Nairobi, Kenya, November 10, 2021–The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has awarded Kenya the Two- Star Environmental accreditation based on audit information from the 2021 WRC Safari Rally.
“For its first event in 19 years, the organiser of the WRC Safari Rally in Kenya demonstrated a very strong commitment to environmental management,” said the FIA Environment Accreditation Auditor Even Wiger in his report done on 24 July this year.
“The publicly available environmental policy, are routines implemented, and the post-event reports demonstrate and attest to an effective environmental management organisation,” he added.
The FIA top leadership also lauded Kenya in their final recommendation for next year’s event. They were Graham Stoker (FIA Deputy President); Felipe Calderon (FIA Environment and Sustainability Commission President) and Garry Connelly AM, (FIA Environment Delegate).
They advised the WRC Safari Environment Officer Peris Njoroge’s led team to aim for the Three-Star Environmental Accreditation certification next year.
“For its first event in 19 years, the organisers of WRC Safari Rally in Kenya demonstrated a very strong commitment to environmental management. As such, the FIA Sustainability team is confident that your organisation will use the information gathered at the 2021 event to improve and address environmental issues with the Safari Rally’s unique WRC surroundings,” they said.
Wiger added that Kenya’s initiative to invite journalists a week after the Safari to independently verify if there were tracks of soil pollution in typical river crossing areas and other environmental hazards is a clear demonstration of open-door policy management.
“In addition, the resources allocated (environmental champion, volunteers and partners), and the impact monitoring matrix developed demonstrate a general commitment to seeking continual improvement.” said the report.
The Auditor said Kenya stands to attain a Three-Star accreditation in next year’s event provided the organisers meet the requirements of the guidelines available on the FIA website.
The guidelines say that this accreditation programme developed by the FIA aims at helping key players in the motorsport and automotive sector measure and enhance their environmental performance by means of an independent certification process.
The WRC Safari Rally CEO Phineas Kimathi who received the certificate at the WRC Safari Kasarani Stadium secretariat said this is another major achievement for the Safari Rally. “For us to get a Two-Star certification means that we have done all that is required on the environment,” said Kimathi.
“This is a first for an African country. This means being a responsible organiser leading in matters environment.”
Said Njoroge whose team put up work for six months last year: “For us, this is a better achievement. As we were running the Safari in conservancies ‘teeming with the wildlife we worked closely with the county governments of Nakuru and Naivasha, the KWS, and all stakeholders. We identified challenges and addressed all the mitigating factors.”
Event Director Jin Kahumbura said Kenya will emulate Ferrari to achieve the Three-Stars status. “What we did was to invest heavily on resources. We plan to emulate the Greening Legacy by planting 19 million trees by investing in marshals and resources for six months. We intend to achieve our environmental goals next year.”
The FIA Environmental Accreditation Programme is based on existing best practices in environmental sustainability, primarily the ISO 14001. A good example is Ferrari, which was previously awarded the certification in 2001 – with a renewal in 2016 to comply with the latest ISO 14001:2015 standards – has continued to press forward to achieve the three-star level, the highest level of accreditation.
By 2020, the Ferrari group had achieved its goal of reducing the CO2 emissions of its European fleet by an estimated 35% compared to 2007 levels.