SUSTAINABILITY POLICY
AARDWOLF AFRICA SUSTAINABILITY POLICY
Aardwolf Africa is committed to Eco tourism by offering travel experiences where the tourist would enjoy culture nature and wellness of Kenya. We provide an excellent service with the highest quality and security standards while preserving nature and heritage, contributing to the visited communities’ development, improving the quality of life of our employees, understand and respect the needs of our stakeholders.
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In addition, Aardwolf is committed to its values (determination, honesty, respect and creativity), the protection of wildlife and the communities, abiding of national laws and continual improvement.
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Aardwolf Africa offers travel experiences where the tourist interacts with locals and enjoy the destination in a sustainable way. This is made possible by the local guides who are experienced and knowledgeable of the destination and encourage or persuade our customers to be respectful and careful with our ancestral, cultural and natural heritage. Our sustainability policy is reflected in each part of our supply chain:
OUR CUSTOMERS:
- Our customers are encouraged to be respectful of the environment and the communities in the destination they will visit. We also remind them about the Kenyan laws referring to the trafficking of ivory, smuggling of animal skins and speciesof endangered wild fauna and flora; the protection of human rights; protection of vulnerable communities from exploitation, sexual abuse and other forms of child abuse.
- Evaluate the quality of our service through client feedback or reviews.
OTHER DESTINATIONS:
- We are committed to the support environmental community and educational projects that help and promote sustainable development of the destinations we offer.
- Our clients support local artisans and local producers in such way that the community is benefited.
- We promote visits to natural national parks which generates revenue to support research and protection of endangered fauna and flora species, most of them endemic.
- We promote eco-lodges and other type of sustainable accommodations; some of them run by the local communities in such way that they also benefit.
- We monitor our destinations periodically based on the sustainability policy statements.
OUR SUPPLIERS:
- Our accommodations are camp/lodgesthat are either big or small run or owned by local people and others. In some destinations we use local hotel operators associated with international hotel chain that also have a defined sustainability policy.
- One of our principal criteria to select a supplier is that they engage in socially responsible actions and promote an ethical treatment of their employees.
- We promote training as well as education initiatives of our local guides
- Aardwolf Africa does not offer products or services of excursions, lodging and other touristic suppliers that damage or hurt human beings, fauna or flora, or other natural resources (water sources, etc.).
- We monitor our suppliers periodically based on the sustainability policy statements (surveys) and ensure their commitment through the code of conduct and/or signed agreement.
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OUR INTERNAL PROCESS
- We minimize our energy consumption by turning off lights, computers, fans and other equipment while we are not using them or during the night.
- We recycle all the paper that we use in the office. Our printing machines are set by default to double-sided and we print only when is necessary.
- Favoring the purchase of sustainable goods and services i.e. office supplies.
- Using cleaning materials which are non-hazardous and biodegradable and are certified with an Eco label, if locally available.
- Purchasing green energy and energy efficient lighting for all areas, when available.
- Switching off Lights and equipment when not in use and setting equipment by default in the energy saving mode, where feasible.
- Prefer low energy equipment when buying new items, including considerations of cost and quality.
- We use teleworking so our team has more autonomy and flexibility. This represents in a more motivated team and a greater productivity since everyone is working in a set goal. Therefore, we avoid taking either public or private transportation to meetings causing a less impact to the environment. However, we have monthly meetings to monitor and evaluate our team performance and improve our processes.
- We promote a safe, healthy, pleasant and motivated work environment. We stimulate open communication and confidence in our work team.
- We promote training and educational programs of our team that contributes to their professional development and impacts positively to the company competitiveness.
- We use technologies as tools where necessary to improve our productivity and competitiveness.
- We encourage employees to use public transport or sustainable means of transport
- We have taken action to reduce the amount of (non-re-fillable) plastic bottles of drinking water for office use;
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT:
- We promote new product development based on innovation, the sustainability policy statements, especially in Community Based Tourism and Fair Trade travel experiences.
TRANSPORT
- We select the most suitable options considering price and comfort when selecting travel options for different destinations.
- We prefer alternative sustainable options for transportation like transfers, excursions taking into account comfort, price, fuel consumption.
- For our future safari vehicles, we are looking into purchasing 4×4 Land cruisers that are 6 seaters to reduce fuel consumption compared to the 8 seater vehicles that consume more.
- We are doing away with providing plastic water bottles in our vehicles and require our clients to come with their own reusable water bottles (or purchase from us at an extra reasonable cost).
- We plan to come up with a new water filtration system for our vehicles.
