Despite these turbulent geo-political times and a high profile U turn by the Trump administration from acknowledging we face a terrifying climate crisis, the underlying trend in Europe and the UK is that businesses are embracing sustainability in greater numbers and seriousness than ever.

The pressure on supply chains to change behaviour, brought on by the demands of Scope 3 and stakeholder pressure on corporate organisations who drive the economy, is growing. Sustainability is cascading into the real economy, affecting the mid-market and larger end of the SME sectors.

How is your company providing evidence, not empty rhetoric, that it is embracing sustainability?

Forward thinking organisations are exploring how to decarbonise their operations whilst investigating renewable energy sources, waste reduction and adopting circularity in product and service design and delivery. These environmental actions are also be augmented by a sharper focus on social value as businesses look to improve community relations, fund charities and embrace a better understanding of mental health.

There is one sustainability category that underpins and supports each of these areas and many more.

That category is Nature Restoration

On a global scale it is estimated that between $44tn and $55tn global GDP is reliant upon nature and this includes 13 of the 18 leading sectors in the FTSE, so not just the obvious ones that rely on wood, soil and water for their raw materials. The consequences of nature loss are potentially catastrophic.

Whilst we immediately think of the rain forests of Africa and the Amazon basin when we think of deforestation and nature decline, we should look closer to home. In Natural England’s State of Natural Capital report 2024 the data shows that since 1970 UK species have declined by 19% on average and now one in six are threatened with extinction. The UK has degraded its biodiversity more than any of the G10 countries.

Nature as a commercial channel through sponsorship

Natural capital is the world’s stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms. Some natural capital assets provide people with free goods and services, often called ecosystem services. It also houses many of the financial instruments that can be employed to inject finance into the nature market. If your business plans to invest into nature restoration as an asset class and is looking for a financial ROI then this is probably the right part of the market for you.

If, however, your business is looking for an evidence-based, authentic “lever” to pull to demonstrate your commitment to sustainability in general then nature sponsorship is the market for you.

The EBN Nature Restoration Programme is a sponsorship programme that opens up the nature market to any size of business that is looking to strengthen its sustainability credentials.

With a price point to suit any budget the EBN Nature Restoration Programme supports UK centric high integrity projects that are delivering nature-based solutions to a range of environmental challenges.

By sponsoring one of the projects delivered by our partners your business will not only help to remove carbon from the atmosphere, but will also improve soil health, mitigate flood risks, repopulate declining species and pollinators and enable many of our farmers to embrace regenerative agriculture techniques that will secure our food production systems for decades to come.

This is why we favour a holistic approach to nature restoration, although we do appreciate that some businesses are looking for immediate carbon credits and offsets. Not every project will be able to offer these but many can and, where possible, we will direct you to a project that adheres to the principles of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM).

We are excited to present nature as a new sponsorship class. One which can arguably offer more marketing opportunities than the traditional ones including sport, the arts, education and science. One of the differentiating factors that comes with nature sponsorship is that as well as its obvious focus on the environment, it invariably combines this with the creation of significant social value.

Many of the projects we support will result in employment for local people, bringing much needed additional finance to rural communities. Most, if not all, will also work in partnership with local schools, so we can educate our children about the beauty and restorative powers of nature and what better way to improve mental health than the “nature bathing” properties that the natural world offers?

Sponsorship is one of the most powerful and all-encompassing of the marketing disciplines. Nature sponsorship offers rights to sponsors that satisfy most briefs. Including:

• Brand association: Associating your brand with a sponsorship property that has no negative connotations will keep shareholders happy. One of the primary objectives in sponsorship is to “borrow” from that property, enabling the sponsor to associate with something good that is outside of its own remit. By connecting your brand with a nature restoration project which is both inspiring and valuable your sustainability credentials will be strengthened.
• Corporate hospitality: This has always been a critical component of sponsorship. Having the opportunity to connect with key customers and prospects outside of the immediate commercial environment and build deeper relationships is highly valued. As with major sporting, or arts, events nature sponsorship will enable you to spend time with a customer in what is invariably an inspirational setting. However, over the last decade it has become increasingly difficult for C Suite customers to accept lavish and expensive entertainment, especially where excessive amounts of alcohol are involved.
• Brand promotion: We are unlikely to encourage a nature sponsorship property to offer on site promotional platforms (corporate banners hung on trees or painted onto fields as with sports pitches is not what we are advocating) but nature projects do offer brand promotion opportunities. Most of our project partners have sophisticated web sites, produce newsletters and boast huge social media followers alongside other digital assets. These offer a plethora of advertising and promotional opportunities to sponsors.
• Asset share: The visual assets presented by nature restoration projects are hard to beat. Even the most impressive sports stadium or iconic theatre buildings will struggle to offer as evocative imagery to the sponsor marketing teams as the emotion inducing assets that nature can provide.
• Story telling: The content element of a nature restoration project is hard to compete with. As marketers search for compelling content to augment their own brand stories, nature offers this in great volume. Being the narrator of a story that incorporates life and the survival of the planet into its chapters will create a unique position for a sponsor.
• Staff engagement: As the most enlightened organisations increasingly realise that “our people are our greatest asset” is a reality not a soundbite finding ways to engage with staff is a high priority. Encouraging staff to use their allotted volunteer days working on a farm, a woodland restoration or tree planting activity will connect and unite your teams in a meaningful way. The work they do on a nature restoration project will not only be fun and educational, it will matter!
• Produce share: As many of the projects we support are on working farms our partners can also offer fresh produce for the sponsor’s customers, staff and other stakeholders. Eating what you sponsor is unique to the nature category.
• Commercial Partners: All of the sponsors we work with will automatically become Commercial Partners to the Environmental Business Network but we will also create mini networks amongst the sponsors of particular projects which we will curate and manage.
• Nature sponsorship: As a new category there is much greater price flexibility than more traditional markets. In economic terms this is a price elastic market so we can offer a range of projects that vary in scale (and location) that will suit most sustainability marketing budgets.