Pete the Vet: What vets can do to make their businesses more eco-friendly

Pete the Vet: How to chose a sustainable vet pratice

All of society needs to be more conscious of our joint responsibility to look after the environment, and this includes vet clinics. Many of the challenges are identical to other small businesses, but there are some vet-specific issues that need to be addressed. If you’re an eco-conscious consumer, it’s worth discussing this area with your own vet. Most vets are as concerned about the environment as anyone else, and they are generally happy to outline the measures they are taking.

Practise responsible resource use

When the carbon footprint of a typical vet clinic is assessed, the main carbon hotspot is no surprise: nearly 80% of carbon dioxide production comes from the fossil fuels – gas, oil and electricity - used for energy and heating. This can be reduced by a range of measures, including improving the BER rating of the building (eg by upgrading insulation), setting up accurate time-linked controls (there’s no point in most vet clinics being heated after-hours), and creating individualised heating controls for each area (e.g. thermostatic switches on radiators).

It can also help to switch to a green energy provider: websites such as https://switcher.ie/gas-electricity/guides/renewable-energy/ include listings of the companies that offer energy from renewable sources.

Segregate and dispose of waste

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

As with any household or business, waste in vet clinics needs to be processed in the most eco-friendly way, reducing, reusing, and recycling where possible. The best way to ensure that this is happening is to carry out a waste audit, noting exactly where different types of waste go. A typical clinic has four main waste outlets:

Recyclables: cardboard, paper, plastics and glass can usually be recycled. As well as the standard commercially provided recycling, many vets extend the idea by re-using certain items within their daily work. As an example, a cut-off plastic drip infusion bag can be recycled as a waterproof boot for a dog with a dressing on a leg that needs to be kept dry when the dog goes outside. Clearly this needs to be done with due regard for ensuring that anything reused in this way is free of hazards.

General waste: anything produced by the business that is not recyclable is usually placed in a different receptacle, destined for landfill. This is an area that most of us can do more to minimise if we are more thoughtful and careful.

Compostable: vet clinics do not usually produce significant amounts of compostable waste.

Clinical waste: this is a specific area that’s unique for health care providers, including vets. Clinical waste is strictly defined in the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992, as any waste that consists wholly or partly of: syringes, needles or other sharp instruments, drugs or other pharmaceutical products, swabs or dressings, and animal tissue, blood or bodily fluids. Vet clinics generate significant amounts of clinical waste, and this has to be stored and disposed of in strictly regulated ways. Clinical waste is collected from vet clinics by specialist companies who process it safely using high-temperature incineration. To some extent, this is what it is: you cannot easily reduce the amount of blood, faeces or urine produced in a vet clinic. However, some steps can be made: single-use plastics bins may be able to be replaced by reusable sharps bins or cardboard-based pharmaceuticals bins.

There are other ways that vet clinics may be able to reduce waste.

Reduce disposable materials usage, including single-use plastics, where possible. 

This can be difficult in the clinical world where sterility is essential. But examples of improvements include reusable cloth surgical hats (rather than single use disposable hats), dedicated theatre shoes instead of disposable shoe covers for operation theatres, reusable cloth hand towels, surgical gowns and surgical drapes, and recyclable sterilisation pouches for surgical instruments. It’s also possible to replace purified water bottles by using a water purifier.

Put water-saving measures in place: install cistern displacement devices in toilets to save one litre per flush.

Use easy-clean and easy-dry fleece animal bedding instead of blankets or towels.

Replace the traditional surgical hand cleaning scrub, where water taps being left on for five minutes or more while the surgeon washes and scrubs their hands, by using alcohol-based, no-water, surgical skin preparation.

Be sustainable in day to day functions

• Include eco-principles in building design where possible.
• Use evidence-based infection control measures and minimise use of ecotoxic chemicals.
• Minimise the greenhouse gas impacts of anaesthetic agents: this is a technical area, but there are anaesthetic protocols that use inhalation gases that have less of an environmental impact.
• Enhance on-site green spaces and promote biodiversity in surroundings. Many clinics have some green space around them: wild flower and bee-friendly planting can help.
• Promote animal welfare: in the veterinary sphere, sustainability includes promoting animal welfare friendly policies as much as possible, with the aim of creating a more balanced, better world into the long term. This area includes supporting sustainable welfare-friendly agriculture when advising farming clients.
• Create policies to reduce emissions from travel, supporting walking, cycling or public transport use, by staff and clients, and reducing carbon emissions from conferencing, education and practice meetings by attending virtually where possible.
• Use paper-free management systems wherever possible.

Use medicines responsibly

• Practise responsible antimicrobial stewardship (including antiparasitic drugs) to mitigate resistance and to minimise contamination of the environment (eg owners should not let dogs swim in rivers or lakes soon after spot-on products have been used, and should pick up faeces to stop excreted medication spilling into the environment).
• Avoid drug wastage through good stocking principles.
• Dispose of drugs correctly (avoid ecotoxicity).

Recognise that sustainability includes paying attention to the physical, emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing of everyone associated with the vet clinic.

Every vet clinic should appoint a Sustainability Officer to oversee this important area, and their first task should be to write a sustainability policy for the business.

And finally, vets should communicate what they are doing with their clients: we are all in this together, and the more we share what we are doing to help, the more we are all aware of this important aspect of life.