REVIEWS & TESTIMONIALS
What Our Clients Say
Catherine J2024-04-21Safari with Aardwolf An absolutely amazing trip with my daughter to east Africa. Vera was so easy, caring and professional to work with she delivered everything perfectly. We were given a wonderful guide Timothy who’s was knowledgeable, patient and persevered in finding the best spots to view the animals. We definitely recommend this trip, it’s an amazing and unforgettable experience. Catherine Jacobson.bry0072024-03-02Wonderful safari Had an amazing time with Aardwolf. My travel companion had a preexisting medical condition and the team went above and beyond in making sure she was comfortable and looked afterAndrew M2024-02-19A fantastically memorable safari in Kenya We enjoyed a fantastic 5-day safari to Lake Naivasha, Nakuru and Masai Mara organised for us by Vera at Aardwolf. Everything about the planning and the trip was perfect. Vera really got the brief right and even took the trouble to meet us on the Sunday before to answer questions. Our guide, Evans, was super friendly and knowledgable. The accommodation lodges were better than we were expecting and most importantly, we saw a staggering variety of wildlife. Trip of a lifetime. I really recommend Aardwolf. It's worth noting that they are a member of the Kenya Association of Tour Operators (KATO). Also, their prices were very competitive.Fernando2023-07-02Full service from back to end Everything organized and smooth. They take care of you from Nairobi airport, take you to the local airport, arrange accommodation and game drives, pick you back and show you around Nairobi tooElise K2023-03-24A place everyone should see 🌻🌍💕 I had a unforgettable experience. The tents were comfortable as can be. Falling asleep to nature sounds was a highlight. All our servers became friends that were easy to chat and learn from. The food was delicious. We saw all the wild animals except the Rino. Each day was special.Katharina W2022-11-23Authentic Kenyan adventure What an amazing trip! From inquiry to booking to the actual trip, Aardwolf Africa delivered everything we hoped for and more. Vera was always very responsive and proposed the best and most unique accomodation - we recommend especially the Basecamp Adventure camp in Maasai Mara for a simple but stylish and very personal experience. If you like small camps in the midst of nature, great food and care about sustainability and empowering the local Maasai community, this one is for you! Our driver guide Wilson was incredibly knowledgeable and made sure we not only experienced the highlights of each park we visited on our 6 day/5 night trip to Samburu, Nakuru and Maasai Mara but also added in unique experiences off the beaten tourist track. Thank you so much Aardwolf Africa and Wilson for an authentic Kenyan adventure!Alexey K2018-10-02This company cares! We had safari with Aardwolf in Masai Mara 29 September - 2 October. When I was choosing among different companies for safari I noticed that Aardwolf has less reviews than some other companies, so I was hesitant about booking with Aardwolf. But when I firstly came into contact with Verah it was excellent communication. All questions answered professional and she was the only manager among those whom I've contacted, who wasn't trying to fit me in template schedule but was eager to help us choose the best options for us. Also what I like about her - she remembers everything you say: I've asked for binoculars, and she offered to give me one for free and didn't forget that. I've ordered food "no spicy" and didn't had to mention it any more - everyone along my route was notified about my food preferences. Excellent work for a manager! Now about our guide. Julius is fantastic guide! I had a lot of trips in my life - Amazon, Galapagoss, Indonesia, and he is surely one of the best. In 3 days we have seen everything: leopard - twice! Cheetah - twice! Lions - three times. Hunting lion - also done! Of course a lot of giraffes, antelopes, zebras. More important - he loves his job and cares about environment and people around. I will remember when he just suddenly stopped our car in the savanna where many cars passed before just to pick up a can thrown by somebody. It makes difference! Also he has a lot to tell about wildlife. Very good man, excellent guide and experienced driver. We definitely recommend Aardwolf, Verah and Julius for everybody doing safari! Alex & Natalia from Russia168inna2018-09-23Incredible trip to Kenya and Tanzania Excellent. Ordered a tour from Aardwolf on Kenya and Tanzania. Everything was organized well, on point and was very interesting. The safari turned very saturated, the hotels were good, the food was well cooked but the breakfasts were a bit poor. Kenya fascinated us with a lot of fabulous animals, we were in Ambosseli national park, Masai Mara and lake Bogoria. For those who want to see thousands of flamingos then they need to visit lake bogoria. A huge thank you to the company for our tour guide Julius, he is a very good guide and driver, he helped us a lot, he told us about a lot of things in Kenya. Overall he is a 5 star guide. If going to a safari in Kenya I would suggest going only with Julius because he is the best. The second part of our thrips was Tanzania, but there we had Aarwolfs suppliers organize our tour. The tour in Tanzania was also marvelous, definitely need to visit the volcano crater Ngorongoro. The lodges and hotels in Tanzania were a level higher than in Kenya which was very pleasing. The only bad thing is that the Tanzanian guide who turned out to be just a driver who wouldn’t tell you anything unless you asked had weakens our impressions a bit because he didn’t really tell us anything and just turned out to be driver. The prices that the company provided us was cheaper compared to other companies, but they were incredibly amazing.Thank you very much to Aarwolf for providing us with an amazing tour in Kenya and Tanzania and a seperate thank you to Julius for being an amazing tour guide.DLC2018-08-29Perfect! We booked our safaris to Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha, AMboseli and Tsavo East with Aardwolf Africa and everything was perfect. We went in august 2018 during 10 days and even during the pick season we had good rates. Thanks to Verah and our great guides Julius and Jackson we had an amazing trip. Logistics were perfecly organized, the lodges were very nice (clean, good food, very nice people), the cars were in perfect conditions to go everywhere in the reserves. We totally recommend Aardwolf Africa for your trips to Kenya! Thank you again! DMahtab I2018-07-29Ensured we were comfortable We booked our honeymoon to Kenya in July 2018 through Aardwolf Africa, and I have no complaints ! Thank you to Verah and our great guide Julius.