21. March 2023
Climate-neutral Campaigns & Sustainability at Ströer
- Smart City
- sustainability
- Green Media
Sustainability is a defining issue on the socio-political agenda and also has a direct impact on brand communication. In addition to the optimal language and content targeting certain audiences, the use of more sustainable and low-emission communication channels within the media mix is becoming more and more important.
Different communication channels fulfil different tasks, address audiences in different ways and also vary in their reach and impact. The media mix therefore depends on a suitable composition and balance of the individual channels. In addition to the usual performance KPIs, the sustainability KPI is becoming an increasingly important factor for advertising clients.
Out-of-home Media Rank Among the Lowest Emission Media in the Media Mix
In recent years, Ströer has significantly increased the share of green electricity used to operate its OOH advertising media infrastructure and provides all digital out-of-home media (public video/DOOH) in Germany with 100 per cent green electricity – i.e. electricity from renewable energy sources. Only 5 to 7 grams of CO₂ are emitted for 1,000 DOOH contacts. Outdoor advertising is a “one-to-many” medium – a media carrier reaches many people at once. With other media, the values are many times higher. Sustainability will continue to play a larger role in society and the economy, which means that low-emission communication will also become increasingly important. For every advertiser that weights OOH or DOOH higher in its media mix, the carbon footprint of its own advertising campaign will be reduced.
The remaining CO₂ emissions generated by our advertising efforts – for the operation of data centres and upstream processes such as logistics and paper consumption (incl. printing) as well as disposal and a levy from the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) – are offset through the support of certified climate protection projects. Our top priority, however, is always to avoid and reduce CO₂ emissions as part of our Group-wide sustainability strategy.
Developing our Portfolio Efficiently and in a Way that Conserves Resources
We want to have achieved our goal of CO₂ neutrality by 2025. We want to avoid offsetting CO₂ emissions as far as possible. Apart from switching to green electricity, it is also crucial for us to run our business as efficiently as possible as to conserve resources. This is why we have been working successfully for many years with our own development department to increase efficiency and conserve energy in the area of our digital media. We apply all power-saving measures to all digital advertising media. As an example, these include the use of improved LED technology, the individually adjustable brightness of the screens depending on ambient light conditions, shutting down devices at night and the adapted control of colour contrasts.
All of these and other steps not only reduce power consumption, but also significantly extend the life of the digital advertising media. Nowadays, no company can afford to be wasteful with its resources, and from a business standpoint, this resource-conserving approach has always been the right approach anyway.
A Partner for Robust, Environmentally Friendly Urban Development
Our goal is to also support our municipal partners in adopting robust, environmentally friendly urban development. That is why, in addition to the topic of energy efficiency, we also looked into other topics regarding our classic OOH media. We have installed green bus shelters and green pillars in numerous cities. Green means that we have planted so-called sedum plants on the bus stop roofs. In our opinion, sedum plants have several advantages over moss, with which we also experimented for a long time. They are less demanding of their location, always thrive and tend to look better kept. In the summer, the green roof serves as a heat shield and acts like a natural air conditioner. And the plants filter out air pollutants and particulate matter, absorb CO₂ and thereby improve the climate balance of a city. In addition, sedum produces flowers almost all year round, making it a very insect-friendly solution.
In this context, dynamic air filters are also a topic we deal with intensively. We are working here with the manufacturer MANN & HUMMEL on concepts for outdoor systems that could be set up at locations heavily polluted with particulate matter and nitrogen oxides (NOx). At the Greentech Festival 2022, where we are a premium partner, we participated as an exhibitor and presented our sustainable infrastructure solutions: for example, various exhibits that filter pollutants from the air – by natural means or also with smart environmental technology, integrated into out-of-home screens or street furnishings.
Outdoor Advertising Makes Its Contribution to Society
The increasing demand for sustainable solutions is an incentive for us to continuously develop our portfolio. We provide services for our customers and partners that make an additional ecological and social contribution.
In this way, we leverage our media reach and promote awareness for sustainable and social action. We make media carriers available to non-profit organisations at cost or at a greatly reduced price (“pro bono”), for example children's charities or non-profit environmental protection organisations for the acquisition of donations or for socially beneficial purposes such as the search for missing children.
In addition, our digital screens perform an important task as part of the municipal communication infrastructure and, for example, also distribute warning messages to the public on short notice and with broad reach. In many places, they assume the role of sirens in public spaces that have been dismantled or removed without replacement. That is why at the Greentech Festival 2022 we presented siren solutions for the first time that can be integrated on the respective media carriers and supplement the previously solely visual warning messages displayed on the screens with acoustic signals. This way, the crisis teams of the cities can be supported in setting up a new siren infrastructure to warn the population.
Nachhaltigkeitsbericht
Ströer published the fourth Group Sustainability Report 2022 on March 30, 2023 - for the first time at the same time as the annual report - for the first time simultaneously with its Annual Report. The sustainability report gives an overview of Ströer’s sustainability strategy and covers the four sub-areas of Environment, Employees, Business Partners & Society and Governance.