Sustainability Update

What we have achieved to date this year:

We have worked out our carbon emissions from energy use and anaesthetic gas use using the new Vet Sustain carbon calculator. We are now looking at how we can reduce our energy usage further, and also at carbon offsetting. We recently invested in a Humphrey ADE anaesthetic circuit at our Paignton surgery (we already use one at Torquay), and RVN Ellen has shared her recent learning on low flow anaesthesia with the team.

We have started a waste audit, so we can track how much waste, recycling and clinical waste we are generating. This will enable us to monitor the efficacy of any changes.

Several of the team took us up on the gift of a bee hotel and some pollinator friendly seeds for their gardens at home. This will hopefully give bees a little boost this spring and in coming years.

Still to do this year:

We are going to investigate Sterilium as a surgical scrub alternative, to reduce the use of plastic disposable scrubbing brushes.  We would like to reduce our paper use further e.g. digital consent forms, reduction in unneccessary printing.