NawiriGroup is a purpose-led travel group based in Africa, operating safari brands across the continent
Your clients are already asking about sustainability. People recycle, question packaging and pay attention to how products are sourced.
That mindset travels with them when booking holidays now more than ever, and particularly to places like Africa’s national parks and wilderness areas, where the fragility of the landscape sharpens the question.
Guests want evidence. And when they ask, they expect their agent to have an answer.
The good news is you already have most of the skills you need to provide those answers. Agents are experts at reading quality: you can scan a brochure or speak to a manager and quickly sense whether an operation is the real thing or dressing up something average and risking the much warned about “green-washing”.
Sustainability responds to the same instinct. The operators doing it well are specific, consistent and happy to show their efforts and results. The ones relying on narrative alone tend to be vague. The questions below will help you decide which is which.
1) Follow the numbers
The single most telling indicator of whether an operator takes sustainability seriously is whether it measures anything. For example, a camp that tracks water consumption daily and records solar output against generator hours has invested in knowing its own footprint.
The questions are straightforward. How do you measure your environmental impact? What is your primary energy source? How do you manage waste and plastics on site? Do you build sustainability into your supply chain?
For example, in our camps, water tanks are metered and read daily; any spike is investigated immediately. Waste is segregated and weighed so we can track reduction over time. In 2024/25, 81% of all energy used across our camps came from solar.
2) Ask where the money goes
Reducing harm is essential, but it is only half the picture. The stronger question is whether guest revenue generates positive outcomes for the places and people your clients are visiting.
This matters commercially as well as ethically. Travellers increasingly want to know that their trip contributes something tangible. An agent who can explain how a booking supports conservation has a stronger reason for the client to book.
Ask: does guest spend support conservation or community development? If so, how is it funded and where does it go?
The answers will vary, but what you are listening for is coherence. An operator with a clear impact strategy will be able to describe its priorities, name the organisations it works with, and explain how results are tracked.
In our case, every guest night generates funding through a combination of park fees, conservation levies and a matched bednight impact levy. In the last financial year, this totalled $11m directed toward nature protection and community programmes.
3) Check the credentials
If an operator describes itself as sustainable, it is fair to ask what independent verification sits behind that claim. Not all certifications carry equal weight.
A useful filter is Travalyst, the coalition that screens sustainability certifications for independence, audit rigour and credibility Regional schemes also carry weight where they reflect local conditions
Membership of sustainability bodies such as The Long Run is a softer indicator. It signals alignment and intent, which is valuable, but different from independent audit. A membership badge says an operator has signed up to principles. A certification says someone has checked.
NawiriGroup is a certified B Corp. B Corp assesses governance, environmental performance, supply chains and community impact across the whole business, not just individual properties.
4) Look for transparency
Perhaps the most useful question of all: does the operator publish its data? A formal impact and sustainability report forces a business to move beyond narrative and quantify performance. It creates accountability and gives you something concrete to share with enquiring clients.
We publish ours annually with full transparency. The latest edition tracks everything from energy and waste metrics to the 20,000 primary school students supported through our education programmes.
5) Your instincts are right
Different operators are at different stages of this journey, and none of us would claim to have it all figured out. What matters most is data, transparency and a credible direction of travel.
You already know how to spot quality. Apply the same eye to sustainability: look for specifics over generalities, evidence over promises, and openness over polish.
A handful of direct questions will quickly tell you what you need to know.
Your recommendations help decide which operators get to keep doing that work. That is a role worth owning.
