Welcome to SPVS Sustainability Hub
Your go-to resource for building a greener, more sustainable veterinary practice. Here you’ll find practical tools, guidance, and inspiration to help reduce your environmental impact, improve business efficiency, and make meaningful change. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to take your sustainability efforts to the next level, hopefully these resources will support you with your goals.
Vet Sustain are championing sustainability in the veterinary profession. SPVS are pleased to be working closely with them, supporting the work they do and are also involved in their Veterinary Sustainability Roundtable.
Vet Sustain’s Carbon Calculator
The Veterinary Carbon Calculator, developed in collaboration with Investors in the Environment (iiE), will help you compute the carbon footprint of your practice. With supporting resources to help you understand which areas of your organisation to focus on, this calculator will enable you to take action to reduce your impact on the environment.
Download the below documents for tips on getting started and learning to interpret the results.
SPVS members qualify for a special rate when using the Vet Sustain Carbon Calculator
We initially set out on our sustainability journey to “do the right thing” so it has been a real bonus to now be able to show that sustainability also makes good business sense! On all the parameters we measure using the Vet Sustain Carbon Calculator tool we have shown savings when corrected to FTE numbers employed at the practice – these are not huge savings at just over £100 per FTE per year, and there has been some effort involved but it is very reassuring for us that it is not a cost. However, our key learning is that sustainability is a culture, led from the top, but embedded within the beliefs and behaviours throughout the team – so not only does everyone consider the sustainability impacts of what we do, they also regularly come up with new ideas on how to be ever more efficient, which in turns adds to the carbon savings.
David Black, Senior Director at Paragon
Responsible use of parasiticides resources
Greener Veterinary Practice Checklist
The Vet Sustain Greener Veterinary Practice Checklist outlines the points a veterinary practice may consider to become more sustainable, and provides links to available guidance and green options.
This Checklist has been created by Vet Sustain in partnership SPVS and other BVA divisions. On this page you can find the full Checklist together with links to useful resources and our independent recommendations, and a free download of the poster for your practice.
Zoe Halfacree’s, MA VetMB CertVDI CertSAS FHEA DipECVS FRCVS, Director & Greener Veterinary Practice Working Group Member – is currently developing a “Greener Veterinary Operating Theatre Checklist” coming soon
The Climate Action Plan
This is a great way to ‘frame’ any environmental work in your practice in terms of what you have DONE, are DOING, and plan to DO LATER. It’s a quick and easy tool to use, especially if you feel like you want to be more forward looking. Just scan the QR code, answer a couple of simple questions and get a footprint estimate in 2 minutes for free! There’s no need to gather any data before hand.
Other resources and initiatives
Sagetech – a new system for the capture and recycling of volatile anaesthetics including iso, sevo, and desflurane
In 2024 the EU passed a law to make it illegal to release such agents into the atmosphere contributing towards greenhouse gases. The production of volatile agent is also very carbon footprint heavy.
This new system from Sagetech collects the agent (95% of which are not absorbed by the patient) returning and purifying the unused agent for re-use. The machine sends out an alarm when each canister is full and only allows the current procedure to complete before requiring replacement.
Veterinary Green Discussion Forum
Anthony Chadwick from The Webinar Vet set up the Veterinary Green Discussion Forum in 2021 it is the premier gathering for professionals dedicated to embedding sustainability into the veterinary industry. This event, set to run annually until 2030, brings together leading voices from the veterinary profession, environmental experts, and dedicated advocates for sustainability. Attendees network, join discussions, workshops, and hands-on sessions aimed at driving sustainability within veterinary practices and beyond.
Keep up to date with the latest VGDF news here << link to Anthony Chadwick’s LinkedIn >>>
Royal Canin
Check out Royal Canin’s excellent ‘special edition’ of Vet Focus specifically on, ‘One Health’ with a fantastic set of articles covering topics such as:
- Veterinary sustainability – why and how?
- The 21st century sustainable practice
- Circularity in the operating theatre
- Climate change, veterinary practice and pet nutrition
- Sustainable prescribing and more
SPVS Congress – ensuring sustainable event production
We are working hard to ensure the long term sustainability of SPVS Congress. Click the link below to read a bit about some of the things we have in place already.
Vet Sustain are currently advising us of how we can continue to enhance the sustainability of SPVS Congress, watch this space …
