Checklist to help vets and nurses get greener

Vets and vet nurses are being urged to go green with a checklist launched by Vet Sustain aimed at making clinics more environmentally sound.

The Greener Veterinary Practice Checklist is a graphic itinerary listing ways staff at clinics can change their working practices to impact the environment as little as possible.

Vet Sustain

The list was released by Vet Sustain, an animal welfare and environmental campaign group dedicated to helping the veterinary industry go green.

In a 2019 BVA Voice of the Veterinary Profession Survey, 89% of vets said they would like to play a more active role in the industry’s sustainability.

Four areas

The list covers four major areas that practices can address – from responsible resource use, medicine allocation and empowering staff, to taking personal responsibility.

Vet Sustain founder and director Laura Higham said: “Veterinary professionals and members of the vet-led team are extremely well positioned to show leadership in sustainability, in their workplaces and in their communities.

“Our new checklist helps veterinary teams to put their sustainability intentions into practice, through a number of practical steps that will ultimately support the well-being of our patients, ourselves and the natural world.”

Green team

BVA junior vice-president Justine Shotton said: “We know that lots of our members are passionate about the environment, and the Greener Veterinary Practice Checklist is a great place to start for any veterinary team wanting to work in a more environmentally friendly way.

“The BVA recently published its own environmental policy, and with efforts from our staff ‘green team’, I am proud that we were able to work through several of these points before we drew it up.

“At this challenging time, we know that trying to work more sustainably can seem like a daunting task, but we hope that this checklist will help make it easy to get started on the road to a more sustainable practice.”