WWF UK’s Nature’s Invoice targets City leaders
Howard Lake | 16 September 2026 | News
WWF UK has taken a new campaign directly to business leaders in London’s financial district, using digital advertising in Canary Wharf and in the financial press to challenge corporate leaders over the economic costs of nature loss and climate change.
An invoice from nature
The creative, appearing on screens at Canary Wharf’s Elizabeth Line station and in placements in The Economist and the Financial Times, presents business and financial leaders with an invoice from nature itself. In place of line items and charges, the ads feature endangered wildlife, extreme flooding and wildfires, each stating a rising ‘total cost of inaction’.
One version features a young orangutan, with ‘Endangered’ listed as the quantity. Another, showing a wildfire, cites the estimated €180 billion (£155 billion) cost of extreme heat to the EU economy this year, a figure WWF attributes to Triodos Bank. A third, on flooding, notes that one in five properties in England is at risk, citing the government’s 2024 national flood and coastal erosion risk assessment.
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The case WWF is making to business
WWF cites World Economic Forum estimates that half of global GDP is dependent on nature, and points to this summer’s UK heatwaves and drought, and extreme weather affecting agriculture, productivity, supply chains and insurance costs, as evidence that the risks are immediate rather than distant.
Rob Wood, Head of Partnership and Business Communications at WWF, said:
“The cost of nature loss and climate change on businesses and economies is loud and clear… Nature’s Invoice reminds us that the total cost of inaction on climate change is increasing at a devastating rate… we would like to see companies advocating together and support nature recovery, it’s bad business not to.”
WWF says it is calling on businesses to work together to protect and support the recovery of nature, rather than treating the costs of its loss as unavoidable.
- WWF UK launches monthly subscription product (5 December 2019)
- Collective noun animal posters raise funds for WWF UK (24 October 2013)
- 6 environmental charities receive £2 million of outdoor advertising (17 March 2022)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.