When discussing the topic of corporate environmental sustainability, very few companies mention the environmental impact of using marketing communications as a business marketing tool. The carbon footprint of "marketing communications" refers to the greenhouse gas emissions generated by commonly used marketing communication methods, such as personal selling, public relations (e.g., publishing press releases, columns, corporate sponsorships, exhibiting, and holding seminars), direct marketing (e.g., one-on-one direct communication with customers through mail, telephone, and email), promotional activities, and advertising.
However, since it is impossible to accurately measure the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the above activities with instruments, life cycle assessment and carbon footprint are often used as two ways to measure the environmental impact of activities or products.
行銷傳播工具之生命週期評估(Life Cycle Assessment of marketing communications)
Life cycle assessment refers to quantifying the environmental impact of the entire product or service supply chain, including stages such as raw material acquisition, manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal.
Stanford University Professor Jeremy Foddy recently mentioned at a sustainable branding training conference that the key points of life cycle assessment can be divided into five main aspects:
1. Describe the product's manufacturing background.
2. Identify the most significant environmental impacts in the supply chain.
3. Establish baseline data to serve as a basis for subsequent improvements.
4. As a reference for product development or process improvement.
5. Supports product certification
The international ISO organization has developed a series of standards for conducting life cycle assessments (ISO 14040-14049) to provide companies with a reference. Conducting a life cycle assessment includes steps such as identifying the target, collecting data, calculating the impact intensity, and final interpretation. Once the results of the life cycle assessment determine the category of higher environmental impact, companies can begin to mitigate their environmental impact.
Before conducting a lifecycle assessment of a marketing activity, an independent lifecycle assessment must be performed for each marketing approach adopted for each product or service. Therefore, the process is highly complex, and it is speculated that using lifecycle assessment to measure the environmental impact of marketing activities will only be adopted by a small number of companies.
因利用生命週期評估衡量行銷活動造成之環境衝擊並不容易，只量化生命週期評估項目中的溫室氣體，相對而言將是較簡單的方式，並仍可達到鑑別主要排放和減量基線等目的。
Carbon footprint of marketing communication tools
An organization's carbon footprint refers to "the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions of an organization in a given year," while a product's carbon footprint refers to "the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the entire life cycle of a product/service." Because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas primarily caused by human activities, and because its quantification is simpler and less costly than life cycle assessment, carbon footprints have received significant attention from many environmentally conscious companies.
According to Andrew Winston (author of *Green Recovery*), the market for software that calculates carbon footprints is currently highly competitive. Below are some software names for calculating the carbon footprint of marketing campaigns (these are paid software):
1. CO2 Counter
2. Eco Publicité
3. Noughtilus
4. Marketing Carbon Calculator
In addition, free online calculation software can also help calculate the carbon footprint of different marketing activities, for example:
1. 事件(events)
2. 線上傳媒(online media)
3. 包裝(packaging)
4. 廠內印刷或商用印刷(printing in-house or commercially)
5. 車輛運輸(vehicle travel)
6. 網站使用(website use)
While the accuracy of free online calculation software remains questionable and it cannot be customized for specific products/services, it at least allows companies to have a general understanding of how carbon footprint quantification is conducted and its complexity.
In summary, engaging a professional consultant to quantify a company's marketing activities may be the most efficient approach. The author also predicts that monitoring the carbon footprint of a company's marketing activities will become a future trend.
– Reference source: Peter Korchnak's column
– Translated by Plastic Industry Technology Development Center
– For reference only, please refer to the original text
