Carbon reporting for digital scale-ups: what we learned in 2024
Scaling a digital platform comes with a paradox.
To help brands and advertising companies measure and reduce their media emissions at scale, we need data, and processing that data has a carbon footprint of its own.
In 2024, Impact Plus experienced strong growth driven by the rapid adoption of our Environmental Sustainability Platform. As a result, our carbon footprint increased. Not because of a deterioration of internal practices, but because our services were being used more, by more clients, across more markets.
Rather than treating this as a setback, we chose to look at it as a learning opportunity. Our 2024 Carbon Report available here marks a year of structural learning and offers valuable lessons for any fast-growing digital company.
It is also important to put these figures into perspective.
The increase in Impact Plus’ own emissions is largely driven by the growing use of our platforms by major international advertisers. This usage enables those brands to measure, optimise and reduce the carbon emissions of their media strategies at scale.
While our emissions are not “offset” by those of our clients, the reduction strategies deployed through our tools lead to avoided emissions that largely outweigh the footprint of our own operations. This systemic effect is central to our mission: helping the advertising industry reduce its environmental impact where it matters most.
Lesson 1: Digital growth is not carbon-neutral
Digital services are often perceived as immaterial. In reality, they rely on infrastructure, computation, storage and data transfers: all of which have a measurable carbon impact.
In 2024, Digital Products became our main source of emissions, representing the majority of our footprint. This increase was directly linked to the scaling of our Environmental Sustainability Platform (ESP), which processes significantly larger volumes of data to support media decarbonization strategies.
This reinforces a simple but important reality: digital growth has a carbon cost, and ignoring it only delays meaningful action.
Lesson 2: Better measurement can mean higher numbers
An increase in reported emissions does not necessarily mean worse environmental performance.
In 2023 and 2024, we improved the accuracy of our measurement by expanding our scope, refining emission factors and strengthening our scope 3 coverage. As a result, we gained a more complete (and sometimes less comfortable) view of our footprint.
We also openly acknowledge uncertainty ranges in digital emission factors. Transparency and scientific robustness matter more than artificially low numbers. Reliable data is the only foundation for credible reduction strategies.
Lesson 3: Operations can remain under control while scaling
Not all growth drivers impact emissions in the same way.
Despite rapid business expansion, our operational emissions remained relatively stable in 2024. Software usage, telecommunications and internal operations accounted for a limited share of our total footprint.
This shows that with conscious tool selection, remote-first practices and operational discipline, internal emissions can be kept under control even as a company scales.
Lesson 4: Carbon reporting is a prerequisite, not an end goal
Carbon reporting does not reduce emissions by itself. But without it, reduction efforts remain fragmented, anecdotal or misdirected.
2024 was a structuring year for Impact Plus. We initiated optimisation actions on our digital products, supplier management and operational practices. These efforts were designed to deliver results over time, not instant improvements that fail to last.
Reporting is where responsibility starts, not where it ends.
Lesson 5: Our emissions enable large-scale reduction strategies
The sharp increase in our data volumes in 2024 is directly linked to the deployment of reduction strategies for major international advertisers.
A clear example is our partnership with L’Oréal. What started as pilot campaigns evolved into a global rollout covering more than 30 markets (read our L'Oréal Success story available here) - This required standardised methodologies, automated measurement and continuous optimisation across hundreds of campaigns.
This scale of deployment with multiple clients explains the significant increase in platform usage and data processing. But it also enabled the consistent application of best practices across regions, leading to substantial emissions reductions at a level far beyond the footprint of our own operations.
This does not offset our responsibility to reduce our own emissions. It highlights a dual challenge: continuously improving the carbon efficiency of our infrastructure while maximising the positive impact we enable through our clients’ media strategies.
Conclusion
2024 was not about perfection: it was about clarity.
By better understanding where our emissions come from and why they evolve, we laid the groundwork for a more carbon-efficient growth model. The lessons learned this year are essential to prepare the changes that would follow.
