Community Is In Our Nature
Caring Is In Our Nature
Large swathes of Scotland retain their pristine charm, a gentle pace of life and help promote wellness for all those that visit—a legacy we’re committed to upholding. Our endeavor is to safeguard Scotland’s unspoiled landscapes, ensuring their timeless appeal endures for future generations.
However, while the scenery may appear as postcard-like perfection, life in Scottish rural areas poses distinctive challenges for those that live and work there. Here at In Your Element, aspiring to stand as a premier outdoor activity provider, this entails caring for both the environment and the community.
Being A Sustainable Business
Being ‘sustainable’ is a given for a business like ours, that is so dependent on Scotland’s natural landscape as our workplace. By investing time and money into all aspects of how our business operates, we strive for a business model will sustainable for the long term.
Leave No Trace
In Your Element is a community partner of the Leave No Trace Centre of Outdoor Ethics. Our activity instructors plan and deliver activities in line with the Leave No Trace guidelines, and help customers understand how this can help the environment when delivering activity sessions. Find out more
Reducing Environmental Impact
There are, inevitably, environmental impacts that we can’t avoid yet but strive to minimise. For example, using diesel vehicles on a daily basis to reach activity venues across Scotland, or shuttling customers from point A to B is an integral part of what we do, and at the moment, electric vehicles can’t do the same job. However, with careful planning, we can help reduce our mileage and resulting carbon footprint.
Our Aviemore Bike Hub has switched to sustainable products used on day to day basis, when maintaining bikes (http://greenoil.cc/)
With the added challenges in recent years with the likes of a global pandemic, looking out for each other has never been more important. Doing or bit to help protect wild places for the benefit of others is at the forefront of what we do day to day.
Supporting Employment & the Local Economy
Whilst a small company in economic terms, In Your Element is a significant employer in the five fragile rural areas around Scotland where we have team bases.
In peak season we employ 45 staff on contract, as well as many more on a freelance basis doing ad hoc work according to their individual specialism. Many of our staff have moved to these rural communities (sometimes bringing families with them) from cities or from other parts of the UK specifically to work with us. Others are local but may otherwise have been forced to move away from the home area which they love so much in order to look for work elsewhere.
Either way, this brings in local spending power, helps maintain rural school role numbers and adds to the pool of useful skills and volunteer time available for communities to support themselves and to thrive.
Local Partnerships
We work with closely with other local businesses to enhance what we can offer, and in turn, help our partners. We work with activity and accommodation partners around Scotland to help bring more visitors to the different regions, and in turn help the local economy grow.
Active In The Community
Our directors set a great example on community activism with either Mike or Brenda having in recent times dedicated time to sit on the boards of bodies such as Activity Scotland, Inverness College, Destination Loch Ness, Cairngorms Business Partnership, Highland Tourism Partnership, Kirkhill Community Centre, and Friends of Lagganlia (outdoor education inclusiveness charity).
Brenda also organised the setting up of a local food bank during the COVID crisis, helps run and maintain the village hall and very recently organised the fundraising and installation of a community defibrillator for rural Cabrich.
The TreeZone Loch Lomond team planted some baby oak trees in places where old trees had died as part of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park scheme to regenerate local woodland areas.
Charitable Donations
As well as our key nominated charity (Trees for Life), in 2023 we also supported many local good causes with donations of activity gift vouchers (over £2000 in 2023), free places for carers, used outdoor equipment or benefit in kind support.
Litter Picks
Every time that we visit an activity venue we strive to leave it cleaner than we found it. Often this merely entails picking up some rubbish or dismantling an inappropriate fire pit, but around 15 times each year we do organised litter picks and tidying up of specific problem areas.
Removing Human Waste
Our policy of carrying out and disposing responsibly of all the solid human waste generated by our camping expeditions contributes to a really significant reduction in contamination of popular wild camping in paddling locations throughout Scotland, and sets a great example to others of this can be easily managed. Each of our gorge walking trailers also has a built-in partition with chemical toilet, so again reducing the risk of pollution building up from wild toileting in remote locations near rivers.
Local Sourcing of Food
At In Your Element we love the challenge of providing healthy and fresh meals on every night of a four or five day expedition. Cooking fresh food each night is also a clear commitment to sourcing fresh local produce wherever we possibly can, and showcasing wonderful local food and drink suppliers to visitors from all over the world.
