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Environmental Sustainability

Read our environmental sustainability policy here

Who are we?

Coombefield Veterinary Hospital (CVH) is an RCVS accredited hospital in Axminster, with an in-house out of hours service (called Three Counties Veterinary Emergencies) and a branch practice in Seaton. CVH is part of IVC Evidensia and prides itself in providing high quality care across all companion animal species.

Our commitment

At CVH we acknowledge that our practice’s activities, services and operations impact the environment. CVH also recognises that we have a legal, moral and ethical responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of our business. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact as much as practicable, while upholding the highest standards of animal health, welfare and clinical care for our patients.

Aims

  • Become Positive Pawprint Partners
  • Consider the effects of climate change and environmental factors in all business decisions
  • Comply with all applicable standards and legal requirements
  • Share our actions with colleagues and clients
  • Aim to improve the sustainability of our practice year on year

Objectives

Energy and water

  • We will work to minimise greenhouse gas emissions by managing heating and air conditioning in our buildings.
  • We will minimize anaesthetic gas usage by using multimodal analgesia, local anaesthetic and low flow anaesthesia techniques.
  • We will reduce travel between sites, hold meetings online and consider car-sharing for face-to-face meetings if possible.
  • We will consider client travel when booking appointments, and group appointments if possible to minimise trips.
  • We use renewable electricity and LED lighting where possible.
  • We will use water responsibly.

Resources and Waste

 

  • We aim to reduce single use items to only those clinically necessary
  • We will reuse items when safe to do so clinically
  • We aim to recycle all waste when it is not clinical
  • The use of ecotoxic chemicals will be minimised so only used when necessary to maintain high levels of clinical safety and excellence.
  • We will report excessive packaging though IVC’s procurement team.
  • We will practice good stock control to stop waste.
  • We will prescribe medications to minimise waste and encourage clients to return unused medications to us for safe disposal.

Biodiversity

  • We will manage our sites in a wildlife-friendly way to improve local biodiversity.
  • We will share our actions with our clients.

Roles and Responsibilities

This policy is supported by our Clinical Directors and the greater management team, and it is their responsibility to ensure that it can be implemented. In the implementation of this policy, we will encourage wide-reaching participation and have a ‘Green Team’ who meet regularly and are our ‘sustainability champions’

Implementation

We will:

  • Use the ‘Green Team’ to empower colleagues to make changes that will reduce our environmental impact.
  • Provide colleagues with the time and resources to investigate and implement changes to improve the sustainability of our practice.
  • Discuss the policy aims and objectives at team meetings and add specific local goals

Evaluation

To meet the commitments outlined in this policy and achieve continuous improvement, we will:

  • Provide the leadership team with a regular review of environmental performance.
  • Develop environmental targets and monitor performance against those targets.
  • Integrate environmental objectives into our business activities and seek ways to continually improve our performance.
  • Incorporate the effects of climate change and environmental factors into business decisions.
  • Review this policy regularly in consultation with colleagues and other stakeholders, and reassess our aims to achieve continuous improvement