Planet
Woodland Trust Update
The UK’s largest woodland conservation charity
The Pet Memory Scheme enables Vet Group practices to recognise and celebrate the life of the loved pets that you have had the pleasure to look after, while also supporting the work of the Trust to create, protect and restore woodland across the UK. Click to find out more about the scheme…
A Vet’s Guide to Climate Change
In this webinar, Professor Dave Reay, Chair in Carbon Management and Education at the University of Edinburgh, discusses climate science and reflects on the role of veterinary professionals in driving solutions to climate change.
Spot light on Milton Keynes
At Milton Keynes practice we have been working hard to work towards more environmental choices. We have a passion for making the planet a better place to be. We are a big team but wanted a cross section of colleagues to get involved so we set up a team “Proactive Environmental Team” or PET for short.
So you can see we tried to make it a bit of fun too! Having everyone involved means that you get ideas on how to make environmental changes for all aspects of the business. The reception team had great ideas on ways to improve admin and the nurse and vet teams on ways to reduce GA emissions and items that we could reuse or recycle. We just started introducing the changes that the team came up. Why not give it a go yourselves and see what you can achieve.
Alison Sweeting - Practice Manager
See a copy of the Action Plan that Milton Keynes have in place to reduce anaesthetic gasses. Could you do something similar? Let us know at sustainability@vets4pets.com
Looking at theatre
There are plenty of ways to reduce waste and change how you use and monitor anaesthetic gases in a theatre environment. Although GA gases are the most harmful to the environment, changing what we wear and how we prep for theatre is also a great step towards sustainability.
What we wear in theatre
- Do you need to wear disposal shoe covers or could you change to Crocs that can be shared and easily cleaned
- Do you use disposable hats or could everyone have their own personal washable version
- Use personal face masks/ shields rather than disposables
- Use wipe down aprons instead of disposables
- Swap to biodegradable gloves
Prepping for theatre
- Using sterillium for scrubbing in will reduce the amount of water you use
- Swop from disposable drapes to reusable/ washable ones
- Consider how you autoclave instruments, could you use recycle bags or reusable tins
- Ensure that all equipment is serviced regularly, to check for leakage
- Consider updating equipment for better efficiency
