TikTok teams up with Scope3 to help brands measure and cut ad emissions

Digital media campaigns will no longer be judged solely on the basis of their reach; a new metric has emerged in the market that will now analyse brand campaigns based on their carbon emissions, thanks to TikTok.

To be fair, this new metric will provide carbon emission scores only to brands advertising on TikTok because the Chinese video-sharing giant has partnered with Scope3, an American company that aims to decarbonise the digital advertising industry.

TikTok and Scope3 have collaborated on a closed beta version of the ad emission measurement tool. While it is now available to select clients globally, advertisers interested in participation will have to join the waitlist until the companies announce broader general availability.

How does it work?

• TikTok and Scope3 will measure the selected advertising campaigns.
• The campaign’s carbon emission data will be aggregated, analysed and reviewed.
• A data review call with TikTok and Scope3 can be scheduled.

Why is this a problem in the first place?

Increased brand reach using digital advertising comes with a significant carbon footprint. Vast infrastructure is required to run digital ads, including water-cooled data centres, servers, systems that manage ad delivery, and intricate networks that handle ad distribution and bidding, which consume a massive amount of energy. 

Research has shown that digital advertising accounts for a massive proportion of the internet’s overall carbon footprint. 

According to a 2023 report by Scope3, “the programmatic advertising industry produces more than 215,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions in a single month across five leading economies”; the company equates it with “more than 24 million gallons of gasoline being consumed”.

The solution 

The TikTok-Scope3 collaboration does not simply end at providing a carbon emission score to advertisers; it aims to provide actionable insights to the client to build a more carbon-efficient media inventory. 

It is interesting to note that this emission-sensitive checkpoint has been installed by TikTok, given that ByteDance Ltd., TikTok’s parent company, has been accused of emitting approximately 50 million tonnes of carbon in a single year by Greenly, a French carbon accounting consultancy.

According to the Greenly report, TikTok’s CO₂ emissions are comparable to the carbon footprint of countries like Greece.

Even YouTube and Instagram have a lower annual carbon footprint, as illustrated by the Greenly report: TikTok emits 48.49 kg of CO₂ annually per user (equal to driving a gasoline car 123 miles), while YouTube emits only 40.17 kg of CO₂ annually per user (102 miles), followed by Instagram with 32.52 kg of CO₂ emissions annually per user (82.8 miles).

ByteDance launched Douyin in China in 2016 and rebranded it as TikTok for the world in 2017. Since then, the short-form video platform has garnered over 950 million users worldwide. In 2025, the brand value of TikTok/Douyin amounted to $106 billion, as per Statista.

TikTok's users, predominantly aged 18 to 34, spend an average of 95 minutes on the app each day, logging in 19 times per day.

Characterised by its highly engaged audience, TikTok earns a massive chunk of its undisclosed revenue from advertising deals. If these deals become more sustainable, a sizeable chunk of environmental emissions can be avoided.

To reduce its operational emissions by at least 90% by 2030, the video-sharing giant is already working towards a more sustainable future. Coupled with its multi-year partnership with Climeworks (a carbon removal company), TikTok will remove 5,100 tonnes of CO₂ from the air by 2030 using a portfolio of Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology, reforestation, etc.