References

British Bee Veterinary Association. 2024. https://britishbeevets.com/how-to-get-involved/

Smith L Working towards a greener future in veterinary anaesthesia. The Veterinary Nurse. 2022; 13:(9)426-429 https://doi.org/10.12968/vetn.2022.13.9.426

Professional

A guide to sustainability in veterinary practice

01 February 2024
Professional
11 mins read

As citizens and custodians of this planet, we all have a social responsibility to do our bit to reduce our impact on the climate change crisis. In July 2023, the United Nations secretary general warned ‘the era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived’. With statements like this in the press, the scale of the climate change disaster we are all facing is no secret. Unless we act now, global temperatures are set to rise by 2.5°C to 4.5°C by 2100, having devastating, irreversible repercussions on our climate, weather systems, land and resource use, and biodiversity.

Barack Obama has been quoted saying ‘We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.’ He was right. Doing nothing about climate change is no longer an option.

This is why taking action to embed sustainability in veterinary practice is so important. This guide will help you see how veterinary professionals can make a difference and take action to make veterinary practices more environmentally sustainable and a more climate-positive place to work.

If everyone reading this guide takes away one or two actions to implement when they get back to work, this can be considered a win. As you read on, think seriously about what you want to take away from this. Come back to it as often as you need.

The good news is that as a veterinary professional you have the opportunity and influence to improve your own, your colleagues and your clients' attitudes and actions towards becoming more environmentally sustainable. One Health provides vets and veterinary nurses (Black, 2023) with a position of responsibility and the influence to be leading the changes needed. We can work collaboratively towards making the veterinary profession more sustainable and a profession we can all be proud of being part of.

According to a 2019 BVA survey, 89% of vets said that they would like to play a more active role in the UK sustainability agenda (BVA, 2019). Table 1 shows the carbon footprint of species under veterinary care (calculated by dividing the total carbon footprint of the species by the number of full-time veterinary professionals treating them).


Table 1. Carbon footprint of different species
Species Average total carbon footprint of all the animals under the care of each vet per year
Equine 524 tonnes CO2e per vet per year
Dogs and cats 1 000 tonnes CO2e per vet per year
Sheep 7 000 tonnes CO2e per vet per year
Dairy cattle 24 000 tonnes CO2e per vet per year
Pigs 27 000 tonnes CO2e per vet per year
Beef cattle 30 000 tonnes CO2e per vet per year
Farmed fish 36 000 tonnes CO2e per vet per year
Poultry 99 000 tonnes CO2e per vet per year
CO2e, carbon dioxide equivalent (Prentis, 2021)

These figures demonstrate how by our actions as vets and advocates for environmental sustainability we can have a bigger impact than just concentrating our efforts on what we can do as individuals and within our practices. When we champion carbon reduction losses in the groups of animals under our care, we collectively will have a much greater impact.

How a veterinary practice can become more sustainable

The veterinary industry carries a hefty carbon footprint. Typically, we use a lot of energy to maintain ambient temperatures of our premises, we rely heavily on single use plastics, we use anaesthetic gases, we dispense parasiticides and antimicrobials, and use harsh chemicals to maintain biosecurity. Not to mention the many miles we drive to treat the animals under our care. We are able to find solutions to these challenges and hugely reduce our impact through our actions while inspiring those we engage with.

To get started it is helpful to work through a veterinary specific checklist (VetSustain, 2023). It may be helpful to print a few out on A3 and put them up around the practice. Put one up by the kettle in the lunchroom, by the printer and anywhere else staff may pause and have a few minutes to read the poster. Explain to your colleagues what they are for and encourage conversations about their content.

A great way to demonstrate your intentions and subsequent actions is by getting one's own house in order. By this, we mean make the changes necessary to reduce your impact in your own practice, tell people about what you are doing and set the narrative to move towards more sustainable practice. For example, an excellent way to showcase the changes you've made is by achieving accreditation, such as the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Practice Standards Scheme Environmental Sustainability (2022) award or Investors in the Environment. By going through the accreditation process you will become aware of the many areas of the business you can look at, start to measure and monitor and improve on. This also helps avoid the risk of being seen to be ‘green washing’, which involves misleading the public to believe an organisation is doing more to protect the environment than it really is (United Nations, 2024).

Use a carbon calculator tailored to veterinary practice to work out your emissions, so going forwards you can manage what you measure (Vet Sustain, 2021). You will find it very rewarding when you start to see your emissions reducing because of the changes you have implemented. Both the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme Environmental Sustainability award and Investors in the Environment require a carbon calculation to be performed.

Appoint a ‘Green Team’, this can be made up of any number of, ideally, enthusiastic eco conscious employees from all areas of the business. It is even better if there is a member of senior management on the team too. It works best if the team has a leader who can help steer the project and keep the team motivated, chair meetings etc. Meet regularly (virtually or in person if no one has to travel) and encourage all members to take on tasks and actions that suit their skill sets and the time available. Communicate the changes and initiatives with the wider staff team, share minutes with everyone and ask for input and feedback. This will help keep colleagues engaged and on board.

