Sustainability

Our sustainable journey

At Aavasaksa Adventures, sustainability means caring. We care about the local natures, the community, our animals, and our team.

We have recently started our Sustainable Travel Finland journey. We are also working towards the Biosphere certification. Even though the process is just starting, we are fully committed and excited to grow as a sustainable and responsible company.

Our motivation comes from a deep respect for the unique nature and peaceful atmosphere of the Aavasaksa and Ylitornio area. We want to support the vitality of our area while protecting what makes this place special. We also want to be a great workplace for both people and animals.

Accessibility and Inclusion

Everyone is welcome at Aavasaksa Adventures. We treat every guest and employee equally and with kindness, regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or religion.
We offer accessible options for guests with physical disabilities, such as the possibility to ride in a sled driven by a guide when it can be done safely. Interpreters and personal assistants are always welcome to join our programs free of charge.

All rental gear (clothing, footwear, helmets) is unisex and not divided by gender. Our toilet facilities are also unisex.

If a program includes a meal, we ask about dietary needs in advance and always take them into account.

All our programs can be adjusted on request to suit the physical and/or cognitive needs of a group.

Safe and responsible programs

From the very beginning, we have focused on safety, local cooperation and animal wellbeing. These are at the heart of everything we do.
Safety is a key part of responsibility in everything we do. We always follow safety guidelines carefully and update our practices when needed. Before every season, our team takes part in a first aid course that is specially tailored to our work and environment. Our kennel staff also receive training in first aid for dogs. We check our equipment regularly and make sure that both people and animals are well prepared before every program. Our animals are handled with care and respect. We also take time to guide our guests clearly and calmly before each activity so that everyone can enjoy the activites feeling safe and taken care of.

In our husky programs, we do not just take guests for a ride, every program includes learning about the life and care of sled dogs. We are fully transparent about how we treat our dogs throughout the year, and we are always happy to share. We are open and clear that the tradition of sled dogs did not start in Finland, even if the conditions here today are perfect for it.

Together with Team Rudolf, we share knowledge about reindeer and the tradition of reindeer herding in Finland.

Our snowmobile safaris follow official routes. We proudly show guests the local landscapes without harming nature. On some tours, we stop to go ice fishing and introduce this traditional Finnish way of spending time outdoors in a fun and inspiring way. Throughout our programs, we share the Finnish way of enjoying nature and the importance of respecting it. We never leave trash behind. We never leave trash behind.

What we are working on next

We are excited about the Sustainable Travel Finland path, as it will give us new ideas and tools to grow responsibly. We want to focus even more on sharing sustainability knowledge with our team and our partners. We are also working on making our documentation easier to access and making daily choices that matter in the long run. Local partnerships are very important to us, and we want to deepen and expand them in the future. As we grow, we will also pay more attention to making responsible purchases.

We have a named sustainability coordinator and a small team working on these goals. But for us, sustainability work is something we all do together in our everyday decisions.