David Attenborough has been the voice of nature for more than 70 years. As he celebrates his 100th birthday, how businesses can be the embodiment of a movement that reverses ecological decline.
it is easy to underestimate how influential Britain’s favourite broadcaster has been for our natural world.
Having first appeared on screens in the 1950s, Sir David’s career spans more than 70 years, enlightening and educating the public on the dependencies, importance and wonders of nature.
Sir David has championed nature through a changing entertainment landscape– from television in black and white all the way up to streaming platforms such as Netflix.
As reported by the Financial Times, Attenborough’s titles on Netflix have generated around 320 million hours of viewing. Our Planet, which debuted in 2019, garnered 30 million hours in 2025 alone.
The technology has changed, how media is consumed has changed, but Attenborough’s message across seven decades of broadcast has been largely consistent; nature is wonderful, and it’s at risk.
Attenborough rarely preached climate activism. His most impactful series use storytelling as the hook, a way to make people care, and caring can lead to change.
The so-called “Blue Planet effect” led to a 53% decline in single-use plastic use amongst consumers in 12 months following the renowned BBC documentary series that Attenborough narrated.
The eternal optimist
At the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee hearing in 2019,
Attenborough spoke of the “big change” shaping economies, and how nature degradation and climate breakdown would “cause social unrest, and great changes in the way that we live, and what we eat”.
And also spoke of why he decided to champion nature from a place of passion, rather than lecturing the public on the risks humanity, urbanisation and climate change pose.
He waited until the facts seemed incontrovertible. We actually know that people depend upon the natural world for their very sanity and that in moments of crisis in their lives, the natural world is the one place and the one climate in which they can get solace.
“I’m not, by nature, a propagandist. I started making natural history programmes because I thought there was nothing I would prefer to see more than the beauty of the natural world. And I would love to just go on doing that. That’s what I enjoy.”
In 2026, the total asset value of ecosystem services in the UK stands at £1.5trn, with nature contributing more than £45bn to the economy each year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed. The Green Finance Institute has previously estimated that environmental deterioration could lead to a 6-12% GDP loss by the 2030s, equivalent to the economic losses incurred as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Building, food systems, and even renewable energy are all dependent on nature.
There are lessons here for business. Nature and climate are not propaganda. They may have been politicised, but they are the bedrock on which all decisions should be made.
It seems the corporate world is finally starting to realise this.
More than 730 businesses, financial institutions, and other organisations have pledged to align their reporting with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework.
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is weighing up options to integrate nature and biodiversity into non-financial disclosure frameworks for corporates.
This is a much-needed starting point for businesses to act as the embodiment of nature and align the needs of the planet with strategic plans for resilience and growth. The rise of regenerative agriculture, the continued work on natural capital, and the pioneers who have embedded nature into long-term strategies through ringfenced finance and nature-positive targets are examples that production does not have to be at odds with the planet. Trailblazers such as Faith in Nature have even given nature legal representation and votes in business decisions.
There is still a long way to go. Less than 1% of the world’s biggest companies mention nature impacts in their annual reporting, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES).
