“Protect nature, and net zero kind of happens," was the message that renowned entrepreneur and investor Deborah Meaden shared during an environment-focussed session at the Wimbledon Championships yesterday.

Meaden is known for her advocacy on sustainable investing and now only invests in organisations that both have a strong business case to be profitable, but also operate in someway to reduce planetary impact and create jobs. She shared her personal journey with nature, frustrations with current corporate approaches, and called businesses and sports leaders to action. In a climate discourse led by emissions targets and carbon accounting, Meaden wants nature to feature too.

Just over half of global gross domestic profit or 58 trillion dollars, is moderately or highly dependent on nature. The Wimbledon environment session took place on day four of the grand slam, with climate and nature being front of mind, following the hottest opening day ever-recorded at the Championships. Extreme heat impacting both the performance and business of sport is something we are now seeing much more frequently. Nature has “been so generous to us," Meaden shared. “We’re just sucking the life out of it and right now, we just need to pay it back a little bit.”

Meaden was joined on the panel by winner of The 2024 Earthshot Prize, director of High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, Rita Maria El Zaghloul. Leading a coalition of countries calling for the protection of 30 percent of our land and ocean by 2030, she shared when talking with governments this isn’t just an issue from an environmentalist perspective. “It’s really an issue that’s it’s across all the sectors, it's related to our food system, it's related to our economies.”

This reflects thinking from other key business leaders. “Today businesses treat nature as if it is free and unlimited. It is time for boards, under their director’s duties, to dismiss current fake financial profits that take nature for granted," Earth on Board founder, Philippe Joubert recently told me.

Meaden pulls no punches when it comes to corporate action, or inaction. While she sees promising work from startups who begin with sustainability at their core, she believes some businesses still treat sustainability as a side project. “I don’t believe a business is serious until I can walk into any department and they can explain what they’re doing for the environment," she shared.

“Until sustainability is discussed in the boardroom, not as an ‘any other business’ item, I don’t believe the business is serious,” she went on. “In business, we make decisions all day. We need to slide nature into those filters.”

Business leaders and influencers came together to talk about nature at the tennis, but what has sport got to do with nature, environmental protection, investment and business? “Sport has people’s attention, you know, that’s ultimately it, isn’t it?” shared British adventurer, television presenter and former SAS trooper, Bear Grylls, who also spoke at the event.

“If you care about the environment, you care about people. You, that’s a solution the world needs, whether you’re leading Wimbledon, whether we’re leading our own lives, big businesses, inspiring young people, you know, I think it all comes back to leadership and the values we want to be known for in our lives.”

Wimbledon Championships “aspire to deliver a positive and sustainable impact on our economy, society and the environment in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.” This is evident to attendees of the grand slam through visible signage across the venue encouraging environmentally friendly-behaviours.

Reusable cups and recycling areas are ubiquitous, 100 free water refill stations are available, living walls and wildflower and nature areas that attract pollinators abound. Used tennis balls made into art to absorb sounds in the cafe, and in the shops new products made from upcycled leftover merchandise from previous years is available, bringing the circular economy to revenue streams. The All England Lawn Tennis Club plan to expand their site to include bring qualifying to the famous SW19 postcode, by converting a private golf course to a green space of which half would be open to the public. This been met by some local opposition.

For investors and corporate leaders, embedding nature into core business strategy isn’t just ethical, it’s economically essential. As global markets wake up to the financial risks of biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, forward-looking companies are already shifting toward nature-positive investing and climate-resilient models. Deborah Meaden’s headline take away of “protect nature, and net zero kind of happens”highlights a growing understanding that natural capital underpins financial capital. Whether you’re allocating assets or shaping strategy, climate and nature risk are business risks, and the organisations that recognise this now will be the ones leading tomorrow.