IAB Europe Opens Public Comment on carbon.json Disclosure Specification

IAB Europe opened a public feedback period for carbon.json, a proposed specification for voluntary, machine-readable disclosure of emissions intensity data by digital advertising systems. The specification supports standardized, comparable reporting of infrastructure emissions intensity, enabling campaign- and path-level emissions calculations by ecosystem stakeholders. Disclosures can be used by DSPs, SSPs, exchanges, ad servers, publisher monetisation platforms, and other intermediaries. carbon.json is designed to work across public cloud, private cloud, owned data centres, hybrid environments, and managed infrastructure. The goal is to improve accuracy and transparency of emissions estimation, reduce reliance on broad averages and default assumptions, and support more precise supply path emissions modelling. The feedback period gathers implementation considerations from companies that publish, consume, validate, or integrate the disclosures.

"IAB Europe has announced the opening of a public feedback period for carbon.json, a proposed specification designed to enable voluntary, machine-readable disclosure of emissions intensity data by digital advertising systems. Developed through IAB Europe's Methodology & Framework Working Group, with input from ad tech companies and sustainability vendors, and in close partnership with Ad Net Zero throughout the development process, carbon.json aims to improve the accuracy and consistency of emissions estimates across the digital advertising supply chain."

"The proposed specification enables advertising systems to disclose infrastructure emissions intensity in a standardised, comparable format. These disclosures can then be incorporated into campaign- and path-level emissions calculations by stakeholders across the ecosystem, including DSPs, SSPs, exchanges, ad servers, publisher monetisation platforms, and other intermediaries."

"carbon.json has been designed to support organisations operating across a range of infrastructure environments, including public cloud, private cloud, owned data centres, hybrid environments, and managed infrastructure. The specification is intended to support more accurate and transparent emissions estimation across digital advertising."

"By making environmental impact metrics available in a structured and machine-readable format, carbon.json can help improve the modelling of supply path emissions and reduce reliance on broad industry averages and default assumptions. The public feedback process is intended to test the proposed specification with the wider market, identify implementation considerations, and gather input from companies that may publish, consume, validate, or integrate carbon.json disclosures into their own systems and methodologies."

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