13 Jul 2021
Group hits ambitious target of eliminating use of nitrous oxide as an anaesthetic agent from all its UK and Ireland practices in less than 12 months, following success of its “No Need for Nitrous” campaign.
James Westgate
Job Title
Linnaeus environmental sustainability lead Ellie West.
Linnaeus has managed to eliminate the use of nitrous oxide from all of its practices less than year after launching its “No Need for Nitrous” campaign.
The group announced the ambitious target last year with the aim of removing the use of nitrous oxide as an anaesthetic agent from all of its 60 primary care practices and 16 specialist-led referral hospitals across the UK and Ireland.
Less than a year later, Linnaeus has confirmed it has stopped using the gas as an anaesthetic from all of its practices due to its impact on the environment.
Nitrous oxide has far more global warming potential than carbon dioxide and can persist in the atmosphere for more than 100 years, as well as strongly depleting ozone in the atmosphere.
The gas was also one of six main greenhouse gases named as targets to reduce as part of the United Nations’ Kyoto Protocol.
Complete removal of nitrous oxide from the Linnaeus operational carbon footprint represents removing around 192 tonnes of CO2 equivalent of carbon emissions in 2020.
Ellie West, environmental sustainability lead at Linnaeus, said: “The No Need for Nitrous campaign is an important cornerstone of our commitment to reducing our environmental impacts.
“By eliminating nitrous oxide from use as an anaesthetic agent within Linnaeus practices, we are removing an extremely persistent and potent greenhouse gas and, instead, upgrading to safe and effective alternatives to provide a better quality of care to our pets and our planet.”
The Mars-owned Linnaeus group also signed up to a unique partnership with the Investors in the Environment (iiE) last year, and a number of its practices have launched green initiatives internally.
These include Davies Veterinary Specialists, which has achieved green level iiE accreditation, and Cave and North Downs Specialist Referrals, which have achieved silver level.
