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
