Responsible media now means governance, carbon, AI and trust

We made it to LCAW last week for a couple of events before it became too unbearably hot. We didn’t make it to Cannes, so these reflections are based on what our client’s and network have told us and what’s been available in the public domain.

Cannes Lions and London Climate Action Week (LCAW) have just finished.

On paper, these two events looked like two very different conversations.

In Cannes, the media and advertising industry was talking about AI, creativity, creators, productivity, personalisation, performance and the future of brands. (Cannes Lions ran from 22 to 26 June 2026 in Cannes, France). [1]

In London, climate leaders, scientists, lawyers, campaigners, businesses, city leaders and policymakers were talking about heat, resilience, accountability, infrastructure and the pace of the transition needed in response to the climate and nature crisis. (London Climate Action Week ran from 20 to 28 June 2026). [2]

At first glance, these might feel like separate worlds, but they shouldn’t be.

They are two parts of the same leadership challenge: how do we govern powerful systems before their consequences run ahead of our ability to manage them?

For media companies, that question is becoming urgent.

Over the past few years, responsible media has often been framed through carbon. That work matters, and continues to matter more than ever.

The development of the Global Media Sustainability Framework has given the advertising and media industry something it badly needed: a more consistent way to measure, report and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with media planning, buying and distribution. Ad Net Zero’s latest update says emissions from media channels accounting for 95% of global media spend can now be calculated through the third edition of GMSF. [3]

That is real progress - but it isn’t enough.

The post-Cannes read is clear: AI is not simply another production tool. It is moving into the infrastructure of advertising.

Cannes’ own framing for OpenAI’s “Advertising in the Age of AI” session described advertising as shifting from a “media operating model” to an “intelligence operating model”, with AI becoming an operating layer across creativity, media and workflows. [4]

Another Cannes session, “Who Holds the Power in the AI Era?”, described AI as becoming “the operating system behind creativity, commerce and culture”, and asked who holds power, who is accountable, and what guardrails leaders need to establish. [5]

Those words and topics matter. Because if AI is becoming part of the operating layer of media, it cannot be treated as a clever shortcut or an innovation side-project.

It becomes part of how the media system thinks, decides, creates, targets, optimises and measures.

That creates huge opportunity, but it also necessitates responsibility.

But that responsibility is not only about how AI is used inside advertising, it's also about what advertising helps create outside it.

The industry is already starting to name this through the idea of advertised emissions: the greenhouse gas emissions linked to the additional consumption that advertising helps generate. Purpose Disruptors defines advertised emissions as the uplift in emissions driven by increased sales resulting from advertising, arguing that the industry needs to look beyond operational emissions and account for the climate impact of the consumption advertising helps create. [6]

This is where the AI conversation becomes even more important.

If AI makes it easier to produce more campaigns, more personalisation, more optimisation and more always-on content, then responsible media cannot only ask about the operational footprint of AI tools, models and cloud infrastructure.

It also has to ask what those tools are being used to scale.

More efficient advertising is not automatically better advertising. If AI helps increase demand for high-carbon products and services, then the climate impact sits not only in the system running the campaign, but in the outcomes that campaign helps drive.

That is a difficult area. Attribution is complex, and the industry is still debating how advertised emissions should be measured. Ad Net Zero has pointed to work by Oxford Saïd Business School exploring the challenge of integrating advertising and advertised emissions into the industry’s response to climate change. [7]

But complexity is not a reason to ignore it. It is the reason to govern it properly.

Because if AI becomes part of the machinery that shapes demand, responsible media has to look at both sides of the equation: the footprint of the system, and the footprint of what that system helps sell.

That is why one of the more useful post-Cannes narratives was that the AI conversation seemed to become a little more grounded. Less hype. More honesty, about what the technology can do, what it cannot do, and where human judgement still matters.

Business Insider’s Cannes recap described human creativity as having “wrested the spotlight back from AI”. PMG CEO George Popstefanov said people were becoming “a little more grounded” and talking more about what AI “cannot do”. Fernando Machado of Chipotle made the point more sharply, comparing over-reliance on AI for briefing or choosing ideas to thinking you can play guitar because you are good at “Guitar Hero”. [8]

This gets to the heart of the responsible media question.

Media companies are already using AI, whether they should or not is already an outdated discussion. The issue now is whether the industry can use AI without hollowing out the human judgement, creativity, cultural understanding and trust that make media valuable in the first place.

And this is no longer just about using AI to generate copy or speed up visual production.

Cannes coverage showed AI moving deeper into media buying, targeting, optimisation and campaign execution. Digiday reported that a core ad-tech theme at Cannes was the move beyond AI-assisted tools towards agentic systems that can make, coordinate and execute advertising decisions. [9]

In other words, AI is moving from tool to infrastructure.

And infrastructure needs governance.

