As part of Davies Veterinary Specialists’ continual commitment to improving sustainability in practice, our enthusiastic Green Group recently celebrated World Environment Day (June 5th 2019) with a whole range of sustainability-boosting activities. As well as encouraging staff to make pledges, calculate their own carbon footprints, and pedal to make smoothies, the Green Group unveiled a pet owner newsletter with suggestions on green pet ownership. We also offered reusable water bottles to clients seen at Davies Veterinary Specialists on World Environment Day.
World Environment Day is a United Nations campaign held on June 5th every year, aiming to raise awareness of climate change and environmental issues. This year’s hashtag was #BeatAirPollution – our smoothie bike motivated the team to enjoy the advantages of pedal power! Pledges were also made by staff to show how they would play their part in becoming more sustainable over the next year.
Ellie West, sustainability lead at Davies Veterinary Specialists, said “It was wonderful to see so many Davies’ staff thinking hard about how to make a real change in their own lives. We are aware of the many benefits of active travel choices, and are keen to further develop our travel policy to support our staff and clients. We plan to continue to provide practical solutions to inspire our staff, clients, and other practices to reduce their environmental impacts.”
The smoothie bike was provided by Travel Choices, a local council-funded project to encourage walking, cycling and other sustainable modes of travel. To help clients get involved, we have also created a newsletter on how to become an environmentally friendly pet owner. This provides helpful tips on how to make sustainability-conscious decisions when it comes to choosing pet food, toys, walks, poo bags and cat litter, as well as explaining what’s new in sustainability in the veterinary world.
Everyone at Davies Veterinary Specialists is really proud of what we’ve achieved so far in our mission to work more sustainably. Our Green Group was formed by a group of enthusiastic team members from our clinician, nursing, maintenance, reception and kennel assistant teams in February 2017. It built on previous green initiatives and established a comprehensive environmental policy and action plan. We submitted these, with relevant evidence, for audit by Investors in the Environment (iiE). This included measuring resource use, improving recycling, reducing waste, engaging staff, and as a result reducing our overall carbon footprint and financial costs.
We were the first UK veterinary practice to achieve accreditation from iiE. We were awarded Silver level accreditation in 2018 and sustainability lead Ellie West, European Specialist in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia at Davies, achieved Best Green Champion at the recent IiE awards ceremony in April.
Our new pet owner newsletter is one of a range of online sustainability resources now available. Click here to download your copy.
If you’re interested in learning more about our green initiatives, click here to visit the sustainability pages on our website.