How to build sustainability into your business strategy

Advertising exerts a powerful influence on society and the economy, touching almost every facet of our lives. As an industry, our ability to shape behaviour and influence culture cannot be underestimated.

I’ve been privileged to work in the agency world for more than 20 years and in that time I have seen our sector begin to acknowledge its role in an escalating planetary crisis, and to recognise its unique potential to tackle a perfect storm of climate change, resource depletion, loss of nature, and social inequality and injustice.

Challenging questions about our future role in society

A growing call for change from inside the industry has seen the birth of new, industrywide movements and initiatives, from Ad Net Zero and vibrant coalitions of practitioners focused on learning and conscious creativity, to organisations like Purpose Disruptors raising challenging questions about our future role in society.

The IPA proudly promotes best-practice standards in advertising, media and marketing communications. This is why our Sustainability Action Group was formed by 15 industry leaders who are passionate about galvanising the industry to embrace sustainability as a key component of their business strategy and drive behaviour change.

A sustainability best-practice project

We set out to create Agents of Change as a sustainability best-practice project and a blueprint for action for agencies who want to support the transition to a more equitable world but feel they are held back by a lack of knowledge and expertise. The purpose of this report, and the accompanying toolkit, is to help them kick-start or accelerate their journey on the road to sustainable business.

To achieve this, we worked with independent consultants to learn from media and creative agencies of all sizes, across the UK, along with clients, professional membership organisations, and activists and movements for change. Our aim was to understand sector challenges and opportunities from a business perspective, shine a light on the best work underway in agencies, and gather and share practical advice on how we can all take action.

We are grateful to the many people who have generously contributed their thinking and experience, shared here with IPA members as a prompt for discussion and a best-practice resource, which is something we will iterate and build on.

Our industry is home to some of the world’s brightest, most creative minds and we now have the ability and the opportunity of a lifetime to drive positive change for future generations.

Let’s do that together.

Tom Firth is Chair of IPA Sustainability Action Group and UK Group Managing Director, M&C Saatchi London 

The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and were submitted in accordance with the IPA terms and conditions regarding the uploading and contribution of content to the IPA newsletters, IPA website, or other IPA media, and should not be interpreted as representing the opinion of the IPA.