The Advertising Association has published guidance on responsible use of generative AI in advertising, covering transparency, data use, fairness, human oversight, harm prevention, brand safety, environmental considerations and continuous monitoring. [10]  IAB has launched an AI Transparency and Disclosure Framework, taking a risk-based approach to disclosure when AI materially affects authenticity, identity or representation in ways that may mislead consumers. [11] WFA has developed guidance for marketers on GenAI contracts, with its research showing that 80% of multinational brand owners have concerns about how creative and media agency partners are using generative AI on their behalf. [12]

These are important pieces, but they are still just pieces.

AI governance, carbon measurement, brand safety, creative integrity, disclosure, culture, procurement and client trust are too often managed in different teams, through different policies, using different language. This is a gap.

Responsible media can no longer sit in separate boxes: carbon here, AI there, brand safety somewhere else. It needs to be joined up.

We need to move from just measuring campaign carbon, to:

• where does AI sit in our GHG inventory?

• what are the wider environmental impacts of our models, cloud and data systems?

• how do we make sure AI-generated work is accurate, fair and transparent?

• who is accountable when automated systems influence creative, targeting or buying decisions?

• how do we protect human judgement, editorial integrity and creative labour?

• how do we stop bias, misinformation or off-brand content scaling faster than oversight?

• how do we make sure optimisation does not simply create more content, more noise, more consumption and more waste?

And, perhaps most importantly, what kind of media system are we building?

Operational risks are already visible: IAB research found that more than 70% of marketers had encountered an AI-related incident in their advertising efforts, including hallucinations, bias or off-brand content. Yet less than 35% planned to increase investment in AI governance or brand integrity oversight over the following 12 months. [13]

But operational risk is only one problem. This is where the climate and broader sustainabiility conversation and the AI conversation need to meet.

London Climate Action Week made the physical footprint of AI impossible to ignore. António Guterres was clear that AI can accelerate climate solutions, but he also warned that AI is “hungry for land, water and power”. He called on major AI companies to disclose the carbon, water and land footprints of their systems and to power every data centre with renewable energy by 2030. [15]

His message was blunt: “It is time to come clean.” [15] It’s a message that the media industry needs to focus on. If AI is becoming media infrastructure, then its environmental footprint becomes part of responsible media too.

This is not just about abstract “cloud emissions”. London Climate Action Week also put data centres into the language of city planning, energy grids, water use and local communities.

Mayors from 40 cities backed a Global Urban Data Centres Pact to manage the pressure of data centre growth on power, water and neighbourhoods. Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece described data centres as “the biggest thing to hit the energy grid since air conditioning in the 1950s”. [16]

Digital systems are not weightless.

AI depends on places, energy, water, land, infrastructure, planning decisions and communities.

At the same time, LCAW itself was shaped by the physical realities of climate risk. Reuters reported that an event on extreme heat at the London School of Economics was cancelled because the venue was too hot. Climate Group CEO Helen Clarkson said the heatwave showed that “science has come to life”. More than 75,000 attendees joined 1,300 events, with resilience to heat, droughts, floods and storms a key focus. [17]

So while Cannes was debating the future of intelligent systems, London was experiencing the reality of a warming one.

AI may help agencies, media owners and platforms work faster. It may make creative development more efficient, targeting more precise, production more scalable and planning more responsive.

But responsible media cannot only ask what AI makes possible.

It also has to ask what AI makes more likely.

More content. More optimisation. More personalisation. More energy demand. More greenhouse gases. More automation. More pressure on human judgement. More risk of off-brand, biased or misleading outputs. More opacity in systems that already struggle with transparency. More funding for military and surveillance tech. More distance between decision-making and accountability. More water use.

Whilst that might not mean stepping back from AI , it does mean mindfully setting guardrails, understanding impacts and contextualising choices.

Ad Net Zero’s latest update on GMSF is an important sign of progress. Alongside the framework update, Ad Net Zero launched Every Brief Counts, a voluntary, science-backed toolkit designed to help creative, strategy and brand professionals feature more sustainable behaviours and actions in appropriate ways. [3]

And we need that something like that mindset for AI too. Responsible AI should not be a specialist add-on, a legal footnote or a policy document that sits in a drawer. It needs to become part of how media companies actually work.

The next phase of responsible media cannot be a carbon report on one side and an AI policy on the other. It needs to become a practical way of making decisions.

That means five things.

First, credible carbon measurement.

Media companies need to understand the emissions associated with production, distribution, suppliers, digital infrastructure, cloud services, business operations and emerging AI use. GMSF is an important foundation, but it should connect into wider greenhouse gas reporting and reduction planning.

Second, AI governance.

Organisations need clear policies, principles, risk assessments, approval routes, disclosure rules, procurement checks and human oversight. Responsible AI cannot depend on good intentions or individual judgement alone.

Third, brand and client trust.

Media businesses need to be able to show clients how AI is being used, where it is not being used, what is being checked, and who is accountable. In a world of synthetic content and automated optimisation, trust becomes a commercial asset.

Fourth, culture and capability.

Responsible media cannot sit only with sustainability, legal or innovation teams. Leadership, sales, strategy, creative, data, product, operations and finance all need enough literacy to ask better questions and spot risk earlier.

Fifth, ethical imagination.

