planet also means doing right by your users.
