Hampshire vet practice achieves top environmental accreditation

St Peter’s Vets has achieved the Investors in the Environment (iiE) Green accreditation for introducing sustainability initiatives, including saving energy and reducing waste at its surgeries in Farlington, Horndean, Petersfield and Liss.

iiE is a national environmental accreditation scheme that helps organisations reduce their impact on the environment and become more sustainable, and Green is the highest accreditation it awards.

St Peter’s Vets has already attained Bronze and Silver level iiE accreditations, and its environmental efforts also led to the practice being crowned Green Business of the Year at last year’s Petersfield Awards.

The practice has reduced its water consumption, increased the amount of paper, cardboard and plastic it recycles and achieved an 8.11% reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) it produces by reducing energy consumption. Reducing CO2 emissions is critically important for slowing the rate of climate change.

Among the green initiatives St Peter’s Vets has introduced are:-

• Saving energy by turning off lights, equipment and radiators when not needed and setting computers to go into sleep mode after periods of inactivity
• Reducing hot water consumption
• Drying items naturally instead of using a tumble dryer
• Segregating waste into different recycling categories, such as soft plastics, pet food packaging, ink cartridges and blister packs, alongside normal household recycling
• Reducing single-use plastics
• Adjusting anaesthetic protocols to cut greenhouse gas emissions
• Using reusable surgical scrub hats in theatre and making reusable covers for medications that are sensitive to light
• Saving paper by only printing receipts if requested
• Encouraging car sharing and improving the fuel efficiency of its mobile veterinary service
• Supporting community initiatives, including attending a tree planting day with the Petersfield Climate Action Group

St Peter’s Vets is part of VetPartners, a veterinary group led by veterinary professionals which has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its sites in the UK and Europe to do its part to address the global climate crisis. VetPartners has helped to lead the way in making the veterinary sector more environmentally friendly by investing in energy efficiency and switching to renewable energy and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.

St Peter’s Vets’ environmental initiatives are overseen by vet Ella Townsend, who has formed a ‘green team’ with five colleagues.

Ella said: “We’re very pleased with the Green accreditation, which reflects all the hard work we've been doing across our practices. I'm also very proud of how embedded sustainability has become within St Peter's Vets and it has become second nature for team members to recycle or reuse everything they can and be as energy efficient as possible.

“We’ve also been trying to encourage our clients and the local community to be more sustainable and are delighted with the positive feedback we’ve received. If we all make changes and can see others leading by example, then collectively we can have more of an impact. Pet owners can bring empty pet medication blister packs and pill bottles to us for recycling and we’ve collaborated with local community groups to spread awareness and this has been really rewarding.

“Although we’ve achieved the highest iiE scheme accreditation, we’re going to continue doing all we can to reduce our environmental impact even further and will be continuously looking to find new ways to make more positive changes.”

St Peter’s Vets has practices in Petersfield, Liss, Horndean and Farlington and puts the care of pets, care of people and care of each other above all else. It is part of VetPartners which owns some of the UK’s most respected and trusted veterinary practices and associated animal healthcare businesses, and which has pledged to cut its carbon emissions to achieve net zero by 2045.