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Sustainability

Marangu Hotel, together with our community, work closely to preserve and maintain the mountain’s environs and wildlife. With over 90 years of experience, we offer our climbers unparalleled knowledge of climbing Kilimanjaro, as well as imparting them with geological and botanical knowledge. We expect our climbers to leave Marangu with a newfound respect for the mountain and all those on it. 

We are committed to contributing to a circular economy and seek to do everything we can to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  We stand and live by our core values – community, respect, integrity, teamwork and transparency – that continuously guide all our actions. We place fundamental importance on the well-being, health and safety of our employees, as well as the preservation of the mountain environment in which we operate to sustain it for future generations.

NO POVERTY

As one of the largest employers in Marangu, we take social and economic responsibility seriously by providing employment by sourcing internal employees from our local surrounding community and working with local mountain guides and porters. Many of our employees and guides have worked with Marangu Hotel for over 30 years, with their parents or siblings also having worked with Marangu Hotel!

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

The health and safety of our staff are fundamental to us and it is our role to safeguard their well-being.The risks associated with high-altitude climbing are the most significant risks to the health and safety of our staff and clients. All mountain guides at Marangu Hotel are trained at Wilderness First Aid and would be quick to respond to any emergency cases and quickly act to descend with the affected climber. We also partner with local organizations to provide mental health seminars at the hotel. 

GENDER EQUALITY

We support equal gender representation amongst our staff and value each and every employee, treating them equally. More than 50% of our current staff are women.

CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION

Marangu means “full of water” and the hotel is fortunate to have access to an abundance of freshwater. On the mountain, climbers only use water provided by the mountain and use sanitation facilities provided by park authorities. We do not use any single-use plastic bottles on the mountain.

DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Marangu Hotel has long been a part of the Marangu community, with one of the founding families donating much of the land around the area to local families. Marangu Hotel has been involved in a number of building and improvement projects with local schools and has supplied equipment and workmen to assist the Rotary Club with their many projects in the area. Many of the staff and climbing crew who work at Marangu Hotel have been here for decades, often with their children now employed by the hotel.  We take our community involvement with the utmost seriousness and believe that the hotel is only successful through its strong ties with the community.

REDUCING INEQUALITY

We seek to reduce inequalities by providing fair access to employment and opportunities within our community. We select crews for the mountain using a software to avoid bias and to ensure fairness and equality across all our mountain workers.

We also provide staff and community members with access to seminars and resources, such as veterinary/livestock training, to allow them to develop their businesses outside of their employment at Marangu Hotel.

RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

The hotel food and climbs that we organize are equipped by small hold farmers from the immediate region or sourced from our own gardens.

While opportunities for recycling are limited in the region:

  • we recycle all glass to organisations in Moshi and Arusha;
  • we do not use plastic bags for our market shopping, but rather reusable baskets
  • we compost all compostable waste

CLIMATE CHANGE

We strive to be carbon neutral; we have installed solar panels with the ambition of having the energy used by the Hotel and our community 100% sourced from renewable energy. 

LIFE ON LAND

With over 40,000 climbers per year climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, we are committed to ensuring that our portion of that total adheres to the guidelines imposed by park authorities, respects wildlife and nature on the mountain and leaves the mountain in the same state they found it.

PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

Based within such a unique natural environment brings unique responsibilities and opportunities. As a hotel, we are dedicated to working with a diverse range of partners to ensure that sustainability guides all that we do. We work notably with the following partners to help us achieve our goals: 

  • Kilimanjaro National Park Authority (KINAPA)
  • Tanzania National Park Authority (TANAPA) 
  • Mountain guides and porters
  • Kilimanjaro Porters Association
  • Kilimanjaro Porters’ Assistance Project
  • The Big Climb
  • Our employees, their families and the local community
  • Suppliers (including food and mountain supplies)
  • Our guests
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