To make your practice a more environmentally sustainable one, you will need to gradually change the culture within the practice and to do this well you need to bring everyone (staff and clients) along on the journey, so effective communication is key. And give yourself time, this won't happen overnight.

Anaesthetic gasses (the most commonly used in veterinary medicine are: isoflurane, sevoflurane and nitrous oxide) are greenhouse gases in their own right (Smith, 2022), so by using them they really pack a punch towards your carbon footprint. Not only does their manufacture and transport carry emissions and global warming potential, but using them (and subsequently releasing them when expired by the patient) is further adding to the greenhouse effect. To put this in context, if you were to accidentally smash a 250 ml bottle of isoflurane this action would release the equivalent carbon emissions as driving a medium-sized family car from Land's End to John O' Groats. Sevoflurane (1.7 tonnes CO2e per year) is the least harmful, followed by isoflurane (3.5 tonnes CO2e per year) then N2O (50.6 tonnes CO2e per year).

Table 2 shows some practical things you can do towards becoming more sustainable: it is important to not try to do everything at once, a lot of sudden changes can be unsettling and you do not want to disengage your colleagues. Make changes gradually and bring everyone along on the journey together.

These actions are colour coded to represent the easy wins (green) for those new to sustainability in practice, more involved actions (amber: may require senior management input) and advanced actions (red: likely to require senior management input).

And, most importantly, do not be discouraged by thinking you have to do everything perfectly. Give it a go and if what you tried doesn't work out, chalk it up to experience and move on. We do not purport to be experts in this field, we are veterinary professionals wanting and trying to make a difference. Remember doing something is far better than doing nothing.


Table 2. Practical tips for improving sustainability
Practise responsible resource use:
Green
  • Switch to Sterillium rub instead of chlorhexidine scrub for your surgical hand prep, it is kinder to your hands and on the environment and vastly reduces your hot water usage (plus you won't need to sterilise brushes or paper towels)
  • Wash scrubs, bedding and towels etc at 30°C unless heavily soiled, dry outside wherever possible
  • Offer zero waste and sustainable products to your clients in the waiting room
  • Provide cups and plates in the lunch room instead of disposable options
Amber
  • Switch to reusable items such as cloth drapes, theatre gowns, hats, crocs to ditch single use shoe covers
  • Start using reusable kennel liners instead of single use ones
  • Purchase reusable instrument tins to reduce your use of single use plastic pouches, this will also save you time
  • Install a water purifier so you're not buying in lots of plastic containers
  • Adopt a heating and cooling protocol. Install thermostats to help maintain ambient temperatures from 18–21°C
Red
  • Implement paper-free systems: ask your practice management system (PMS) provider what they can offer you so you can operate paper free, send as much to your clients by email or text message instead of post, encourage your staff to receive their veterinary communications by email rather than hard copy, allow online client registration, dental recording charts etc. Encourage vets and nurses to look at patient results online rather than printing them out. If something MUST be printed, ensure it's printed on both sides and on FSC or recycled paper
  • If your practice uses nitrous oxide, it's time to ‘Say No to N2O' (Vet Sustain, 2022)
  • Switch to using renewable energy, investigate if you are able to install solar panels on your roof and switch to a renewable energy tariff
Responsible procurement
Green
  • Some switches you make will be cheaper, for example recyclable fluid therapy bags
  • Buy in bulk to reduce the amount of plastic packaging you buy in (eg lubricant, chlorhexidine, laundry detergent etc)
  • Ask (and keep asking) for more sustainable alternatives from your suppliers and wholesalers. Also ask if they will take back their packaging (many do)
Amber
  • Make sustainable choices when purchasing: practise responsible procurement for example by following the Vet Sustain (2023) Green Procurement guide
  • Spend a bit more to buy quality items that are reusable and are going to last
Red
  • Improve stock control to reduce wastage, ask your PMS how to do this better
Adopt a responsible disposal policy:
Green
  • Segregate your waste as much as possible (eg general, clinical/offensive, recycling), make bins easily accessible and clearly labelled and/or colour coded, recycle as much as you can, check with your provider that they can take all the items they are collecting from you
  • Compost all organic matter that will break down (use the compost to grow pollinator friendly plants around the practice (Figure 1)), buy a compost bin (eg a Green Johanna) for patient and staff food waste
Amber
  • Carry out waste audits to ensure everything that is going into the different waste streams is supposed to be there, communicate with the staff and ensure everyone knows what goes where
  • Set up a blister pack recycling scheme for client and staff use. It will send out a really positive message, strengthen your bond with existing clients and may encourage new clients to join you. You could lobby pharma to sponsor this initiative
Red
  • Other things you can collect for appropriate disposal include: batteries, keys, defunct IT kit, printer cartridges, clipped clean pet fur (compost it or put it outside in the spring/summer months for the birds to use in their nests, only use fur without topical parasiticides on)
Be sustainable in your business and clinical operations:
Green
  • Practise responsible medicine prescribing: always consider antimicrobial resistance in your treatment, refresh your prescribing protocols (BSAVA, 2023), empower the vet team, implement good practice dispensing protocols and client education
  • Install LED lighting when old bulbs run out, use motion sensors and ‘switch off’ stickers, set computers to ‘sleep’ or switch off at the end of the day
  • Become a bee friendly practice (Figure 2) (British Bee Veterinary Society, 2024)
Amber
  • Request your clients return unused medications for safe disposal
  • Engage with colleagues and local communities: establish on site well-being gardens for staff and clients to use, green up outdoor spaces, install window boxes or hanging baskets, organise social and environmental projects (Figure 3)
Red
  • Insulate the building as much as possible, fit radiator reflectors etc
  • Consider your general anaesthetic clinical protocols, switch to low-flow anaesthesia, install Humphrey ADE circuits, reconsider pre-med protocols, use nerve blocks and improved analgesia to lower your patients' iso/sevo requirements, purchase capnographs to allow you to do this safely, use total intravenous anaesthesia or sedation where appropriate. It is vital to retrain the team so they are comfortable making this change
  • Revamp your Pet Health Clubs to move away from blanket parasiticide treatment for all animals and adopt a more tailored approach to each animal
  • Use vehicle trackers to reduce mileage and improve driving efficiencies, invest in electric vehicles where possible, install an EV recharging point
Figure 1. Pollinator friendly plants growing in practice-made compost
Figure 2. A practice proudly displaying its bee friendly status in their staff wellbeing garden
Figure 3. Laura Binnie, vet and sustainability lead at Paragon Veterinary Group, engaging with local school children educating them about the natural world and how we can protect it

