Sports, Cash Donations, ASICS, Caterpillar & Coffee Grounds
Good Business - Sustainability | Strategy | Impact
September 5, 2025
1. The Nature of the Game
From waterlogged pitches to snowless ski slopes, the nature crisis is changing sport. Yet it is also becoming clear that sport also has the power to drive change and restore the natural world.
That was the focus for our friends at Laureus, who recently hosted a SportsLAB Learning Session: When Sport is a Force for Nature. The session explored how sport can do more than cut its carbon footprint: it can restore ecosystems, protect biodiversity, and inspire millions of fans to care for nature.
The BENCHES project (Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Nature Conservation Helped and Enhanced by Sports) is also helping make that ambition real. It brings together partners from World Athletics, World Sailing, S.L. Benfica, the International Biathlon Union and others, and is developing a digital biodiversity assessment tool tailored to the sports sector. It has also conducted the first economic evaluation of how athletes value natural spaces and offers training to help clubs build biodiversity into everyday decisions.
Alongside this, the Sports for Nature Framework is rallying organisations across the sector to use their global influence to protect and restore the natural world. Leading the way is Tottenham Hotspur, the first club in the Premier League to join the Sports for Nature Framework. It has transformed its training ground into a haven for wildlife with green roofs, wildflower meadows, two wildlife ponds, over 500 bat houses and 25 bug hotels. Meanwhile, the World Surf League’s We Are One Ocean campaign is restoring mangroves and coral reefs in the same waters where its competitions take place, proving sport can give back to the ecosystems it relies on.
And that’s the opportunity: a future where restoring wetlands, planting trees, and protecting biodiversity becomes part of the game plan, not a side project. Because when sport throws its weight behind nature, everyone wins.
2. Money well spent
When we talk about solving some the world’s deepest problems such as extreme poverty, disease or inequality, we often imagine solutions that are complex, systemic, and innovative. But sometimes, the most transformative answers are startlingly simple.
In rural Kenya, of every 1,000 children born, 32 don’t live to see their first birthday. A decade-long study led by The University of California, Berkeley and The University of Oxford, remarkable for its scale and methodological rigor, has uncovered a surprising finding: giving $1,000 directly to poor families nearly halved infant deaths and cut mortality in children under five by 45%. That’s a bigger impact than has been credited to malaria prevention or even routine immunizations.
The mechanism wasn’t complicated. Families used the money to seek prenatal care, rest during pregnancy, and deliver in hospitals rather than at home. The biggest gains came when funds reached pregnant women living close to hospitals, especially around the time of birth.
Beyond health, the transfers spurred business activity, helped families withstand drought and the pandemic, and showed that fears about misuse were overblown. For donors and policymakers alike, the lesson is hard to ignore. Sometimes, the most effective development strategy is to provide families with the means to help themselves.
At a moment when global aid budgets are shrinking, the findings raise big questions: should development strategies put more faith in the power of giving? And how might the same approach shift outcomes elsewhere – from maternal health to disaster resilience?
3. Kit to keep girls moving
The vital role exercise plays in physical and mental health has long been accepted, yet 64% of girls in the UK drop out of sport before the age of 16. The new ASICS Undropped Sports Kit, developed in partnership with Mind and Inclusive Sportswear, aims to put a stop to that.
According to ASICS’ 2024 State of Mind Study, physical activity during your teenage years directly impacts your state of mind in later life and is key to establishing lifelong exercise habits. However, 88% of girls are dissatisfied with their school PE kit, with issues around different body shapes, weather conditions, and fears of period or sweat visibility creating barriers to continued participation in sport.
ASICS’ answer to this problem? A new kit designed according to what girls actually want, to help them feel more comfortable and less self-conscious, so they can enjoy playing sport without worrying about what they’re wearing. Features include detachable liners and hoods, water-repellent material and easily layered clothing to deal with changing weather conditions, darker, sweat wicking fabrics with discreet pockets for period products as well as biker shorts with a detachable skirt to allow choice around tight or baggy styles. Alongside the new kit, ASICS have developed an Inclusive Sportswear Community Platform, which gives schools, teachers, and parents access to resources for driving lasting change.
ASICS demonstrates how brands can use their resources and expertise to solve real-life problems. Through their collaboration with Mind and Inclusive Sportswear, they have created a practical solution to dropouts while directly involving girls, their teachers, and families. What positive impacts would you like to see brands make next?
4. Selling stakes
Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund just made a bold move. The fund, which is built from the country’s oil and gas revenues, aims to safeguard Norway’s future while making sure the money is used responsibly.
Last week it made headlines for selling its entire stake in Caterpillar, a US construction equipment maker, after reports that its bulldozers have been used to demolish Palestinian homes and property. The fund also confirmed it has sold out of six Israeli institutions found to be providing financial services to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
The decision around Caterpillar is particularly interesting. For one, it’s the first time the fund has divested from a non-Israeli company because of its role in Palestinian territories. It’s also based on the way the company’s products are being used in practice, as opposed to necessary intent, alongside the lack of action from Caterpillar to stop this. Norway’s Council on Ethics said: ‘There is no doubt Caterpillar’s products are being used to commit extensive and systematic violations of international humanitarian law.’
This focus on how products are used is a shift to somewhat more ambiguous territory for investors, highlighting the growing complexity around businesses, human rights and ethics. It’s also raised the ire of Trump’s administration, with a US State Department spokesperson saying “we are very troubled by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s decision, which appears to be based on illegitimate claims against Caterpillar and the Israeli government.”
It seems likely this is a topic that will ripple on, as funds which are firmly committed to operating according to ethical principles find that working out exactly how to apply them can get complicated. And – even when decisions are made by an independent investment Board as in Norway – they can get mired in politics too.
5. Ground rules
If your household churns through kilograms of coffee each week like we do in our office, you might also be looking for ways to repurpose all those used. That’s why we were especially excited when a Friday 5 reader shared Coffeeco’s recent collaboration with Attica Group, Greece’s ferry line. Together, they’ve created a shower gel made from espresso residues collected on board. The pilot project not only diverts waste but also transforms it into premium, eco-friendly products that are fully biodegradable and kind to the skin.
If you’re unlikely to find yourself on a Greek ferry anytime soon, worry not. London-based brand UpCircle is doing something similar closer to home, collecting spent coffee grounds from cafés and turning them into natural scrubs, oils and exfoliators.
And if skincare doesn’t perk your interest, perhaps we can draw you back in with compost? Old coffee grounds can be a great way to enrich compost heaps with nitrogen, helping biological matter break down more efficiently. Or you can scatter them in the garden to keep slugs and snails away. And you can even pop dried grounds into the fridge, cupboards or even the car to neutralise odours. Coffee, it seems, has a latte more to give than one might think.
