Going forward we will continue to develop our sustainability goals to further reduce our environmental impact. If you can think of any other things we can do to help us achieve this, please get in touch. It would be great to have your input as well.
So far we have taken the following measures to help us achieve that goal:
We have implemented the BEVA Protect Me antibiotic use protocols to try and ensure responsible use of antibiotics within the practice.
Where appropriate we have implemented wormer free worming programmes to help to reduce the impact of anthelmintic resistance on horse welfare. Reducing wormer use has the added benefit of reducing the amount of wormers that are introduced to the environment as this has been shown to have a deleterious effect on dung beetles and other small invertebrates that live on horse pastures.
Where wormers have been brought from Pinkham Equine, we offer a free return service of the empty wormers so that we can ensure that they are disposed of responsibility.
We use renewable electricity in the office. We use Octopus’s (the largest investor in solar energy in Europe) Renewable Energy Tariff.
We offset all the mileage that vets do for their calls. There is no way of removing this impact until we are all driving electric cars supplied by renewable energy so in the meantime, we are directly contributing to carbon offsetting schemes that try to mitigate some of the carbon footprint that the practice has.
We separate our waste streams to ensure that we are recycling waste where possible and have a dedicated commercial recycling collection to assist this.
We try and re-use items wherever possible. That may be re-using clean bandaging material where possible or re-sterilising plastic equipment to prolong it use. We have an ethylene oxide steriliser on site which allow us to do this to the highest standard.
We try and purchase consumable items that have the least impact. For example, we have recently started stocking biodegradable vinyl gloves.
We try where possible to be paperless with over 95% of our invoices go out via email. - We plan to start advising our suppliers where excessive packaging is used to try and reduce the waste we generate.
Redesigning our phone system to run through existing software, thereby negating the need for additional hardware purchase/waste.
Reusing boxes, packaging and envelopes in the office.
Refilling small containers from large ones (Hibiscrub/hand sanitiser etc).
