GROUNDED GROWTH
BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE SERIES BY GOA
GROUNDED GROWTH
Creating a Resilient Outdoor Economy in a Changing Business Climate
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
PURPOSE ~
The Grounded Growth series brings together New Hampshire’s outdoor, manufacturing, and sustainability leaders to explore how the state can build a resilient outdoor economy that adapts to shifting markets, climate change, and workforce demands.
Each session pairs a factory tour with an invite-only roundtable, creating space for hands-on learning, peer exchange, and forward-looking strategies that keep New Hampshire’s growth rooted in both community and conservation.
Insights from these sessions will inform a public report by GOA outlining recommendations to guide future strategy, partnerships, and programming across the state’s outdoor economy.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES ~
Produce a public report that captures roundtable insights and outlines a roadmap for addressing key challenges and guiding future collaboration, policy, and programming across New Hampshire’s outdoor economy.
Foster collaboration among outdoor, manufacturing, and sustainability leaders to strengthen relationships and shared understanding across sectors.
Generate practical strategies to address pivotal issues such as supply-chain resilience, workforce adaptation, and sustainable growth in a changing economy.
Establish a foundation for ongoing dialogue between business, conservation, and government partners to ensure coordinated progress on outdoor industry priorities.
SESSION ONE
The Future of Work & Innovation in NH’s Outdoor Industry
January 21, 2026
Adventure Ready Brands | Littleton, NH
Facilitator: Chuck Lloyd, CCSNH | Moderator: Mike Cote, NH Business Review
Overview: The outdoor industry faces two connected challenges: workforce shortages and business disruptors. This session focuses on how New Hampshire businesses are innovating for stability and growth—from modernizing production and building workforce pipelines to advancing sustainable practices that attract and retain talent.
Focus Topics:
Building skilled labor pipelines for outdoor manufacturing and recreation
Training and career pathways in sustainability and climate adaptation
Partnerships between education, business, and workforce boards
Business-led climate resilience: energy, materials, operations innovation
Audience Mix:
Employers • Educators • Workforce developers • Nonprofits • Sustainability and Community Partners
Goal:
Develop actionable ideas and partnerships to ensure a stable, skilled, and sustainability-minded workforce for NH’s future outdoor economy.
Joe Klementovich PhotosOUTCOMES
Building the Future of NH’s Outdoor Economy
Outdoor manufacturers and recreation leaders align on CTE pathways, talent attraction, and community engagement.
The inaugural session of Grounded Growth, hosted at Adventure Ready Brands in Littleton, convened more than 20 members and partners for a candid, solutions-oriented conversation. The discussion was facilitated by Chuck Lloyd of CCSNH and moderated by Mike Cote of NH Business Review.
While housing and affordability remain persistent challenges, the conversation quickly moved upstream to deeper workforce system needs. Key themes included strengthening Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways, improving brand and lifestyle storytelling to attract talent, and leveraging community engagement and volunteerism as workforce on-ramps into the outdoor sector.
The Grounded Growth series continues in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and New Hampshire Business Review, with upcoming sessions planned in Cheshire and Hillsborough counties. Granite Outdoor Alliance will synthesize insights from across the series into both near-term actions and longer-term, system-building recommendations, to be released in a forthcoming Grounded Growth report.
For an in-depth report, check out this article about Session One in New Hampshire Business Review:
SESSION TWO
Pathways for a Sustainable Outdoor Economy
February 18, 2026
BADGER BALM | Gilsum, NH
Moderator: Mike Cote, NH Business Review | Featuring: NH Rep. Maggie Goodlander
Overview: New Hampshire’s outdoor recreation economy is increasingly central to community resilience, workforce development, and land stewardship. This facilitated discussion brings together business, conservation, and policy leaders to explore how sustainability, innovation, and economic strategy intersect—and to surface industry-informed considerations that can shape future state and federal engagement with the outdoor economy.
Focus Topics:
Where outdoor businesses see friction—or opportunity—at the intersection of sustainability and growth
How workforce, housing, and infrastructure pressures are shaping long-term viability
What alignment between state and federal programs would most help businesses plan and invest
Audience Mix:
Policy leaders • Nonprofits • Conservation Organizations • Business and Manufacturing • Chambers
Goal:
Inform GOA’s policy and strategic planning by surfacing industry perspectives on sustainability, workforce, and infrastructure—and identifying areas where state and federal alignment could reduce friction and support long-term economic resilience.
OUTCOMES
Rethinking the New Hampshire Advantage
How aligning workforce, infrastructure, and sustainability would strengthen the state’s economic competitiveness.
Granite Outdoor Alliance convened the second of three Grounded Growth roundtables on February 25 at W.S. Badger Company (Badger Balm) in Gilsum, New Hampshire. The session, Pathways for a Sustainable Outdoor Economy, explored how business resilience, workforce systems, infrastructure, and public policy intersect to shape resilience across New Hampshire’s outdoor sector.
Building on the workforce-centered dialogue in Littleton, this convening shifted focus to the relationship between sustainability and economic growth, where they reinforce one another and where friction emerges. Facilitated by Mike Cote of New Hampshire Business Review, the roundtable brought together Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, and leaders spanning manufacturing, conservation, advocacy, research, and policy.
While energy affordability, funding predictability, and infrastructure investment surfaced as current pressures, the conversation moved upstream to systems alignment. Participants emphasized the importance of consistent public programs, stronger coordination between innovators and policymakers, and clearer pathways to predevelopment capital and technical assistance. Local collaboration and social capital were framed as stabilizing forces that underpin long-term business resilience.
The discussion also underscored the importance of more clearly articulating the full outdoor economy ecosystem. Participants noted that the overlap among manufacturing, conservation, tourism, and community development remains under-leveraged. In this context, the concept of “business-friendly” was broadened to position New Hampshire as “first-in-the-nation” in place-based, resilience-driven enterprise. Environment, outdoor access, and workforce lifestyle appeal were identified as core drivers of economic competitiveness, not solely tax policy and voting.
SESSION THREE
Adapting to a Changing Business Climate
March 25, 2026
LIFE IS GOOD | Hudson, NH
Moderator: Mike Cote, NH Business Review | Featuring: TBD
Overview: New Hampshire’s outdoor industry—spanning brands, retailers, destinations, and manufacturers—faces growing uncertainty from global markets, tariffs, climate pressures, and changing consumer behavior. This session convenes business leaders to discuss how they’re adapting operations, supply chains, and workforce strategies amid economic volatility – and what additional resources/tools would be helpful to improve industry productivity.
Focus Topics:
Adapting to fluctuating markets, materials costs, and consumer trends
Resilient supply chains and local production advantages
Collaboration between manufacturers, retailers, and recreation destinations
State-level perspectives on business confidence and growth
Audience Mix:
Outdoor Brands • Manufacturers • Retailers • Destinations • Economic Development Partners
Goal:
Identify shared risks and opportunities to inform a stronger, more adaptive outdoor economy for New Hampshire.
