In the field of exercise and sports for everyone, Merko is focusing on creating inclusive opportunities for the population to stay fit, and thus do its part to increasing health life expectancy. Merko’s largest sponsorship is a project that was launched in 2005 with Swedbank and Eesti Energia, Estonian Health Trails, the aim of which is to ensure as much of the Estonian population as possible with year-round, free of charge possibilities to take exercise in the fresh air and thereby popularize healthful lifestyles.

To emphasise the importance of regular exercise as a natural part of the daily routine and to promote indoor exercise, the foundation has developed the concept of an indoor health trail. In cooperation with various organisations, companies and schools, indoor trails have been built since 2015, which cleverly make use of stairs, corridors and courtyards. At the end of 2023, there were 70 indoor health trails in Estonia with more than 75,000 daily users in total. Estonian Public Broadcasting, the National Institute for Health Development, the Estonian Parliament, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the Tax and Customs Board, the Estonian National Opera, the Estonian National Library, Swedbank, Eesti Energia, the Narva Vocational Training Centre and others have created indoor health trails in their buildings.

Ever since it was founded, the three co-founders supporters of Estonian Health Trails have invested 6 million euros into development and the total investment now stands at 60 million euros, including investments by state and local government and EU funding.