Sustainability FAQs: GroupM

Section 1 – about your company

Response

Company name

GroupM

Number of UK employees

250+

Number of global employees

1000+

Company type

Media Agency

Person accountable for environmental sustainability

Kane Rabanal-Hunt

Section 2 – company energy usage

Response

Category of emissions measured eg. Scope 1, 2 and 3

Scope 1
Scope 2
Scope 3

Reduction strategies in place for energy use

Office Emissions: We continue to move our people into modern, more energy-efficient and dynamic workspaces. Our investment in campuses around the world will, by 2025, bring 85,000 of our people together in at least 65 net-zero campuses running on electricity from renewable sources. Our strategy focuses on repurposing old, iconic buildings where we reuse as much of the structure and fittings as we can to retain embodied carbon and limit impact. When we acquire any new premises larger than 50,000 square feet, we aim for that space to be certified to an internationally recognised standard such as the US LEED standard or the UK BREEAM standard. We aim to select, design and run our offices in a way that promotes sustainability and wellbeing. In 2022, with our architecture firm BDG, we created a new ESG building assessment tool to help us identify opportunities to reduce energy use, optimise resource use, support our employees' wellbeing needs and create opportunities for circular business models in our materials' use.

Electricity: WPP is committed to sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. We are a member of RE100, a global initiative bringing together businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity to accelerate change towards zero carbon grids at scale. We made significant progress during 2022, purchasing 83% of our electricity from renewable sources (2021: 74%).

Environmental sustainability policies, schemes or initiatives in place

Business travel,
Recycling (everyday e.g bottles and cans),
Single use plastics, 
Website hosting 

Percentage of energy usage from renewable sources

91% - 100% (U.K.)

Publicly available documents related to above

Find out more

Carbon offsetting schemes used

In 2022 we purchased credits to offset our air travel through Climate Impact Partners, a specialist in carbon market solutions for climate action. During the year we supported three clean cooking projects in Bangladesh, India and Kenya. Together, these projects support ten of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

To offset emissions from air travel we have been purchasing high-quality carbon credits since 2007 and have permanently retired 1.65 million carbon credits, which are charged to each of our agencies to create an internal carbon cost.

Amount of CO2E offset in 2022

55,662

Company's environmental sustainability objectives

Achieving net zero in our own operations (Scope 1 and 2) by 2025 and across our supply chain (Scope 3) by 2030, including emissions from media buying – an industry first.

Reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 84% by 2025 and absolute Scope 3 emissions – including media buying – by 50% by 2030, both from a 2019 base year.

Sourcing 100% of our electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

Phase out single-use plastics in our offices.

Section 3 - industry initiatives

Response

Industry certifications or initiatives

AdNet Zero
IAB UK Group
Science Based Targets
Eco Vadis
UN Race to Zero
RE 100

Training and engagement programmes for employees

We continue to upskill our people in sustainability, including climate-related issues. 

In 2022 we launched a new Green Claims Guide, informed by guidance from regulators such as the UK Competition and Markets Authority and US Federal Trade Commission, and underpinned by legal compliance advice. The guide is designed to help our people worldwide in making environmental claims on behalf of clients that are accurate, authentic and material, and not misleading in any way. The guide provides principles and practical tips for account managers, strategists, creatives and media planners to use from brief to behaviour change. Training sessions share a formula for effective green claims, and give people the chance to explore real case studies and rulings to help them identify and avoid greenwashing. 

GroupM rolled out sustainability fundamentals training across the UK.

We delivered tailored sustainability reporting training for finance and risk teams, partnered with Google Cloud to run sustainability training for IT teams, and rolled out targeted tools and resources to eliminate single-use plastics across our offices.

And we continue to offer training through programmes such as AdGreen, an initiative to unite the advertising industry in eliminating the negative environmental impacts of production, and through the Change the Brief Alliance, training creatives and strategists to drive consumer behaviour change and sustainability.