BVA's work on #GreenTeamVet

We know that the environment is important to the profession, with 89% of vets saying they want to play a more active role in the UK sustainability agenda. Over the last few years, we've worked closely with various organisations to bring you helpful guidance and resources, including:

• Greener Veterinary Practice Checklist

  Alongside BVNA and SPVS, we supported Vet Sustain in developing this helpful list, outlining the points a veterinary practice may consider to become more sustainable and providing links to available guidance and green options.

• Greener Veterinary Practice webinar series

  We teamed up with Vet Sustain and VDS Training to bring you a series of free webinars based on the topics covered in the Greener Veterinary Practice Checklist. Each month, we focused on a different topic around sustainability, discussing the key points and ideas for how to embed the principles into your workplace.

• Veterinary Carbon Calculator

  This is the first carbon calculator specifically tailored to the environmental impacts of veterinary practice. It helps vet teams to easily calculate their carbon emissions, providing a baseline carbon footprint which practices can use to set measurable targets and track progress. Developed by Vet Sustain in partnership with Investors in the Environment (iiE), the calculator is supported by BVA, BVNA, BSAVA and SPVS.
  
  As BVA member, you get a 33% discount off the purchase price! To claim this benefit, head over to our member portal. 

We've also published lots of blog articles to give you a range of useful tips, inspiration, and motivation for your journey to be greener. Take a look at this article, which helpfully summarises many of them in one place.

Embedding sustainability into our work

We make sure we consider the environment in the policies and campaigns we work on, taking a One Health approach to everything we do.

This year, we launched our sustainable finfish aquaculture position, which considers the environmental, ethical and economic issues associated with farming fish. This complements our position on sustainable animal agriculture and reminds us we need a #LessAndBetter approach to eating animal-derived products.

After launching our position on responsible use of parasiticides for cats and dogs and the 5-point plan poster for vets, this year we added a client-facing resource pack (3,658 KB) to help vets talk to clients about keeping people, pets and the planet safe.

We're also members of the UK One Health Co-ordination group to help us work closely with human, animal and environmental health experts for the benefit of all. You can read some fantastic examples of the work from many group members in our One Health in Action report.

Leading by example

Over the last few years, we've worked hard to reduce our own environmental footprint at BVA HQ. We've switched to 100% renewable energy suppliers, implemented sustainable travel and procurement policies, and introduced a range of waste recycling schemes. Our green team meets regularly to discuss ideas, keep all our staff up to date, and even organise litter-picking events.

Our starting point was to create an environmental policy that gets updated yearly. If you don't already have one, try using ours as a template for your workplace.

Thanks to all of this work, we're proud to have achieved the 'Green' accreditation with Investors in the Environment for the second year running, and for being recognised as sustainability influencers in their 2022 awards.