Ad Net Zero invites adland to join train journey to Cannes

UK advertising professionals encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint through coordinated travel to the world’s biggest creativity festival in June

Return trip from London to Cannes via train over 30 times less carbon-intensive than flying

London, April 4, 2023: Ad Net Zero, led by the Advertising Association, IPA and ISBA, has invited anyone from the UK advertising community planning to attend Cannes LIONS this summer to make travel plans via train.

Following a successful train trip to Cannes last year, where Ad Net Zero launched its global mission onstage in the Palais backed by 20 leading figures in advertising, this year the group is encouraging its UK supporters to book a place on ‘The Advertising Express’ to reduce their travel footprint and take advantage of community networking on board.

Data from AdGreen, which runs a carbon calculator for the advertising production industry, shows a return train trip from London St Pancras to Cannes emits 10.76kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), whereas a return plane trip from London City airport to the nearest airport, Nice, has over 30 times the impact of taking the train – at 342kg CO2e.*

The Ad Net Zero team encourages delegates to join them on the following trains: travelling out on Sunday 18 June, leaving London St Pancras at 12:24 and arriving in Cannes at 22:28 and back on Saturday 24 June, leaving Cannes at 11:33 and arriving in London St Pancras at 20:39. Alternatively, other trains are available daily throughout the duration of the festival.

The train journey takes approximately 9 hours in total, beginning on Eurostar, followed by a metro transfer in Paris to take the TGV directly to Cannes. Upon arrival in Cannes, the station is situated just 10 minutes’ walk from the Palais and Croisette, where the heart of the festival will take place.

While in Cannes, Ad Net Zero plans to hold a special activation with ACT Responsible in the Palais, with further details to be published shortly. For the first time, all LIONS award entrants this year were given the option to submit their sustainability data in their entries. Ad Net Zero, in partnership with LIONS, will provide a benchmark report for how the industry is making progress on embedding sustainability into its work.

Sebastian Munden, Chair of Ad Net Zero, said: “As we encourage everyone to look at the ways they can incorporate sustainability into day-to-day life, we urge all those making plans for Cannes in June to join us on the train to travel there. We can only make positive strides in climate action if we do what we ask others to do, and with business travel being the main contributor to an advertising agency’s operational carbon footprint, it’s clear that making the switch to lower-carbon travel is critical to achieve the targets. There will also be great opportunities for networking if many people make the journey together.”

In addition, as UK reps for LIONS, the Advertising Association will be once again running a trade mission of companies to the creativity festival and encourages all members of its exports group to join the train journey where possible.

For full details on how to book tickets, please visit the Ad Net Zero UK website.

Any organisation wishing to become a supporter of Ad Net Zero should contact the Ad Net Zero team via https://adnetzero.com/why-join-us/

Further information:

*Round trip calculations as per figures from the AdGreen Carbon Calculator – the methodology can be found here.

Eurostar has published its sustainability commitments here.