Carbon reporting for digital scale-ups: what we learned in 2024
Scaling a digital platform comes with a paradox.
To help brands and advertising companies measure and reduce their media emissions at scale, we need data, and processing that data has a carbon footprint of its own.
In 2024, Impact Plus experienced strong growth driven by the rapid adoption of our Environmental Sustainability Platform. As a result, our carbon footprint increased. Not because of a deterioration of internal practices, but because our services were being used more, by more clients, across more markets.
Rather than treating this as a setback, we chose to look at it as a learning opportunity. Our 2024 Carbon Report available here marks a year of structural learning and offers valuable lessons for any fast-growing digital company.
It is also important to put these figures into perspective.
The increase in Impact Plus’ own emissions is largely driven by the growing use of our platforms by major international advertisers. This usage enables those brands to measure, optimise and reduce the carbon emissions of their media strategies at scale.
While our emissions are not “offset” by those of our clients, the reduction strategies deployed through our tools lead to avoided emissions that largely outweigh the footprint of our own operations. This systemic effect is central to our mission: helping the advertising industry reduce its environmental impact where it matters most.
Lesson 1: Digital growth is not carbon-neutral
Digital services are often perceived as immaterial. In reality, they rely on infrastructure, computation, storage and data transfers: all of which have a measurable carbon impact.
In 2024, Digital Products became our main source of emissions, representing the majority of our footprint. This increase was directly linked to the scaling of our Environmental Sustainability Platform (ESP), which processes significantly larger volumes of data to support media decarbonization strategies.
This reinforces a simple but important reality: digital growth has a carbon cost, and ignoring it only delays meaningful action.
Lesson 2: Better measurement can mean higher numbers
An increase in reported emissions does not necessarily mean worse environmental performance.
In 2023 and 2024, we improved the accuracy of our measurement by expanding our scope, refining emission factors and strengthening our scope 3 coverage. As a result, we gained a more complete (and sometimes less comfortable) view of our footprint.
We also openly acknowledge uncertainty ranges in digital emission factors. Transparency and scientific robustness matter more than artificially low numbers. Reliable data is the only foundation for credible reduction strategies.
Lesson 3: Operations can remain under control while scaling
Not all growth drivers impact emissions in the same way.
Despite rapid business expansion, our operational emissions remained relatively stable in 2024. Software usage, telecommunications and internal operations accounted for a limited share of our total footprint.
This shows that with conscious tool selection, remote-first practices and operational discipline, internal emissions can be kept under control even as a company scales.
Lesson 4: Carbon reporting is a prerequisite, not an end goal
Carbon reporting does not reduce emissions by itself. But without it, reduction efforts remain fragmented, anecdotal or misdirected.
2024 was a structuring year for Impact Plus. We initiated optimisation actions on our digital products, supplier management and operational practices. These efforts were designed to deliver results over time, not instant improvements that fail to last.
Reporting is where responsibility starts, not where it ends.
Lesson 5: Our emissions enable large-scale reduction strategies
The sharp increase in our data volumes in 2024 is directly linked to the deployment of reduction strategies for major international advertisers.
A clear example is our partnership with L’Oréal. What started as pilot campaigns evolved into a global rollout covering more than 30 markets (read our L'Oréal Success story available here) - This required standardised methodologies, automated measurement and continuous optimisation across hundreds of campaigns.
This scale of deployment with multiple clients explains the significant increase in platform usage and data processing. But it also enabled the consistent application of best practices across regions, leading to substantial emissions reductions at a level far beyond the footprint of our own operations.
This does not offset our responsibility to reduce our own emissions. It highlights a dual challenge: continuously improving the carbon efficiency of our infrastructure while maximising the positive impact we enable through our clients’ media strategies.
Conclusion
2024 was not about perfection: it was about clarity.
By better understanding where our emissions come from and why they evolve, we laid the groundwork for a more carbon-efficient growth model. The lessons learned this year are essential to prepare the changes that would follow.