How sustainability is good for business

Once you have made a few positive changes, make sure you share them on your website (Figure 4) and social media. This adds a lot of credibility to your practice name and makes it a practice that clients want to join and staff want to work for. Engaging your local press (McTaggart, 2022) will help you spread climate positive stories about your initiatives and your involvement in community projects are a great way of demonstrating this. This, in turn, will be attractive to new clients and help bond existing clients further and improve loyalty. Being a sustainable business is an added value that not all practices have, so will set you apart from your competition from a new client perspective.

Figure 4. Highlighting sustainability on the practice website adds credibility

Practices with environmental sustainability embedded in their ethos and that have a sustainability road map planned out are more attractive for staff recruitment and enjoy better staff retention. Sustainability matters to people, especially among eco conscious millennials and Gen Z professionals. If they can work for a business that cares about the environment, this sends out a really positive message and is in-line with their own personal values. In this competitive market, it is important to include details about your sustainability efforts and culture in any job advert to set you apart from other practices.

With climate change a reality and the potential disastrous consequences of inaction, understandably there is a lot of eco-anxiety in the population (Sharma and Chunekar, 2023), but working for a sustainable practice and being part of the solution will help employees feel less anxious and more empowered to do more about their own destiny and this will help to improve their mental wellbeing.

The professional development obtained from being part of a Green Team will give the members diversity in their day jobs and instill a sense of value and worth within the practice. This can help retain vets and veterinary nurses (BVA, 2019) and encourage them to stay in the profession rather than becoming despondent and looking for alternatives.

Every practice can make changes to reduce their carbon footprint, no matter the budget, and by doing so can save the practice money that can be reinvested in more sustainable initiatives, for example phasing out N2O and investing in Humphrey ADE circuits and capnography will hugely reduce the practice's carbon footprint at no more cost. With the rising cost of energy in the UK, the installation of solar panels is being recouped in as little as 2 years. Improving insulation around the building can reduce the carbon footprint by 580 kg and reduce heating costs. Look at sustainable alternatives, if the cost is cheaper than what you're using currently then it is a ‘no brainer’ switch. If it costs more, discuss the options with senior management and consider how they could save you money over time.

Conclusions

So what are the actions that you are taking away after reading this guide? Will you set up a Green Team, and put yourself forward as the lead? Will you work out your practice emissions by using a carbon calculator? Will you start asking your wholesaler for sustainable alternatives? Whatever it is, we encourage you to get started, hash out a sustainability plan for your practice and start celebrating the wins.

Vets and veterinary nurses play a pivotal role in the future of our planet, we sit at the centre where human, animal and the environment spheres converge, we are a trusted profession and by our actions can lead the way in making our lives, the lives of others and the businesses we represent, more sustainable. Feel inspired and empowered and continue to strive to make the veterinary profession one we are all proud to call our own. Good luck.

Further Reading

  • Abbasi K, Ali P, Barbour V et al. Time to treat the climate & nature crisis as one indivisible global health emergency. JSAP. 2023;65(2):87–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsap.13687
  • BVA. What role do vets have as advocates for sustainability and climate change? 2022. https://bit.ly/49GYvOm(accessed 19 February 2024)
  • The Carbon Literacy project. 2024. https://carbonliteracy.com (accessed 19 February 2024)
  • Vet Sustain. Antibiotic awareness week 2023. https://vetsustain.org/work/antibiotic-awareness-week-2023 (accessed 19 February 2024)