Ad Net Zero’s Young Leaders Group has today (17th February) launched a new guide to help businesses better embed sustainability into everyday strategy. 

The guide is a new set of open-source recommendations available to businesses, aimed at creating better climate literacy. 

The recommendations come as a direct response to industry research from the IPA, which found high levels of climate anxiety among advertising professionals and growing environmental concerns at work.

The report is made up of four proposed recommendations, which the Young Leaders believe can be adopted by organisations of all sizes to turn awareness into action. The actions are as follows:

1. Make climate literacy a standard skill: Sustainability should be treated as a core business capability. The Young Leaders call for climate literacy training to be embedded into onboarding and professional development for all employees, ensuring teams understand the climate crisis, the industry’s role, and the practical steps they can take to reduce impact.
2. Flip the model with reverse mentoring: Pairing senior leaders with emerging talent creates space for honest, informed conversations about sustainability, innovation and decision-making. Reverse mentoring helps embed sustainability thinking at the highest levels of leadership while empowering the next generation to shape long-term strategy.
3. Make sustainability part of everyday conversation: Too often, sustainability is siloed or communicated sporadically. The recommendations encourage organisations to integrate sustainability into internal communications year-round, normalising progress updates, sharing challenges openly, and building trust and engagement across teams.
4. Introduce sustainability into metrics and appraisals: To avoid sustainability being deprioritised, it must be measured. Embedding sustainability goals into KPIs, performance reviews and incentive structures help align environmental responsibility with business outcomes and reduces the risk of greenwashing.

"The Young Leaders propose some very sensible and straightforward ways to reinforce the self-evident truth that future-proofing businesses has to be done now and cannot be left for some far-off mythical perfect moment,” explains Seb Munden CBE, Ad Net Zero Global Chair.

He continues: “The impact of climate change on livelihoods and well-being around the world is already happening. Leaders who can steer the course to better business while delivering on the present are in high demand, and as this group shows there are good people up for the challenge."

The Young Leaders cohort is made up of over 40 emerging professionals from across agencies, media owners, brands and industry partners. The recommendations are the result of a year-long workstream involving workshops, leadership presentations, forums and cross-company participation.

To be part of Ad Net Zero Young Leaders, participants must be part of an Ad Net Zero Accelerator-tier supporting organisation, have fewer than 10 years' industry experience and be the sole representative of their organisation, though rotation across colleagues is possible.

The work in the report has been shaped by the life experiences of the individuals involved and draws on research from case studies of real work that shows how environmental approaches are being implemented effectively, such as The Guardian certifying its entire ad sales team as carbon literate.

"As Young Leader Committee representative, I am proud to launch these recommendations to the advertising industry. They represent the culmination of focused effort by a dedicated working group; all driven by a personal commitment to encourage action on climate change and make lasting improvements across the media landscape. Simply put, we have provided a step-by-step guide to improving any organisation's ESG efforts, regardless of how far along in the journey you are," says Helena Houghton-Casella, Impact Manager, Open Media.

Looking to the next generation of leaders to craft a more sustainable workplace, Ad Net Zero champions emerging talent to craft a workplace fit for the future.

To access the Young Leader’s recommendations, please click here.