About DIMPACT

DIMPACT is a collaborative project, convened by Carnstone, with world-class researchers from the University of Bristol and twenty-three of the world’s most innovative media and technology companies.

The challenge

  • Companies are under increasing pressure to report and reduce emissions across their entire value chain. For media companies, this includes digital downstream emissions.
  • Increased consumption of digital services – advertising, publishing, broadcasting –is leading to an increase in the energy use and carbon footprint of the digital media sector.
  • Complex and constantly shifting technological systems underpinning digital media delivery presents a barrier to effectively mapping and measuring its carbon impact.
  • Media content passes through content delivery networks, data centres, web infrastructure and user devices (to name just a few) with each element of the delivery chain having different owners.

The solution

  • The project aims to develop an online tool that takes the complexity out of calculating the carbon emissions of the downstream value chain of digital media content.
  • A collaborative project that will see computer scientists from the University of Bristol working with sustainability and technology teams from leading media companies.
  • Once successfully piloted, DIMPACT will become a subscription-based model, available to any company delivering digital media content.