Nature has always been the stage for sport and outdoor brands. From trails and mountains to rivers and coastlines, these environments do more than host products. They shape what brands stand for. What has changed is that nature is no longer a stable backdrop. It is under visible pressure, and that pressure is now shaping business risk, consumer trust, and brand value. At ISPO 2025 sustainability experts discussed why nature loss is becoming a direct business risk and how biodiversity protection is shifting from a “nice to have” to a strategic brand asset for sports and outdoor companies.
Nature Is Not a Backdrop. It’s the Business Foundation
For sports and outdoor companies, biodiversity protection is no longer a side project or a marketing angle. It is becoming a strategic question: how do you protect the environments your brand depends on, while building credibility with increasingly aware consumers?
Dan Yates, Executive Director of the European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA), puts it plainly: “half of the world’s economic output is dependent on nature.” He emphasizes that this amounts to US$125 trillion dependent on nature. That shift is happening alongside a major change in consumer mindset. Fredrik Ekström, founder of About the Clouds, describes a growing sense of “future fatigue.” People know something is wrong. Many feel overwhelmed. And they are looking for brands that do more than talk.
This is where biodiversity protection moves from symbolic action to brand asset.
Why Biodiversity Has Entered the Brand Conversation?
The scale of the issue is hard to ignore. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), around half of the world’s economic output, which is approx. $44 trillion, is moderately or highly dependent on nature. For outdoor and sports brands, that dependency is even more direct. Trails, snow, forests, water quality, and wildlife are not abstract inputs. They define product relevance and consumer experience.
Dan Yates highlights another uncomfortable statistic: wildlife populations have declined by more than 70% since 1970, with freshwater ecosystems seeing even steeper losses. “And if you look at certain ecosystems types, freshwater ecosystem types, which is a priority case for EOCA, for my organization at the moment, freshwater ecosystems have been impacted with an 85% loss in the last 50 years. So, we are genuinely living through an extinction-level event at the moment,” he says. And businesses are exposed whether they caused the damage or not.
That exposure shows up in several ways. Physical risks like extreme weather disrupt supply chains and access to raw materials. Transitional risks emerge as regulation and social expectations change. Reputational risks appear when brands stay silent or disconnected while consumers expect leadership.
Fredrik’s consumer research adds another layer. Across multiple European markets, around eight out of ten consumers believe we are heading toward a climate and nature crisis. At the same time, many feel unsure what to do next. People don’t trust big promises anymore. They want tangible action they can understand.
For brands, this creates a clear signal. Biodiversity protection is no longer about positioning. It’s about staying relevant in a world where nature loss is visible, personal, and emotional
From Tick-Box Sustainability to Embedded Action
Many brands still approach biodiversity the same way they approached sustainability ten years ago: isolated initiatives, short campaigns, and one-off donations. The problem is that consumers see through it.
Fredrik describes this shift as moving “from signal to substance.” Purpose statements and distant 2030 goals are losing power. What matters now is what a brand does today, where it does it, and whether it shows continuity.
Sustainability often focuses on reducing a company’s own impact. Biodiversity protection also requires addressing external risks: damage caused by wider industry, land use change, pollution, and climate impacts beyond a brand’s control. You can be doing everything right internally and still face serious risks from nature loss.
That means brands need to think beyond compliance and footprint reduction. Biodiversity has to connect to brand heritage, product use, and the places where consumers actually engage with the outdoors.
This is why isolated initiatives rarely build trust. They feel disconnected. Embedded action, on the other hand, builds familiarity. Small, repeated steps create a narrative consumers can follow and believe.
Community as a Force Multiplier
One of the strongest themes emerging from real-world examples is the power of community-driven action. Biodiversity protection works best when brands don’t act alone.
EOCA’s model is built on this idea. The organization pools funding from more than 130 outdoor brands and directs it to science-based, locally led conservation projects around the world. “EOKA matches brands with the activities and the projects that are already happening globally, run by grassroots communities,” Dan Yates explains.
Since its founding, EOCA has made significant impacts: supported over 200 conservation projects in more than 65 countries, granting more than €6 million directly to nature protection. The value for brands is not just environmental. It is credibility. These projects reconnect people with nature, involve local communities, and deliver measurable outcomes.
A similar community-driven logic sits behind the work of Merrell and its partners. Jerome Le Belle, Marketing Leader at Merrell EMEA for over a decade, explains why the brand created the Merrell Fund. “We have a lot of marketing terminology to tell the consumer we’re a very good purpose driven brand, but we didn’t act upon it. So in 2023, that’s when I felt like we should do something as well.” he says.
Through the Merrell Fund, the brand supports registered charities working on trail protection, access, and belonging. One of those partners is Patron, a German NGO focused on cleaning trails and educating outdoor users.
Christian Simon Böhm, founder of Patron Plasticfreepeaks and a passionate biologist, describes why this approach resonates. “Cleaning up is also an easy entrance for environmental protection,” he says. “Everybody can do this on a daily basis.”
What started with a few hundred participants has grown into a movement engaging tens of thousands of people every year. For Merrell, the value isn’t just visibility. It’s long-term trust built through shared action.
Measuring Impact Without Killing Authenticity
One of the hardest challenges in biodiversity protection is measurement. Nature doesn’t always fit neatly into dashboards. Impacts are long-term, diffuse, and shared across society.
Dan Yates acknowledges this tension. “Investments in nature are discrete and immediate,” he says. “But the benefits of that are diffused across society, across the world, and they’re long-term.” That makes biodiversity hard to justify if brands only look for short-term ROI.
But measurement is evolving. EOCA now aligns projects with emerging frameworks like nature-related disclosure standards, allowing brands to connect conservation funding to ESG reporting, risk management, and internal decision-making.
At the same time, Fredrik warns against over-reporting. If communication becomes too technical, people switch off. You need transparency, but you also need stories people understand.
The balance lies in combining credible data with human narratives. Show where the work happens. Show who is involved. Explain progress honestly. Consumers don’t expect perfection. They expect consistency.
Lessons for Sports and Outdoor Brands
Across all examples, a few clear patterns emerge.
- Start small but commit long-term. One-off actions rarely build trust. Repeated involvement does.
- Align biodiversity protection with product use and place. Trails, rivers, mountains, and local environments matter more than abstract global messages.
- Work with partners who bring expertise. As Dan Yates notes, “Writing a check is easy. Making sure the work is effective is harder.” Collaboration reduces risk and increases credibility.
- Involve people. Employees, consumers, and communities want to participate. Fredrik’s research shows that around half of consumers are open to joining brand-led environmental initiatives if they feel authentic and accessible.
- Make it engaging. Seriousness doesn’t mean being dull. You can face serious problems and still have fun. That’s how people stay involved.
Conclusion: Why protecting nature also protects brand equity
For sports and outdoor brands, biodiversity protection is no longer optional. It is tied to product relevance, consumer trust, and long-term resilience. Brands that treat nature as a shared responsibility, not a marketing theme, build deeper connections and stronger credibility.
The companies that succeed won’t be the loudest. They will be the most consistent. By acting locally, partnering wisely, and telling honest stories, biodiversity protection becomes more than a cost. It becomes a lasting brand asset.
