Sustainability Policy

Our vision for sustainability:

We at Husky Tours Lapland are very passionate about nature and the environment. We highly value and respect the unique quality of life that Swedish Lapland offers. In recognition of this uniqueness, our vision is to be able to share our passion for nature, our dogs and wilderness lifestyle with people from all walks of life. Sustainability is essential. Our mission and intention is that with well trained, healthy and happy dogs we are able to run various (day trips as well as longer overnight) dog sledding tours. Our tours are run by educated and well informed guides, that inspire our guests to appreciate nature, the environment and live as sustainably as possible.

To support our company’s vision we run our company with as much sustainable implantation as operatively possible in 3 main categories, socially, financially as well as environmentally.

Socially:
Supporting local companies: -We source our dog food from a local butcher, which not only supports the local area but also decreases transportation distances and co2 emissions. - We are known in the local area by the hunting groups as well as our Sami neighbours that frequently call us to pick up road kill, limiting waste of good meat. -We buy reindeer meat from our Sami friends to reinvest within the local community and support their way of life as well as giving our guests an authentic and genuine taste of local cuisine.

Financially:
Take care of our equipment:- our coveralls, shoes, hats and mittens are well taken care of. Dried after each tour by the fire that is also being used as a heat source. Moreover we have a policy to fix broken items instead of throwing things that can still be salvaged and functional. Sleds/harnesses and spare parts are locally bought and well taken care of and kept under a roof to increase durability. Minibuses are well kept, serviced at regular intervals and maintained as prescribed by law.

Environmentally:
We are committed to limit our carbon footprint and using less energy and creating less waste. Fewer transfers to Kiruna and combining errands whilst picking up or dropping off our guests help to limit co2 emissions. Furthermore our buildings are well insulated to minimize heat loss and thus more sustainable. We try to cut mostly our own wood from the forest so we know it is sourced responsibly. We aim for a zero waste policy where we try to recycle as much as possible both food and garbage. On all our tours we limit the use of plastic/paper cups/cutlery for one time use and instead use reusable cutlery/plates/cups.

Thru the inter-linkage of the three elements mentioned above we implement our sustainability policies through:

Education and Awareness:
First and foremost we work on educating our staff to work comprehensively with our dogs. In order to support our vision, it is our mission to have mindful guides that are able to not only understand our way of life but also to be able to portray that to our guests.

Each staff member is hand picked and allocated a team of dogs to work with to ensure optimal care and bond between carer and dog. This ensures that each dog has an individual carer that is extremely familiar with their personality, behavior, way of running, how they eat etc. Observation is key! The guides are given an education through a hands-on working approach which is supported by the owners.

At our kennel dog care is at the forefront of everything that we do. This education is a fantastic way to limit injuries both to our dogs as well as our guests. Safety is paramount, for all involved.

Furthermore education is also the way to prevent unnecessary degradation of equipment (preventing dogs from eating harnesses, keeping lines and sleds intact for longer durability) which can be linked back to the financial element of sustainability that we implement.

We believe that this knowledge inspires guests to learn about our dogs and our way of life and shows our passion for why we do what we do which feeds back to our vision and hopefully also inspires others to live a sustainable life.

Dog welfare:
As already mentioned above through educating both our guides and sharing awareness with our guests we push the welfare of our dogs to the forefront of our company. The dogs are the central element of everything that we do. Our dogs are considered our four-legged family members. Their houses are insulated to minimize heat loss and make it more comfortable for our dogs, plus decrease the possibly of weight loss. Food is bought from local producers that source their meat ethically. Dogs are regularly de-wormed, vaccinated and given ample rest. We have a surplus amount of dogs in comparison to demand to ensure that we always have rested dogs that are eager and in great shape. And naturally we comply with all guidelines as stipulated by lanstyrelsen in regards to animal care. The dogs are not a machine, each dog is an individual with their own personality, needing specific care, attention and love that is not in a one size fits all type of model!

Quality Control:
We continuously strive to be able to offer guests from all over the world an experience of a lifetime. People coming from different cultures have different norms and different expectations. Through quality control we try to be able to provide guests this amazing experience. The way in which we do this is for example, by operating tours in small groups: around 8 persons to fit in a minivan, limiting over crowding and ensuring personal connection with our guests to highlight our unique lifestyle. Additionally our trails are hand created, too minimise impact on the environment and to ensure our tours in no way negatively impact and/or disrupt local wildlife feeding grounds/breeding areas, whilst still optimizing scenic and educative routes to allow our guests to see the fragility and beauty of Europe’s last wilderness. We use sleds that are hand crafted and locally produced to support the local community and initially we implement the policy to take care of all our gear and fix our equipment instead of replacing them to try to be more sustainable. We all follow the same routine with awareness that each dog and each guest is different. Through feedback from both guides as well as guests we regularly assess our methods of operation and strive to continuously improve our quality of service and sustainability.

We hope that through sharing our passion of living a wilderness lifestyle with people from all walks of life will have an inspiring affect on others to be more aware and conscious to appreciate nature and work towards creating a more sustainable way of life for future generations to come.