Sustainability and Natural Selection

Pru Allison, Jennifer Lalley & Murray McCallum
October 23, 2024

At Natural Selection, sustainability is woven into our DNA. As we celebrate World Sustainability Day, we reaffirm our commitment to environmentally conscious tourism practices that benefit our communities, conservation efforts, and the environment.

Each of our lodges embodies sustainable tourism principles, from design to daily operations. We prioritise meaningful impact over external validation, focusing on continuous improvement and alignment with sustainability principles.

Our comprehensive internal sustainability document aligns with global and local sustainability standards, and regular internal audits and training sessions ensure our staff and partners are equipped to implement our sustainability expectations. We strive for seamless integration of sustainable principles, minimising our environmental footprint and maximising our positive impact.

Our lodges embody the principles of sustainable tourism such as running on solar power and reducing waste through varying programmes that are specific to each lodge and its needs.  We repurpose materials across the camps wherever possible, utilize glass crushers, bailers, recycling plants, carefully handle oils and fuel and manage the delicate balance of sewage processing systems – a job we don’t receive many applicants for but an important one!

We also have some exciting new innovations currently underway. Over at Mokolwane we are trialling a food waste project which involves leftovers being transported from the camp to Maun. Once in Maun the waste is fed to maggots which then provide nourishment for chickens. Over at Tawana meanwhile, we’re looking at another food waste solution and are working on the installation of a biogas digester. The digester would then produce methane which could be repurposed for cooking. Should this project prove successful we hope to roll out the concept through our other lodges.

What is one of our top goals in sustainability? – reducing the use of fossil fuel on game drives.  Electric vehicles that can handle rough terrain, water crossings, and long distances through wilderness areas are not readily available but we are continually looking to technological advances and hope that electric game drive vehicles will soon find their way into our fleet.

We don’t rest on our recycled laurels, but rather evolve continuously, striving for sustainability through everything we do.