There has been a spirited effort by global brands to achieve carbon neutrality and embrace sustainability guided by the principle of planet, people and profits. This is inspiring a new renaissance in responsible businesses that has reverberated across the world.

Sony Group Corporation is the latest brand to announce that it is accelerating its goal of achieving carbon neutrality throughout the entire value chain, including scopes 1 to 3, by ten years from 2050 to 2040, and its target for achieving 100% renewable energy in its own operations also by ten years, from 2040 to 2030.

Sony is making various efforts regarding the environment from the two perspectives of "Responsibility" and "Contribution." Sony has pursued environmental initiatives in accordance with its environmental principles since the early 1990s, and in 2010, the company announced the "Road to Zero," a long-term global environmental plan that aims to realize a sustainable society by achieving a zero environmental footprint throughout the life cycle of Sony’s products and business activities by the year 2050.

IKEA on the other hand is leading an initiative where new mattresses are created from a collection of disposed mattresses, prolonging the life of already made products by increasing the use of post-consumer recycled polyols in foam.

With this initiative, IKEA aims to reduce foam ending up in landfill, decrease pollution, and drive the industry agenda to develop foam solutions centred around recycled materials. The target for 2025 is a minimum of 20 per cent recycled and/or renewable content in the polyols used in foam production for IKEA mattresses.

In the advertisement front, digital advertising market grew by 41% last year to a total of £23.5 billion according to an IAB UK’s Digital Adspend report for 2021, conducted with PwC.

The full-year Digital Adspend report for 2021 shows that the digital advertising market saw its biggest full year growth for 15 years last year, with investment up 41% year-on-year to £23.5 billion. The report, which is conducted with PwC, shows that 2021 spend was also up 50% on 2019, the last full year in which the pandemic did not have an impact on activity.

In a world first, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and some of the largest companies in the digital advertising supply chain are announcing a pilot to extend the ASA’s role online.

Under the title of ‘Intermediary and Platform Principles’, the pilot will explore formalising and bringing more accountability and transparency to the role that these companies play in helping to uphold the UK’s world-leading system of advertising regulation.

On the appointment front, Chloe Nicholls has joined IAB UK as Head of Ad Tech, bringing nine years of experience to the role.

Nicholls most recently worked at Mediahub (IPG) and Dentsu where she was focused on future-proofing clients’ ad tech stacks and reworking measurement and targeting frameworks.

With the industry now in its last full year before the deprecation of third-party cookies, Nicholls will be leading our work on identity to help members prepare for the upcoming changes.

And Starcom UK, part of Publicis Media, has announced the promotion of Emma Morris to the role of Head of Investment.

Previously Managing Partner overseeing investment for the agency’s dedicated Samsung team (One Publicis Team Samsung), Emma will now be responsible for all media investment on behalf of all Starcom clients in the UK, overseeing a team of 80 people.

Publicis Groupe has announced the hiring of Scott Hagedorn as Global Chief Solutions Architect. Reporting directly to Arthur Sadoun, CEO and Chairman of Publicis Groupe, Hagedorn will also join the holding company’s U.S. ComEx leadership team.

Finally, MPB, the world’s largest platform for used photography and videography equipment, has announced the appointment of data and measurement led media agency Essence as its global agency of record.

Following the launch of its ‘Change’ brand platform in 2021, MPB were looking for an agency that could create its own innovative media solutions to elevate MPB’s brand and continue its ambitious growth trajectory.

Bob Koigi is an editor at Marketing Report EU

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