Case study
How giffgaff & MG OMD integrate nature recovery into their advertising & media ecosystem
Media & Advertising
In late 2023, giffgaff and MG OMD established the Up To Good Fund, a pioneering new mechanism to embed UK nature recovery into their media campaigns. Since its inception, 11 media owners have joined the Fund, proving that UK nature recovery can sit alongside campaign performance. Endorsed by Ad Net Zero, the fund provides a blueprint for more brands, agencies & media owners to collaboratively fund high impact UK climate and nature projects, supporting recovery at scale.
At a glance
About the Up To Good Fund
Location
UK
Industry
Media & Advertising
Use case
Funded climate action
Businesses involved
13
Investment to date
£145,000+
Services used
UK Climate & Nature Fund
The issue
The media and advertising industry has a significant impact on the climate and nature crises. According to the Ecologist, each year the industry emits around 2-3% of global emissions, roughly equivalent to aviation. The industry also wields significant power to shape societal behaviour, consumer choices and public perception.
Work is already underway to address the industry’s carbon footprint. Ad Net Zero is leading this effort, publishing the Global Media Sustainability Framework (GMSF) to provide a common framework and methodology for measuring carbon emissions generated by media and advertising activities. Once the media ecosystem can reliably compare campaign emissions data, it becomes a valuable metric for evaluating campaign performance, sitting alongside established media KPIs, such as impressions and click through rates.
With brands increasingly scrutinised for their full-scope carbon footprint, the demand for verifiably low-carbon advertising solutions will grow to meet their decarbonisation targets. This necessitates standardised and accurate carbon measurement, which in turn creates a significant commercial imperative for media owners and platforms to decarbonise or risk losing out. However, this demand-led incentive is still emerging, and media performance remains the primary KPI for campaigns. Achieving full sector decarbonisation is recognized as a longer-term goal.
As a result, emissions from media campaigns will continue in the short to medium to term, whilst the interrelated nature and climate crises continue to escalate. Earth’s vital ecosystems are already heavily degraded, so we must take urgent steps to safeguard, protect and regenerate the natural world, upon which we all depend.
The solution
The Up to Good Fund enables giffgaff’s media ecosystem to collaboratively participate in the recovery of the UK’s ecosystems. giffgaff, MG OMD and 11 media owners have committed to contributing a percentage of giffgaff-related media spend within their channel to the Fund.
In so doing, the Fund creates a model where every giffgaff campaign - large or small - helps restore and regenerate the UK’s vital ecosystems. From restoring peatlands to wildflower meadows, protecting ancient woodlands to tree planting and carbon removal projects, the Fund is supporting critical investment in high impact climate and nature projects across the UK.
This pioneering fund is designed to show what is possible when nature is integrated into media campaigns. It’s proof that collaboration across media owners, brands, agencies, broadcasters, platforms and producers can unlock investment at scale, accelerate innovation, and drive measurable impact.
Our shared ambition is for the UK media ecosystem to become a powerful force for nature and climate recovery, directly linking advertising spend to tangible environmental outcomes. This vision not only drives media sustainability, but also paves the way for industry-wide adoption of nature-positive practices, contributing to a regenerative future.
The results
Through its lifetime, The Up To Good Fund has raised £145,405, which has been committed to a variety of projects from restoring mangroves in Pakistan and repairing boreholes in Uganda, to providing fuel-efficient cook-stoves in Kenya. These projects have avoided or removed 3,000 Tonnes CO2e, and have supported a wide variety of Sustainable Development Goals, from ending poverty and providing a quality education to supporting life on land and below water.
In 2024, the fund focused its efforts on UK Climate & Nature projects, funding a portfolio of 10 projects across Scotland, England & Wales. The key project types supported in 2024 are:
Peatland Restoration
Woodland creation
Restoring wildflower meadows & wetlands
Removing carbon & boosting crop yields through Enhanced Rock Weathering
Producing biochar from waste biomass to sequester carbon
These vital projects have generated significant positive impacts for both nature and people. Notably, they have provided crucial support for threatened species such as the Northern Brown Argus butterfly, Pine Martens, White-Tailed Eagles, Sticky Catchfly, and Ash trees affected by Ash Dieback. For a comprehensive look at these achievements, please read our 2024 Impact Report.
The Up To Good Fund is a core pillar of giffgaff’s Responsible Marketing Manifesto and aligns with giffgaff’s corporate sustainability strategy, following SBTI’s recommended pathway for Beyond Value Chain Mitigation.
The funding mechanism has also received broad industry acclaim from industry bodies and was nominated for best product at the Campaign Media Awards.
Crucially, the fund has pioneered a mechanism for integrating nature and climate recovery into media and advertising; a new blueprint supported by Ad Net Zero which we intend to scale across the industry. Full detail on the blueprint is outlined below.
What's next
The Up To Good Fund was never intended to operate solely within giffgaff’s ecosystem. Instead, it has pioneered a novel funding mechanism for the wider media ecosystem. Now, in collaboration with Ad Net Zero, MG OMD, and Ecologi, giffgaff is actively encouraging other brands to adopt this blueprint to scale the positive impact of the Fund.
Currently the model works by committing a voluntary percentage of campaign spend, ranging from 0.1% to 4%, to Ecologi’s high impact nature recovery projects. This contributory percentage model works well, but is disconnected from decarbonisation efforts.
However, with the industry moving towards more consistent measurement of media emissions, a Media Carbon Levy could be the next step in enabling advertisers and agencies to explore beyond value chain mitigation, going further than their science-based targets, helping nature restoration. This would enable us to apply an industry-agreed price per tonne of carbon emitted through media and advertising activities, which the media ecosystem would automatically apply to every campaign.
For example, giffgaff works with MG OMD to place a campaign across 6 media owners. Carbon emissions from the campaign are calculated using a GMSF-compliant calculator across the different media owners. A notional £50 price per tonne of emissions is then applied to total emissions, which creates a recovery fund to be invested in UK-based nature projects. Costs are then billed separately to giffgaff and its selected media partners, according to the source of the emissions.
This mechanism will essentially charge organisations for their continued emissions – creating a financial incentive for the media ecosystem to decarbonise, whilst providing funds for nature recovery in the meantime. At first we expect this emissions calculation to work retrospectively. However, in the future campaign emissions will sit alongside predicted performance KPIs at the media planning stage, with the associated cost of the carbon factored into campaign decisions. Further details of the Media Carbon Levy blueprint will be published on Ad Net Zero's Resources Hub, alongside other industry best practices for media emissions measurement and reduction.
Ultimately our ambition is for the UK media ecosystem to become a powerful force in accelerating and scaling investment in nature and climate recovery in the UK, directly linking advertising to tangible environmental outcomes. If the industry committed just 0.1% of media spend every year to 2030, we would collectively raise £200 million for UK Nature Recovery - enough to trigger landscape-scale recovery.
Together, we can protect our shared future – investing in and safeguarding the very canvas that the creative industries rely on.
The Up to Good Fund was conceived by giffgaff in collaboration with MG OMD and Ecologi, and the real goal of the fund was to essentially embed environmental responsibility into media and advertising.
Tracey Herald, ESG Lead at giffgaff
