Green Key Gold

The international hallmark assesses an organisation's sustainable entrepreneurship in the following areas: management (compliance with regulations), communication, social involvement, water, cleaning, waste, energy, building and greenery, guest and employee mobility, food and drink, purchasing and textiles. A concrete, practical example is discussed monthly in a series of articles on sustainable entrepreneurship at Burgers' Zoo. This time, we are elaborating on some of our community involvement projects.

In a previous article in this series, we extensively discussed all Burgers' Zoo's efforts in nature conservation. Nature conservation is one of the main goals of our zoo, which explains why we have been very active in this field for many years. Burgers' Zoo protects nature reserves worldwide, of which our project in Belize (CSFI) is probably the best known. Together with the Swiss butterfly park Papiliorama, we have been protecting a nature reserve in the Central American country that now covers more than four hundred square kilometres (which is more than seven times the area of De Hoge Veluwe National Park) for more than thirty years.

In addition to nature conservation, we actively engage in various social projects. We support several foundations committed to seriously and/or chronically ill children and adults, such as Make A Wish Foundation, De Opkikker Foundation, Shamajo Foundation, Stichting Ambulance Wens Nederland and Dreamnight at the Zoo. Dreamnight at the Zoo is an initiative in which zoo employees volunteer to dedicate an evening to thousands of seriously and/or chronically ill children, their siblings and their parents. Because of the many hospital visits, there is often no time to enjoy a day out with the family at, for example, a zoo. During these special evenings, the children and their families are at the centre of attention.

Through Stichting de Arnhemse Uitdaging, we take various initiatives to help people in a more difficult financial situation or who could use a helping hand for other reasons. Burgers' Zoo also participates with the GelrePas, allowing people with a tighter budget to visit a zoo at more favourable rates. Burgers' Zoo cooperates with Scalabor to offer people with a distance to the labour market an interesting challenge at our zoo. Some work for the merchandise department is done at a workshop with Siza. This organisation cares for people with physical, mental or multiple disabilities and people with autism or non-congenital brain injuries.