What it means to be B Corp
In March, every year the B Corp community join together to look at what it means to be a B Corp, building awareness of the certification and educating diverse audiences on the importance of business being used as a force for good.
Asilia Africa earned its B Corp certification in 2012, one of the first companies to do so in Sub-Sahara Africa. NawiriGroup continue to hold this certification, but it isn’t permanent. Companies must recertify every three years, a process we use as a checkpoint for our standards, ensuring we remain accountable and allowing us to identify areas for improvement.
As a group we view B Corp certification as a baseline, rather than the goal, for our businesses. We are continuously looking to innovate, pushing forward ambition goals when it comes to both our positive impact agenda and operational sustainability.
To recognise this B Corp month, three of our sustainability champions in the business talk about their roles and how they are helping shape our future.
Asillia’s Sustainability Coordinators, Brenda Richard Ndondi (left) and Grace Mwangi (right)
Asilia's Tanzania Sustainability Coordinator Brenda Richard Ndondi, has been with the company for four months, focusing on sustainability training, utility data analysis, and supporting science-backed projects that enhance environmental responsibility across operations. Her counterpart in Kenya, Grace Mwangi has been with Asilia for over a year, leading sustainability assessments, staff training, and the implementation of projects that reduce the company’s carbon footprint and strengthen its social impact. Passionate about livelihoods and community-driven conservation, Grace also oversees all the Kenya positive impact programs.
Liesel van Zyl, Head of Positive Impact for Go2Africa
Based in South Africa, Liesel van Zyl is Head of Positive Impact for Go2Africa. Her role encompasses gaining a deeper understanding of the footprint of the camps and lodges we work with to ensure we are offering sustainable and impactful safaris. She is also responsible for creating and implementing Go2Africa's Impact Strategy in line with our group vision, which incudes identifying new partnerships with NGOs who share our community-led approach to impact.
How important is B Corp certification for us?
Grace & Brenda (Asilia): B Corp certification is vital to Asilia as it reinforces our commitment to responsible tourism, sustainability, and social impact. It holds us accountable to high environmental and ethical standards, ensuring we balance profit with purpose while continuously improving our community engagement, conservation efforts, and sustainable business practices across all operations.
Liesel (Go2Africa): It’s helpful to have an independent guideline of minimum standards as well as a commitment of accountability to progress and improve our standards year on year. This helps drive us forward and know when we are tackling various areas, we have a voice of authority we can look to.
What aspects of the B Corp framework are most challenging for a travel company?
Grace & Brenda (Asilia): For a travel company with a footprint in fragile ecosystems, the biggest B Corp challenges include minimising our environmental impact, ensuring sustainable resource use, and creating lasting community benefits. Maintaining high operational standards while conserving biodiversity and reducing emissions requires constant adaptation, innovation, and collaboration with local stakeholders.
Liesel (Go2Africa): Time, resources and prioritising! Not only at a strategic level, but at an operational level. You need to be able to translate the goals into actual projects and track your progress over and above your day to day business operations, they need to form part of who you are; so many challenging questions are continuously being asked and policies need to be revamped (for example) if you are taking it seriously and really want to be living these values/raising your standards.
Transitioning our vehicle fleet to electric vehicles is a key part of our plan to reduce our emissions
What future goals do you have for enhancing sustainability within the business, and the broader travel industry?
Grace & Brenda (Asilia): One of our primary sustainability goals is to significantly reduce our CO2 emissions across the 3 scopes by 2037. Phasing out diesel is the single biggest decarbonisation opportunity under our direct control and we have an ambitious Scope 1 reduction target to reduce by 90% of our 2024 emissions by 2037. This will primarily be achieved by transitioning our vehicle fleet to electric vehicles. This is an area that is developing quickly, and we are looking to pilot different technologies and suppliers to assess the best way to achieve this. We have trialled electric vehicles previously, and continue to explore options, with a conversion of one of our diesel game drive Land Cruisers due to take place in Kenya later this month.
We are focusing on upgrading our renewable electricity in camps to achieve zero generator hours. We are currently working on projects that utilise new innovations, researching alternative sources of energy such as hydrogen to replace the backup diesel generators in future. Outside of our Scope 1 goals we're committed to reducing our Scope 2 emissions by 78% focusing on areas such as ensuring energy efficiency in offices. Our goal for Scope 3 reduction is 42% of 2024 emissions. To achieve this we'll explore areas such as how we transport supplies to our camps, and supporting our suppliers sustainability efforts to ensure the overall energy consumption of our travelling clients is reduced.
Liesel (Go2Africa): Currently I'm working on the sustainability of our supply chain at Go2Africa, which I am over half-way through auditing. This should be completed this year, after which we will engage with the lodges that do not have impact or sustainability plans and encourage them to get started. If they don't plan to incorporate sustainability and impact within their business we'll need to re-evaluate if we will be able to continue to support them. I think it's an area we can support and learn from each other as an industry. I held a supplier session to facilitate cross learnings between those that are far down the journey and those that are not sure where to start and plan to facilitate more of those.
What I’d really like to see is all camps & lodges being evaluated on the same terms, proportionate to their size, using a tool that is GSTC accredited, easy-to-use and affordable. Then Operators like ourselves can easily access this info and would be encouraged to only contract with those that are accredited. We need to start normalising this and making it easily accessible for properties, operators and travellers.
How do you stay informed about the latest developments and best practices in sustainable tourism, how can people within the industry keep up to date?
Grace & Brenda (Asilia): Industry leaders often share their thoughts on platforms like LinkedIn. There is lots to be gained from reading reports from organisations like the GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Council) and UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization), and engaging in webinars and conferences. Networking with sustainability professionals, tracking eco-innovation trends, and exploring real-world case studies help you stay ahead and apply best practices effectively.
Liesel (Go2Africa): For best practices, we use BCorp and Travelife’s standards and guidelines. For practical advice and in-destination knowledge, I reach out to the companies, camps, lodges and NGOs who have and are paving the way in many of these areas, I love to look at their websites or pick up the phone to their Heads of Impact and learn how we can collaborate or just gain a deeper understanding of each area’s unique challenges and some of the solutions that are making a difference. Find your tribe and start talking to them, listen to learn!
What advice would you give to other young professionals aiming to make a positive impact in the travel industry?
Grace & Brenda (Asilia): Stay curious, challenge the status quo, and advocate for responsible tourism. Learn from industry leaders, embrace innovation, and prioritize sustainability in every decision. Network with like-minded professionals, support ethical businesses, and use your voice to drive change. Small actions create big impact. Be the change the travel industry needs!
Liesel (Go2Africa): A great place to start is to call a committee of like-minded colleagues, use a tool like BCorp ot Travelife to research helpful guidelines and either break away into various task forces to do the internal research, or tackle one task at a time together. Hopefully they are already supportive, but if not, once you have a plan for your business and a group of colleagues willing to get involved, present your proposal to your Management team to get their buy in. It does not need to cost money, just some extra time from some passionate individuals.