Gen Z cares about the environment, so TikTok is helping advertisers measure emissions

TikTok has a proposal for brands: advertise with us, and we will help you confront climate change. The app’s partnership with Scope3 will provide emissions data for on-platform campaigns.

Scope3 is a media sustainability firm that has worked with tech companies like Google and Meta. According to a TikTok blog post, the partnership will help advertisers pursue in-house goals related to climate change and emissions. “Scope3’s platform makes it easy for brands, agencies, and media partners to visualize, measure, and reduce emissions across the advertising supply chain,” reads the post.

In recent years, carbon neutrality has become a top priority for many social platforms. Snap pledged in 2021 to become carbon negative by 2030. Platforms like YouTube have also published content that discusses the climate crisis.

Climate-conscious initiatives are not just good for the planet – they also align with the needs of younger generations. Gen Z has repeatedly identified climate change among the issues it cares about most. Even the youngsters of Gen Alpha have

Brands advertise on TikTok to reach those cohorts, so the Scope3 partnership provides crucial context consumers want to know. Whether the brands choose to share that data publicly (or update their practices to become more efficient) is up to them.

Though the new resources are a useful step forward, there’s still a lot of work to be done to address the climate impact of ad campaigns. Research from the World Economic Forum has shown that digital marketing creates more emissions than the aviation industry. Factors like server usage, electricity requirements, and single-use data all contribute to the problem. 

Per the Forum’s report, “more than half of the digital data firms generate is collected, processed and stored for single-use purposes.” TikTok and Scope3 are trying to change the narrative. Now it will be up to advertisers to do their part.