We send travellers into some of the world’s most pristine landscapes, where every decision must be rooted in minimising the environmental impact of their presence. We recognise that our operations must minimise the environmental cost of travel and we are continuously innovating and investing in sustainability initiatives.
This year’s World Earth Day message challenges us to reflect on energy use and take collective responsibility for accelerating the transition to renewable power. This isn’t an area in which we need an event or named day to drive our focus, it’s something we are already deeply committed to. In 2019, we became one of the first safari companies to trial electric and alternative fuelled vehicles, recognising that diesel accounts for around 85% of our Scope 1 emissions and to significantly reduce that, we need to switch to renewable energy. Now, in 2025, we are already in the early stages of a full transition to a fully electric fleet.
Our Power Use
Our camps are spread across vast, wild landscapes where solar power is the most sustainable energy option. We’ve invested heavily in solar, and today, 76% of the energy used across our safari operations comes from the sun.
All our camps operate off solar energy, with nine of them providing detailed remote data management, giving us precise insights into power generation and consumption. Last year, we increased solar power fourfold. These nine camps generated 282,000 kWh of solar power. In comparison, only 46,000 kWh of their power use came from generators. We aim to reach 95% solar energy across all properties by 2030.
While we have achieved a lot in this area, we recognise there are considerable gains to be had. In 2023, we purchased around 500,000 litres of fossil fuels, predominantly diesel for our fleet of safari vehicles. Our goal is to reduce our Scope 1 emissions by 90% by 2037, cutting it from 1,300 tonnes per year to just 126 tonnes. To achieve this, we need to transition our fleet of 165 vehicles to electric.
Driving Change
Recognising that switching to EVs (electronic vehicles) is our most significant opportunity to cut emissions, we’ve invested in researching the best ways to achieve this. EVs for the safari market is an area that is developing quickly, with many options but no clear winner. To reduce our Scope 1 emissions by 90% by 2037 we’ve put in place a transition plan. This allows for two to three years of trialling different technologies and suppliers, to gather data and find the best EV solutions to meet our needs, after which will be a period of significant investment to complete the transition.
In our first pilot, we converted an old game viewing vehicle into an EV. While it was a valuable experiment, the technology wasn’t quite ready for full-scale use. But things are changing fast. This year, we’re launching a new pilot at our Encounter Mara Camp in Kenya, partnering with Vivo Power and Tembo on a vehicle conversion. The aim is to develop a rugged, quiet, and reliable safari vehicle that we can run efficiently that fits seamlessly into our operations, preferably making use of our existing fleet.
Replacing our fleet with EVs means we’ll need to increase our renewable energy generation three to five times, producing around 1,300,000 kWh annually by 2032-37. Falling solar panel costs make this feasible, but energy storage remains a challenge. Storing solar power for extended periods is expensive, especially with lithium batteries. More affordable long-duration energy storage (LDES) solutions are emerging. Finding the right storage solution is critical in making our energy transition sustainable, and an area that we are currently investing in.
Of the options available, we are excited by the potential of using 100% renewably generated hydrogen from surplus solar power as a solution. This offers the potential for large-scale long-duration energy storage by converting electricity into hydrogen through electrolysis, storing the hydrogen, and then reconverting it back to electricity. This solution offers clean energy storage for long durations, offering energy security. An important factor when operating off-grid and relying on an occasionally fickle sun for power.
Alongside storage we are also working to reduce energy consumption. Recent improvements include replacing water heaters with heat exchangers at several camps. Monitoring per-room power usage helps us stay efficient, while ongoing maintenance keeps our solar systems at peak performance.
Carbon Offsetting
Even as we reduce our emissions, some carbon offsetting will remain necessary. We prioritise reducing emissions first, but offsetting complements our efforts. We support REDD+ projects that align with our commitment to sustainability, verified by organisations like Verra and Plan Vivo.
We’re aware of the debate around REDD+ initiatives, particularly concerns about effectiveness and potential greenwashing. There have been arguments that it is used in areas where deforestation wouldn’t have occurred anyway, so the carbon credits aren’t effectively creating any change. And where the credits are purchased against projects that do actively prevent deforestation, there are still challenges of accurately estimating the amount of emission reductions that can be achieved by any single project, and multiple ways to estimate a figure.
We recognise and acknowledge all this but still feel that it is better to try and offset that carbon than not. Even if that is done imperfectly, we use the best data we have available and are very intentional about the projects that we use and who we buy from.
This is also why we invest in projects within our ecosystems where we can see, and measure, the tangible benefits to the communities. At the most basic level, carbon credits are a financial tool that have been created to attract money into landscapes and unlock the natural capital of areas that otherwise have no value and attract little or no investment. The schemes we offset into have proven to be demonstrably powerful ways to drive economic benefits to local people, and this is where the real impact happens.
As well as being REDD+ they are also CCB (Community Carbon Biodiversity) gold under Verra. This is a project design standard, to ensure projects simultaneously address climate change, support local communities, and conserve biodiversity. “Gold Level” status is only achieved by those offering exceptional benefits. As a result, even if the carbon is disputed, beyond our own visibility, we know they’ve been identified as having measured community and biodiversity benefits.
While no offsetting system is perfect, we see it as a pragmatic tool. We are not just offsetting our Scope 1 emissions in isolation. We are seeing the end results of where those finances end up and supporting the governance of the recipient communities. Whether the equation of carbon out to carbon saved is exact is impossible to fully quantify (but we do our best), but what we can be sure of is that the schemes we support also have a benefit beyond emissions.
Looking Ahead
World Earth Day is a reminder of our shared responsibility to protect the environment. At Asilia Africa, we’re committed to building sustainability into every part of our operation. From innovating in solar power storage, to pioneering EVs in the safari industry, we’re committed to finding better ways to operate, minimising our impact. Our journey is ongoing, but our sustainability focus is clear as we look to protect the landscapes we operate within, and support the communities that call them home, making sure the experiences we offer can be sustained for years to come.
Choose to travel with purpose by choosing a safari operator dedicated to sustainability.
