How green are we
How Green
is Green Vets?
When we set out our vision for a modern veterinary surgery, we knew that it not only had to reflect our professional commitment to the best animal care but also our personal convictions about environmental sustainability.
We have made it our priority to look for suppliers that could help us realize this vision.
Even though ‘being Green’ is a constant thread through our business, we too have an impact on the environment. If we want to deliver services to our patients and clients, we need to use electricity, gas and chemicals. Without that, we would simply not be able to look after the animals under our care.
But that does not mean we could not do better. We strive for Green Vets to have as little negative impact as possible, and to reduce our emissions and waste where we can. To do this, we first need to take stock of where we are and take an honest look at what impact we have.
Currently, Green House Gas and Carbon reporting is only legally required for large corporate groups rather than small businesses such as individual practices. However, we have always recognised the need for early voluntary action, and through that inspire other businesses to do the same.
We have used Vet Sustain to calculate our practice carbon footprint, and we can report that our 2023 emissions are 16.23 Tons CO2 equivalent.
This covers our direct, or Scope 1 emissions such as
- Natural gas for heating the building
- Fuel for staff vehicles during business use
- Inverter heat pump refrigerant loss during servicing
- Anaesthetic gas used during procedures
And our indirect, or Scope 2 emissions such as
- Emissions created by the production of electricity the business uses.
It covers some indirect, Scope 3 emissions such as the waste we generate.
We are working on quantifying other Scope 3 emissions such as employee commutes and drug deliveries to make our Green House Gas reporting more accurate and help reduce our emissions further.
Gathering data about emissions is not straightforward and some assumptions had to be made. Water use and commercial waste are estimates. Clinical waste streams are more accurate, but a conversion factor had to be used where only volume data was available. We aim to gather more reliable data and improve the accuracy of our 2024 report.
Based on the available data, our goal is to responsibly offset our emissions and become carbon Neutral in 2026.
Electricity
We have partnered up with Octopus Energy, one of Europe’s largest investors in renewable power, managing 300+ UK green energy producers (mostly solar and wind farms).
For every kWh of electricity they supply, they pump extra investment into renewable generation by buying a portion of their energy directly from UK green generators.
This includes getting energy from community generators, and their own green generation via over 300 renewable sites managed by Octopus Energy Generation (making them Europe’s biggest investor in solar energy) On top of this, they also invest in green generation by buying energy from the open market alongside green REGO certificates to supply us with reliable, consistent energy when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
In 2018, Octopus committed to providing even greener energy – switching all their customers to 100% renewable electricity.
| Fuel | Octopus | National Average |
| Coal | 0% | 3.4% |
| Natural Gas | 0% | 39.3% |
| Nuclear | 0% | 13.9% |
| Renewables | 100% | 40.8% |
| Other | 0% | 2.6% |
| Total | 100% | 100% |
Source: Department for energy, security and net zero, 1st April ’22 to 31st March ’23. Find out more about Octopus Energy
Co-owner of Derril Water Solar Park
Green Vets has taken another exciting step toward environmental sustainability.
Until now if you wanted to own your own source of green electricity, typically your only option was to install solar panels on your house. This all changed in 2017, with the foundation of Ripple, a company that was set up to give people the opportunity to own their own source of large-scale, low-cost renewable power. Until then, only large corporations had been able to own their own source of low-cost renewable energy for a number of years; Now the formation of cooperatives are enabling household energy consumers and small businesses to do the same and to make green energy ownership affordable and accessible for everyone.
Based in the Torridge district of Devon, Derril Water Solar Park will have about 70,000 panels which have the potential to power around 14,000 homes with the cheapest and greenest power and will save 19,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. It will be the first shared solar park in the UK to have one of its owners as a cooperative, which is owned by the people who will benefit from its green, low-cost electricity. It aims to bring a new form of high-impact climate action into the mainstream.
Green Vets have bought enough shares in the projects to generate the majority of our electricity needs , without paying money to the large corporations who have benefitted from the volatile energy prices in recent times.
Ambulance
In July 2020 we finally realised our dream of having the U.K.’s first Zero-Emissions, Fully Electric Veterinary Ambulance. With the help of Go Green Autos we found a van with bespoke kenneling for 2 dogs and plenty of room for emergency equipment.
It is charged with 100% renewable electricity from our supplier, reducing our carbon footprint even further.
Web-Hosting
While many people are making the effort to be more conscientious about their use of resources, there are some ways individuals unknowingly waste. One of these more hidden resource drainers are the server hosts people connect to every day when they surf the internet.
In 2013, U.S. data centres alone consumed about 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, representing more than 2% of all U.S. electricity use. ( 10 facts to know about data centers, Office of energy efficiency & renewable energy, November 17, 2014) With the increasing use of the internet, global use of data centres is only going up.
So how can this problem be solved? We can’t stop using the internet and companies still need to rely on data centres. The only available answer is green server hosting. Green hosting, also known as eco-friendly hosting, reduces the environmental impact of internet hosting by utilizing green technologies.
We have teamed up with Ethical Internet. They offer a comprehensive hosting package on a UK-based server located in a 100% renewable energy powered data centre.
find out more about Ethical Internet here
Cleaning Products
Isn’t it ironic how most conventional cleaning products create more waste and pollution outside our homes and businesses? At Green Vets we care about what happens when we send these products off into the wider world. It did take a bit of research, but we found some great environmentally friendly cleaning alternatives for the practice.Traditional disinfectants used in veterinary practices are especially environmentally toxic and continue to do harm long after they are flushed down the drain. Finding environmentally friendly disinfection products has been one of the biggest challenges, but we have found some innovative solutions to this problem.
Salvesan is safe, fast and effective against all known pathogens and kills 99.9999% of harmful germs, viruses and spores including influenzas, E-coli, C-difficile, MRSA and Norovirus. It is formulated from hypochlorous acid, which is harmless to humans and animals and is biodegradable and environmentally friendly.
We use Aerte Air Disinfection Units in the consult rooms and operating theatre. These have been developed in conjunction with British microbiologists, infection control experts and engineers to replicate the way in which the natural environment protects and cleaning the air in open spaces. The technology reproduces these effects in an enclosed environment such as hospitals, wards, schools or theatres (to name a few examples), neutralising airborne pathogens. The Air Disinfection Unit is one of the winning products in the Smart Solutions for HCAI programme 2009 and is in use in a number of UK hospitals. It has proven to be effective against MRSA, C. difficile, Norovirus and H1N1. It uses Calcium Peroxide that after use breaks down into harmless natural compounds. Reducing the microbiological burden through the use of Air Disinfection units means we can reduce on harmful cleaning products and still achieve a cleaner surgical environment.