How a Brand Expanded a National Park to Fight Climate Change

While it has become trendy for corporations to show support for the environment, recent alarming reports on climate change inspired one beer brand to go beyond advertising and take action that could have a real impact. Polish beer brand Żubr, which is owned by Asahi Europe, expanded a national park in Poland to help protect endangered species. It is the latest instance of the brand reinvesting its marketing budget into nature and wildlife conservation as part of a bigger goal to encourage more of its consumers to embrace environmentalism. The Biebrza National Park is Poland’s largest national park and one of the last valleys in Europe not damaged by human activity. It also contains wetlands that are home to several species of protected birds. However, 40% of the park land is owned by private owners, which means the park’s authorities cannot adequately protect endangered species in the area. Biebrza also lacks sufficient funds to recover the land. Żubr intervened and teamed up with Biebrza for a long-term conservation project that will help the park expand its ownership and protect the species living there. The brand donated around $52,250 (200,000 PLN) to Biebrza, which will enable the park to buy up to 20 hectares of the privately-owned land. So far, the park has used the money to purchase the first plot of land, about 2.5 hectares. A commitment to nature Żubr has spent the past two years backing nature preservation projects, donating to the World Wildlife Fund in 2019 and to Białowieża National Park in 2020. It set up Żubr’s Fund and pledged long-term support for Poland’s wildlife, while earlier this year it helped local organizations secure a historic tree and build a pen for wounded wolves. But Urszula Czerniawska-Kapeluch, senior brand manager for Żubr, said the company had become frustrated that it did not know whether all its donations were being used to make a real impact. With its ad agency Huta 19 im. Joachima Fersengelda, it contacted numerous national institutions, NGOs and scientists to find projects that could have concrete results. Its latest initiative is its biggest to date and was partly motivated by the IPCC’s recent report that showed climate change is widespread and accelerating. The United Nations has also called on countries to help combat climate change by restoring one billion hectares of degraded land in the next decade—an area about the size of China. In Poland, a new national park hasn’t been created in 20 years, but 75% of Poles are in favor of increasing national parks. However, with a conservative government, environmentalism remains a polarizing issue in the country, Czerniawska-Kapeluch said. Brands’ corporate social responsibility campaigns also tend to target high-income consumers, while lower income or less educated groups—which are Żubr’s target market—are often overlooked. But Żubr wants to promote nature conservation among all households in Poland, Czerniawska-Kapeluch added. “We want to have an impact on how the attitudes of Poles to nature conservation are shaped,” she said. The brand already has links with nature dating back to its founding 18 years ago: its mascot and namesake is a bison, and in its TV ads, the animal is depicted as the “guardian of the forest” that protects other animals and endangered species. Following its national park partnership, it plans to launch other environmental initiatives such as a large-scale project with the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Mammal Research Institute to build bat houses and change negative images of bats among Poles. This Intricate AR Sculpture Warns of the Dangers of Climate Change

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How One Brand Expanded a National Park to Help Fight Climate Change and Preserve Wildlife

Polish beer brand Żubr is promoting environmentalism, which remains a polarizing issue in the country

Brittaney Kiefer

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Brittaney Kiefer