Is Outdoor Digital Signage Green?

With the threat of climate change more and more businesses are taking environmental issues quite seriously. No longer is ‘eco’ a term from the fringes and green and environmental concerns are now becoming almost as important a consideration as investment when it comes to new projects.

Green initiatives are therefore attractive to businesses and this is one advantage of outdoor digital signage which can claim to carry eco friendly credentials.

Okay, I can hear what you are saying, and yes, LCD screens used for advertising do require power and when you consider that printed media such as posters and billboards do not need electricity then how can outdoor digital signage be green? Well, there are two reasons that outdoor digital signage has green credentials.

Firstly, when screens are networked together, as most outdoor digital signage screens are, then content can be uploaded centrally and remotely. For advertisers, this has both environmental and cost savings as content does not have to be manually replaced so technicians are not needed to drive around an area and replace posters and billboards.

The second reason that outdoor digital signage can claim to be green is that while screens do require electricity to function, many modern screens – especially LED backlit LCDs – are very economical and efficiencies. Printed media if it has to be seen at night also has to be illuminated. This is often done by adding lighting beneath outdoor billboards or placing the content on a light box. These lighting methods tend to use more power than an LCD screen that is illuminated by its own back-light.

While outdoor digital signage is not a carbon neutral or zero emission technology it certainly has green credentials so if you are thinking about changing your outdoor advertising content to a modern digital version then don’t let the environment put you off.