Driving a sustainable future for the Highlands
Highland CIC is working to unlock a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive future for the Highlands, ensuring that the region’s role in Scotland’s energy transition, climate action and visitor economy translates into lasting benefits for the people and communities that live here.
We are working to bring together businesses, community organisations, investors and public sector partners to share a vision and ambition for the Highlands to be a leader in sustainable development and deliver a coordinated regional approach to sustainable development. Our focus is on aligning investment, policy and delivery across renewable energy, tourism and community and environmental development, addressing long-standing challenges including fuel poverty, fragile services, workforce retention, population decline and environmental degradation.
Through the development of a Highland Regional Sustainable Investment Plan, we are creating a framework to connect funding and activity at a regional level, enabling communities and organisations to work within a shared strategy and maximise collective impact. This includes building a network of mission-aligned partners and supporting a partnership model that strengthens collaboration, scales delivery and ensures that investment is directed towards long-term regional priorities.
Our work is grounded in Community Wealth Building, ensuring that the value generated in the Highlands is retained and reinvested locally. By supporting practical projects, fostering partnerships and shaping strategy, Highland CIC is helping to deliver a more ambitious approach to sustainable development, one that reduces poverty, creates high-quality jobs, strengthens communities and protects the natural and cultural assets that define the region.
A bold, shared vision. Who Benefits? manifesto
The Who Benefits? manifesto sets out how that ambition can be delivered in practice. It calls for a more coordinated approach to investment in the energy transition – aligning green energy development, community wealth-building and regional priorities – to ensure the Highlands secures a fairer share of the economic, social and environmental benefits, and translates opportunity into long-term local prosperity.
Our Mission
Highland CIC is a dynamic, overarching, organisation created by the Highland’s community and business leaders.
It is devoted to uniting everyone living and working in the Highlands behind the transformation needed to position the Highlands as a global beacon of sustainable development. By harnessing the passion, expertise and natural talents of local people, alongside the power of our natural resources, we will deliver a suite of initiatives designed to improve our environment, enrich our communities, and promote sustainable growth. Our mission is to create a thriving, inclusive, Highland community with prosperity, responsible stewardship and a unique cultural identity at its heart. Building on our proud heritage, we will create a cultural and economic legacy that will ensure our communities flourish long into the future.
