Kenya flying safari

Planet

The Elewana Collection has made considerable efforts to reduce its carbon footprint on the environment around us. They believe in the power of conservation and do their best to promote this with the communities they work with, their teams and of course their guests. Elewana’s environmental and social philosophy gently weaves itself through the safari experience with them.

All of Elewana’s camps and lodges have been designed to have as little impact as possible on their surrounds. Many of the camps employ state-of-the-art power systems, with solar and power-storage technology to ensure minimal emissions and fuel use.

All camps and lodges employ strict recycling systems, ensuring that all recyclable waste is just that- recycled! In Tanzania, this includes sending glass waste to the Shanga workshop in Arusha, where disadvantaged Tanzanians turn the glass into amazing works of art.

Elewana has significantly reduced its single use plastic waste. In 2018, they implemented the ‘Ban the bottle’ initiative. Each guest receives a branded Elewana aluminium reusable bottle that they can fill up at filling points within the property, thus eliminating our use of plastic water bottles. Historically, when reusable bottles were introduced to six of Elewana’s camps in Kenya, this was shown to prevent over 160’000 non-biodegradable plastic bottles a year from ending up in landfills. At the beginning of 2019, theye were the first in East Africa to eliminate the use of plastic straws. They now offer biodegradable paper straws and encourage guests to go to ‘War with the straw’.

People

Many of the Elewana camps, particularly those based in community conservancies, employ approximately 50-75% of its staff from the local community ensuring many families, who were previously reliant on only livestock and agriculture, enjoy a steady income.

And wherever possible, food and supplies are sourced locally to ensure the surrounding communities feel the benefits of tourism on a commerce level. So enjoy that delicious lunch-time salad, knowing the vegetables come from a local farmer!

Their environmentally and socially-responsible practices have seen 9 of their camps in Kenya receive Eco-Ratings from Eco-Tourism Kenya; 1 receiving Bronze, 2 silver and 6 a prestigious Gold!

The 6 Gold Eco-Rated properties received an international STEP certification with Sustainable Travel International. STI is accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) whose core mission is to establish and manage global sustainable standards with the aim of increasing sustainable tourism knowledge and practices among public and private stakeholders.