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Cave Veterinary Specialists Launches Comprehensive Environmental Initiative

4 years ago
1666 views

Posted
24th March, 2020 11h06

Author
Linnaeus Group


One of the UK’s leading veterinary referral centres has launched a comprehensive, environmental initiative to cut emissions, waste and costs.

Cave Veterinary Specialists, in Somerset, has introduced a raft of new green measures to transform the way the practice is run to increase sustainability and reduce its impact on the environment.

Staff at the Linnaeus-owned centre have even set up a ‘green committee’ to monitor the implementation of plans and investigate further changes which could held diminish Cave’s carbon footprint.

Veterinary specialist Will McFadzean (pictured), who is leading the committee, said: “We are very serious about this and believe we can make Cave a far more environmentally-friendly business.

“We’ve put a detailed action plan in place to initiate change across the business to increase efficiency, re-use materials, embrace recyclable options and, in doing so, reduce waste.

“We’ve made some major changes and some more minor changes but, overall, it should make a sizeable difference to our impact on the environment.”

The key changes the company has made are in a variety of different areas.

Switching to low flow anaesthesia and ending the use of nitrous oxide gas will reduce the practice’s CO2 footprint by around 100 tonnes a year.

Elsewhere, using microfibre colour-coded cloths, pre-soaked with vaporised peracetic acid instead of Clinell wipes, will save 8,000 wipes a month and £15,000.

Use of theatre gowns has been reduced and the practice now has reusable theatre hats, wipeable clipping aprons and recyclable sterilisation packaging for theatre equipment.  

“We now send zero waste to landfill,” added Will.

“There’s more, and larger, recycling bins around the practice and we’ve introduced blue recyclable hand towels to replace the white, non-recyclable ones.

“All bottles used in pharmacy are recyclable and all new syringes are made from recycled plastic in a carbon neutral factory.

“We also have a paperless referral process and send certificates via email rather than on printed card, and our lab reports can now be accessed online.

“It extends right down to providing recyclable and biodegradable drinks cups and bamboo stirrers in reception. It’s a long and detailed list which illustrates just how determined we are to make a significant change in the way we work and our impact on the environment.”

Cave offers comprehensive, specialist-led services in anaesthesia, cardiology, dermatology, internal medicine, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, orthopaedic surgery, pain management and rehabilitation and soft tissue surgery.

For more information on Cave Veterinary Specialists, visit https://cave-vet-specialists.co.uk.


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