We’re committed to conserving and protecting Africa’s last great wild places and as part of that vision we keep our own carbon footprint to a minimum, ensuring we tread lightly in our endeavours and draw on renewable energy throughout our operations.
This ambition is not without its challenges of course, particularly when operating in some of the world’s most remote corners. Many of the sustainability strategies we invoke are practical, such as deploying as few supply runs as possible to and from our camps – something we achieve simply through solid management, or make use of natural resources, like the solar energy that every one of our lodges runs on. With 27 lodges in our portfolio, having them all powered by solar is no small feat, and one that we’re justifiably proud of. We’ve also introduced a remote system that can track our solar power generation across the company. There are other approaches we’d like to incorporate, but are, as yet unable due to the nature of the areas we work in. A good example of this is the electric safari vehicle – perhaps the only green car that’s not considered unlucky! You might have seen them being utilised in other areas, but the rough terrain and water that we need our game drive vehicles to negotiate makes them impractical for us in their current guise. We are, however keeping a close eye on their advancement and are busily trialling a fuel additive in the game drive and support vehicles across our Namibian lodges that reduces fuel emissions.
We reduce waste in the lodges in a variety of ways, including repurposing materials at every opportunity (Tawana’s floors are fashioned from recycled cork), using glass crushers and meticulously managing the sewage processing systems. This year we’ll be trialling a system whereby waste from Mokolwane is taken to Maun where it’s fed to maggots which are, in turn, fed to chickens. Tawana meanwhile is soon to have a biogas digester installed which will produce methane for cooking.
Our reach extends beyond our lodges and into the community. We’ve installed solar energy in Gweta Hospital’s operating theatre, laboratory and pharmacy and are unrolling the technology across the whole hospital. We’ve also solar powered the village’s water supply, ensuring that this is now reliable.
Over on South Africa’s Wild Coast meanwhile, we have a carbon project at GweGwe Beach Lodge in Mkambati Nature Reserve. The Mkambati Land Trust represents 6,600 rural families who own 18,000 hectares of uninhabited grassland at the heart of the country’s Eastern Cape. 7,400 hectares of this land is within Mkambati. Various contributing factors have led to the grasslands deteriorating, but a Pre-Scoping Study has concluded that correct management over the next 30 years would sequester around 600,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in soils. Carbon credits would be generated from this sequestration and to achieve it the Mkambati reserve needs to be expanded to 15,000 hectares – this is phase one of the project. Next, we’ll introduce regenerative agriculture and sustainable land management principles before extending the project to eight other areas within the Wild Coast. More than 80% of the carbon credit income stream generated will go to the local communities.
We’re all about giving back to the Earth, and more often than not, this is most effectively done by using the planet’s own great gifts.
