How a Banana Sparked a Mission to Decarbonize Digital Industries
Brian O’Kelley’s journey to tracking AI’s carbon footprint began with an unexpected revelation during an MIT supply chain management course. “There was this one slide about the carbon footprint of a banana that completely changed my perspective,” recalls the former AppNexus CEO, whose ad tech company sold to AT&T for $1.6 billion in 2018.
From Metal Trading to Digital Emissions
At the time, O’Kelley was running a metal commodities platform focused on reducing carbon emissions in trading and transportation. While successful—handling about 25% of U.S. copper imports—he realized the fundamental environmental impact came from mining and smelting, areas beyond his platform’s control.
“That’s when the lightbulb went off,” O’Kelley explains. “In the digital world, we actually have the power to make meaningful changes to carbon outputs.”
The Birth of Scope3: Cleaning Up Digital Advertising
In 2021, O’Kelley pivoted his supply chain tracking technology to create Scope3, targeting the $88 billion programmatic advertising industry. His mission: reduce both financial waste and environmental impact in digital ads.
Key findings that drove Scope3’s creation:
- 25% of programmatic ad spend is wasted (ANA study)
- Significant energy wasted on unseen or fraudulent ads
- Digital advertising’s carbon footprint largely unmeasured
“The digital ad ecosystem grew so fast that no one built proper accountability,” O’Kelley notes. “We’re changing that.”
The AI Expansion: A Natural Evolution
After undergoing unexpected heart surgery earlier this year, O’Kelley immersed himself in AI research during recovery. He recognized the growing intersection between AI and media:
- AI-generated advertising content
- AI-powered web pages
- The transformation of search engines
“I realized this was our business,” O’Kelley says. “AI’s environmental impact is the next frontier in digital sustainability.”
Securing $25M to Track AI’s Carbon Footprint
Scope3 recently closed a $25 million funding round led by GV, with participation from:
- Aperiam Ventures
- Craft Ventures
- Room40 Ventures
- Venrock
- Virgo Strategic Investments
The investment will fuel Scope3’s expansion into modeling AI’s carbon emissions, applying similar principles to their advertising work:
- Economic Alignment: Identifying where financial waste correlates with environmental impact
- Transparency: Creating measurable standards for AI carbon outputs
- Optimization: Helping companies reduce both costs and emissions
“Just like with digital ads, we expect significant overlap between economic and environmental costs in AI,” O’Kelley predicts. “This is about building sustainability into the foundation of our digital future.”
Why This Matters Now
As AI adoption accelerates, understanding its environmental impact becomes crucial. Recent studies suggest:
- Training large AI models can emit as much CO2 as 300 round-trip flights between NY and SF
- AI search queries may require 10x more energy than traditional searches
- The AI industry’s energy demands are growing exponentially
Scope3’s expansion comes at a pivotal moment, offering businesses the tools to measure and mitigate their AI-related carbon emissions—before regulatory requirements potentially mandate such disclosures.
“The digital world gave me a second chance after my health scare,” O’Kelley reflects. “Now I want to help give our planet a fighting chance too.”
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