This is not only about avoiding harm. It is about building better media businesses: more trusted, more useful, more transparent, more resilient and more aligned with the future clients, regulators, employees and audiences are already asking for. Media designed to inspire a future we want to live in, not a short-termist, throw-away society built on trend and fads.

That is the opportunity: Responsible media should mean making innovation more durable.

The strongest media companies will not be the ones that simply adopt AI fastest. They will be the ones that can show how AI is being used, what it costs, who is accountable, and how human judgement is protected.

They will be able to talk about AI, carbon and impact in the same room.

They will be able to evidence their claims.

They will be able to show clients that performance, responsibility and trust are not competing priorities.

And that may become one of the most important competitive advantages in the next chapter of media.

Cannes asked what AI can make possible. London Climate Action Week asked what responsibility now demands. Responsible media sits between those two questions.

At ZeroBees, we think the sector is ready for a broader, more useful conversation.

Carbon still matters. Measurement still matters. Frameworks like GMSF are important progress.

But the next phase has to connect carbon, AI, governance, culture and trust into the way media businesses actually work.

This isn’t about sustainability as an add-on or a policy that sits on a shelf. It’s about a practical set of decisions, checks, responsibilities and behaviours that people understand and use - governance that enables more than just risk management.

What are you building, what does it enable, who is accountable, and how do we make sure progress has substance?

References

[1] Cannes Lions. “Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2026.” Official festival page, accessed 29 June 2026. https://www.canneslions.com/

[2] London Climate Action Week. “London Climate Action Week 2026.” Official website, accessed 29 June 2026. https://londonclimateactionweek.org/

[3] Ad Net Zero. “Ad Net Zero Marks ‘London-To-Cannes’ Milestone with Key Programme Updates.” 23 June 2026. https://adnetzero.com/news/ad-net-zero-marks-london-to-cannes-milestone-with-key-programme-updates/

[4] Cannes Lions. “Advertising in the Age of AI.” Cannes Lions 2026 Programme. https://www.canneslions.com/festival/programme/advertising-in-the-age-of-ai-e1-73687

[5] Cannes Lions. “Who Holds the Power in the AI Era? Leadership, Responsibility and the Future of Influence.” Cannes Lions 2026 Programme. https://www.canneslions.com/festival/programme/who-holds-the-power-in-the-ai-era-leadership-responsibility-and-the-future-of-influence-e1-76696

[6] Purpose Disruptors. “What are Advertised Emissions?” Accessed 29 June 2026. https://www.purposedisruptors.org/what-are-advertised-emissions

[7] Ad Net Zero. “Oxford University Saïd Business School Paper.” 19 June 2023. https://adnetzero.com/news/oxford-university-said-business-school-paper/

[8] O’Reilly, Lara. “Creativity strikes back at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.” Business Insider, 26 June 2026. https://www.businessinsider.com/cannes-lions-recap-creativity-ai-creators-2026-6

[9] Shields, Ronan. “Ad Tech Briefing: Agentic AI, interoperability and control dominate Cannes Lions announcements.” Digiday, 23 June 2026. https://digiday.com/media-buying/ad-tech-briefing-agentic-ai-interoperability-and-control-dominate-cannes-lions-announcements/

[10] Advertising Association. “Best Practice Guide for the Responsible Use of Generative AI in Advertising.” 2026. https://adassoc.org.uk/our-work/best-practice-guide-for-the-responsible-use-of-generative-ai-in-advertising/

[11] IAB. “IAB Releases Industry’s First AI Transparency and Disclosure Framework to Guide Responsible Advertising in a Generative-AI Landscape.” 15 January 2026. https://www.iab.com/news/iab-releases-industrys-first-ai-transparency-and-disclosure-framework-to-guide-responsible-advertising-in-a-generative-ai-landscape/

[12] World Federation of Advertisers. “Eighty percent of brands have concerns about agency use of GenAI.” 17 September 2024. https://wfanet.org/knowledge/item/2024/09/17/eighty-percent-of-brands-have-concerns-about-agency-use-of-genai

[13] IAB. “AI Adoption Is Surging in Advertising, but is the Industry Prepared for Responsible AI?” 21 August 2025. https://www.iab.com/i

nsights/ai-adoption-is-surging-in-advertising-but-is-the-industry-prepared-for-responsible-ai/

[14] World Federation of Advertisers. “WFA discontinues GARM.” 9 August 2024. https://wfanet.org/knowledge/item/2024/08/09/wfa-discontinues-garm

[15] UNFCCC. “Secretary-General’s special address at London Climate Action Week.” 2026. https://unfccc.int/news/secretary-general-s-special-address-at-london-climate-action-week

[16] Reuters. “City mayors from London to Melbourne seek to curb data centre burden on power, water.” 22 June 2026. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/city-mayors-london-melbourne-seek-curb-data-centre-burden-power-water-2026-06-22/

[17] Reuters. “Heatwave-hit London climate week spurs calls for faster action.” 25 June 2026. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/heatwave-hit-london-climate-week-spurs-calls-faster-action-2026-06-25/