October 2011 – Wilderness is proud to report that it won the award for Best Sustainability Report by a Newcomer at the ACCA South Africa Awards for Sustainability Reporting, held in Johannesburg on the 14th of October 2011.

ACCA is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, a global body that oversees professional accountants. ACCA has a record for championing transparency and accountability of sustainability issues.

The aims of the Awards for Sustainability Reporting are:

• to give recognition to those organisations that report and disclose environmental, social or full sustainability information;
• to encourage the uptake of environmental, social and sustainability reporting;
• to raise awareness of corporate transparency issues.

This accolade was awarded to Wilderness for excellence in transparent environmental, social and sustainability reporting.  

Chief Executive Andy Payne said that the Company had achieved this by reporting in terms of the 4Cs, a sustainability platform that the group has adopted from the Zeitz Foundation (www.zeitzfoundation.org).
The 4Cs concept suggests that no organisation will be truly sustainable unless it addresses the four dimensions of Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce.

According to Payne, “producing this report took a great deal of effort by a number of staff across the organisation. This effort, and the report, demonstrates our commitment to sustainability. We are extremely proud to have received this award in our first attempt at an integrated report. I wish to thank and congratulate my team for all their enthusiastic contributions. It was a job well done”.

Ends.

Notes to editor:

WILDERNESS

• Wilderness is a conservation organisation made up of ecotourism companies and non-profit trusts that believes in using responsible tourism to build sustainable conservation economies in Africa. We do this by creating journeys through the most remote and beautiful wild areas in southern Africa for our guests while at the same time sharing the benefits of tourism with local communities.
• Through our travel divisions – Wilderness Safaris, Wilderness Adventures, Wilderness Explorations and Wilderness Air – we operate a portfolio of some 70 lodges, camps and safaris in nine African countries: Botswana, Congo, Kenya, Namibia, Malawi, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• Our non-profit trusts – Children in the Wilderness and the Wilderness Wildlife Trust – ensure we make a difference in Africa, benefiting its people, places and wildlife.