During 2016, EOCA is celebrating being 10 years old! Ten years of the European outdoor industry funding conservation work in the great outdoors. In that time, the Association has funded work in over 36 different countries around the world, making a real difference to threatened habitats, species and landscapes.
As part of EOCA’s celebration of its tenth year, a series called ‘Ten Faces of EOCA’ will feature on our website throughout the year. These ten faces will be people who have been key to the success of the Association, or people who represent key partners of the Association. It may even be the face of a species that has benefited from the Associations work! Its going to be tough to choose only 10!
In this feature, we are delighted to introduce the first ‘Face of EOCA’, so please meet Nicolaj Due! Nicolaj is the CEO of WaterNlife, and is one of the newest members of EOCA, having joined in January 2016. New members are vital to the growth and increased impact that the Association can have. The more members EOCA has, the more membership fees that can be collected. As 100% of all membership fees are spent on conservation projects, more members directly results in more conservation work being funded.
WaterNlife is a family owned business based in Denmark and is responsible for the sale of the LifeStraw products in Europe. The LifeStraw products are ground-breaking water filters designed for the most extreme conditions. They work without any batteries or chemicals and filter contaminated water to the highest standards. For every LifeStraw sold in Europe a child in Africa receives clean water for an entire year. In 2015 alone more than 200,000 children in Kenya received clean water thanks to LifeStraw.
Nicolaj described how WaterNLife came to be a member of EOCA: “We followed the work of EOCA from the outside for a while and were very impressed. It felt like a natural step for us to join the Association. The entire business philosophy behind LifeStraw is built on sustainability and cause related work so there is a close link to EOCA”. Although supportive of all the different types of conservation work EOCA funds, and impressed by the geographical scope of the work done by the Association, water is of course a key conservation area for WaterNLife, which talks about water issues 24-7! Close to one billion people do not have access to clean water so there is plenty of work to do!
Working closely with EOCA during the ISPO tradeshow during its first month of membership, WaterNLife felt that working in partnership to create bespoke events and environmental giving programmes with the Association was a valuable way for member companies to assist in raising awareness of conservation issues as well as additional funding for projects.
Nicolaj is adamant that becoming part of the EOCA team is the first of a series of steps for any firm wishing to be taken seriously by its customers, “Conservation is a key element for a huge and growing number of consumers within the outdoor industry. A lot of customers demand that serious brands take an active role in conservation, so today it is almost seen as a license to operate. Membership of EOCA enables companies within the industry to play an active role. Further, by working together with other companies in the industry, we can multiply the impact we all have on conservation issues”.
EOCA very much looks forward to working with WaterNlife and all of its new members in the coming months and years.
