This was an insightful discussion on sustainability in the African tourism industry with James Haigh and John Corse at Essence of Africa. Led by Natalia Rosa of Big Ambitions, this conversation explores practical steps businesses can take on their sustainability journey—from waste management to reducing single-use plastics and improving operational efficiency. Learn how collaboration, certification, and responsible practices can drive both profitability and long-term positive impact. Whether you’re a new entrant or an established business, this discussion will inspire you to take actionable steps and rethink sustainability as an essential part of success. Can you afford not to do it?

Qs:  The word sustainability is thrown around. Tell me how ATTA® will be speaking about sustainability going forward.

James Haigh: I think sustainability is one of those, elusive terms. It’s a bit cloud like. You know, you reach for it. You’re aspiring to this thing up there, up above you. They don’t really know what it really means. So, I think we’ll find that that ATTA® will be talking a lot more about how you concretise your commitment to do good to Africa.

And that’s one of the best ways to do that is to where an organisation has some sort of acknowledged credibility and criteria for being able to a) prove that you’ve done things, but also that those things have been tested by experience to have been proven to a deeper level.

So, also just to establish criteria that can be held in comparison with other people in order to encourage improvement on all fronts.

Qs: We know that sustainability is a journey. What are some of the practical steps that will move us forward?

John Corse: Right. No. It’s absolutely not an overnight journey. I think it’s a philosophy. It’s a mindset, actually. Because sustainability has such a real encompassing and diverse number of activities that you could call sustainability.

Everything from on one side, you know, personal development of staff, to on the other side, maybe recycling and upcycling of your waste.

And in between both of these minimising usage of single use plastics and finding ways to give a longer lifespan to equipment and other materials that you’re using or repurposing them.

So many different things that each company needs to spend time thinking about best deal, what big wins they could make because as soon as you make a bit of progress, it gives you the motivation to start making more progress.

And then as you embark on that journey, there are a number of certification bodies that you can talk to, who can be with you on that journey, help you formalise what you do.

Because I think a lot of people face this when they’re doing the right thing, but they’re not recording it, and they can’t prove it.

And what a lot of these certification bodies then do is say, okay, we’re going to help you to record it or prove it, so you prove to the world what you’re doing. So often it’s just a formalisation of many things people are already doing.

Qs:  What guidance can you give us on the certifications that exist?

John Corse: There’s a diverse number of them. In our industry, for example, there’s Fair Trade (Tourism), who I know James will talk about. We’ve achieved certification with Travel Life through our travel specific certification body out of the Netherlands. And then we have a little broader more global ones, for example, B Corporation.

You have the Long Run. There’s a number of different organisations out there. Probably worth taking some time to choose the one that you think fits you and your business best.

Qs: James, tell us why you went the Fair Trade Tourism route?

James Haigh: Well it’s the first for Fair Trade, the first country in East Africa is Uganda. So, we (Lemala Wildwaters Lodge) have an operation there, and it’s, let’s just call it the smaller part of our operation, but we have three lodges there.

So, it was a happy testing ground. In addition to this, I’ve mentioned about the journey. Fair Trade (Tourism) have stages of qualification rather than a rather, distant finishing line.

Yeah. Hopefully, sustainability doesn’t have a finish line. But having stages of qualification as it were encourages people to see the value in what we’re doing. So, we’ve just achieved stage 1 with Fair Trade (Tourism) in Uganda. It was announced yesterday. It’s a major fillip for our staff. And I don’t know about you John, but we don’t have an ambition of having a sustainability department, which is a bolt on to the company.

All our sustainability work is conducted by managers and not just managers in the company, but like the managers of the company. So, our finance people are involved, our HR people are involved, our operations people are involved, which means it becomes inculcated to the whole way through the organisation, rather than just a team which is mandating change.

And it gives us the tools that we need to measure. And wearing my marketing sales hat, it gives us a tool that we can use to generate more revenue. That’s not the sole reason for doing it. There’s a philosophical reason for doing it but if we can turn a philosophical commitment into a commercial advantage, which is what the movement in the EU and the CSRD will ultimately deliver we expect.

