Sustainability

Our mission

The Green Team at Eastcott is committed to helping reduce the hospitals’ environmental impact through a journey of continual reflection and improvement.  We have achieved our Investors in the Environment (iiE) Bronze accreditation. This national accreditation scheme is designed to help organisations reduce their impact on the environment and champion best practice by giving tailored support and expert advice in order to operate in a more sustainable way.

 

Our goals

Our environmental commitment can be demonstrated in our established objectives and goals.

  • Having an environmental policy in place
  • Appointing environmental champions
  • Monitoring key resource usage and implementing conservation techniques to achieve our environmental targets
  • Implementing a waste and recycling policy and a sustainable procurement policy
  • Working with suppliers to ensure they acknowledge and reduce the environmental impact of their products and transportation
  • Minimising unsustainable transport use
  • Taking part in a One Health sustainability project with our team
  • Publishing and distribution of an annual organisational sustainability report

What have we achieved so far?

Environmental Policy

In our Environmental Policy, we acknowledge that our operations have an effect on the environment and state the key environmental aspects that contribute to our environmental and carbon footprint.  These include:

  • Consumption of electricity, gas and water
  • Use of paper
  • Use of anaesthetic gases
  • Waste generation
  • Transport emissions
  • Use of raw materials, including prescribed drugs and medicines
  • Procured goods and services and their environmental impact

We have committed ourselves to improve our environmental management system. We will convey this policy to all our employees, ensuring that they are provided with training to increase awareness of environmental matters.

Resources usage – Paper, Energy and Waste

  • We have encouraged our staff to cancel unwanted magazine subscriptions
  • From July 2020, pay advice slips were made available online, reducing the amount of paper used within the practice.
  • All referral letters are being emailed rather than posted to the referring vets
  • Sleep mode, a low power mode for electronic devices, has been implemented on our computers and printers
  • Most printers have now double-sided printing set as the default
  • ‘Energy Saving’ stickers have been placed around the practice to remind everyone to play their part and to switch off air conditioning units, computers, printers and lights.
  • We’ve introduced additional recycling points in the pharmacy area, staff room, Internal Medicine Procedures Room, and induction area.

What’s next?

We’re committed to play our part towards looking after the environment. Projects currently underway include:

  • Planning a ‘Sustainability Awareness Week’ looking at packaging, recycling and food waste
  • We will be increasing the number of recycling points within the practice
  • We will look to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by moving to Low Flow Anaesthesia solutions
  • We will improve the outside areas of the hospital to encourage wildlife and link this to improved mental wellbeing at work

For more details on any of these initiatives please contact us at GreenTeam@eastcottvets.co.uk

Download Environmental Policy (PDF)