And then more guests acting more responsibly and interacting with companies which are more sustainable, encourages more companies to follow the same pattern.

Qs: How do we inspire the entire supply chain to adopt a similar mindset?

James Haigh: I think Africa has always done. Africa has leaps and bounds ahead of industry than the travel industry around the rest of the world when it comes to sustainability because we’ve always had to do those things.

You’re contributing to a national park by paying park fees. And you are working with the people out of the villages because that’s where you’re operating from. So, a lot of the things that big city hotels around the world now aspire to, Africa’s always done. They’re kind of stealing the thunder.

Yeah. A lot of people believe that sustainability is inculcated in every tourism business on this continent. Now how we can concretise that and demonstrate value and benefit to newer entrants to the industry? Better off we’re all going to be.

Qs: New entrants often look at the sustainability journey with fear

James Haigh: Because they think it’s going to cost. They think it’s going to cost.

Qs: What are some of the areas small business can look at?

John Corse: Some of them can be very simple housekeeping in the broader sense, whether your workshop, how they’re going to deal with their waste oil from changing the oil and the Land Cruiser, 10l of dirty engine oil every time you do it.

If you can just create a system for managing that, it doesn’t take long. Suddenly, your workshops tidier. Now you’ve got a plan, and you start recording the waste oil and how you deal with it.

Tiny little thing, but you’ve made a big difference to something that’s really quite dirty. Then it just comes to things like minimising what you’re already using. How can you reduce diesel usage in a vehicle for example?

That is absolutely in line with good management and with profitability in your company. And then whether it’s waste management, or absolutely on the other side, career development for your team.

You know, that’s another enormous field that can come under sustainability, and that’s only positive for your business when it comes to staff retention, when it comes to improving skills in the company, and when it comes to attracting the best people that you want to work in your business. So many of these things are totally in line with the business practice anyway. It’s just a question of formalising and, and then, of course, singing to the world about how you’re doing it, which is good marketing.

Qs. What is the message for ATTA® members in terms of this conversation around sustainability?

James Haigh: The more people sign up for …… Giving people access to the tools that they need to start their own journey and the toolkit to decide which is the right scheme for them to build.

Just to set an example, and for new entrants and old established companies to look at sustainability and turn around and say well – Somebody once asked me if sustainability is compatible with luxury? Luxury is a bit of a dirty word, but whatever that comes to, the truth is, can it be luxurious if it’s not sustainable?

So, I think the level of the examples that we can set is turning the conversation on its head and saying, not can you afford to do it? Can you afford not to do it? And that’s when we see change happen, and making it available to people.

So, these are the things. Come and talk to us. John’s on this journey. We’re on this journey. There are other people on this journey that aren’t talking to each other.

We talk. We’re lucky, we’re good friends, and we see each other regularly, but a forum where people can say, okay. What’s the downside on this programme, and what’s the upside on this one? Share good practice.

John Corse: And I think that’s one of my big measures of success. We come to a trade show like this, and suddenly a great number of the conversations are about successes that people are having.

I’ve bought this crushing machine, and now we’re making beautiful plaster out of crushed bottles that we didn’t know what to do with before. And I can imagine all these conversations happening around trade shows or when those impressions get together and sharing their successes.

You know, each one is a learning process for all of us. So, I look forward to seeing that happen Period.

James Haigh: Well, to make all the synapses fire in a coherent fashion rather than just individuals talking to each other. This will more than just one or two companies talking.  

James Haigh serves as the chair of ATTA® and Head of Sales and Marketing with Lemala Camps & Lodges. He has 25 years of industry expertise, and a strong understanding of African cultures, customs, and languages, having travelled extensively throughout the continent.

John Corse served as ATTA® Chair from 2020-2022, and is the Managing Director of Serengeti Balloon Safaris, a Director of both Tanzania Association of Tours Operators (TATO) and Responsible Tourism Tanzania, as well as Chairman of Arusha Bicycle Centre, a social enterprise.