Ellie West riding the smoothie bike
Davies Green Team Takes Action For World Environment Day
5 years ago 
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The enthusiastic Green Group at Davies Veterinary Specialists (Davies), Hertfordshire got stuck in to World Environment Day last week, as part of their continual commitment to sustainability in practice. As well as encouraging staff to make pledges, calculate their own carbon footprints, and pedal to make smoothies, they unveiled a pet owner newsletter to make suggestions on green pet ownership and offered reusable water bottles to clients seen at Davies on June 5th.
World Environment Day is a United Nations campaign held on June 5th every year, aiming to raise awareness of climate change and environmental issues. This year’s hashtag was #BeatAirPollution and to this end Davies installed a smoothie bike to motivate the team to enjoy the advantages of pedal power. Pledges were also made by staff to show how they would play their part in becoming more sustainable.
Ellie West, sustainability lead at Davies, said "It was wonderful to see so many Davies staff thinking hard about how to make a real change in their own lives. We are aware of the many benefits of active travel choices, and are keen to further develop our travel policy to support our staff and clients. We plan to continue to provide practical solutions to inspire our staff, clients, and other practices to reduce their environmental impacts."
The smoothie bike was provided by Travel Choices, a local council-funded project to encourage walking, cycling and other sustainable travel modes.
To help clients get involved Davies has also created a newsletter on how to become an environmentally friendly pet owner. It provides helpful tips on how to make sustainability-conscious decisions when it comes to choosing pet food, toys, walks, poo bags and cat litter, as well as explaining what’s new in sustainability in the veterinary world.
Davies is already a keen green achiever. The small animal referral centre was the first UK veterinary practice to have achieved accreditation from iiE, in 2018. They were awarded Silver level accreditation in 2018 and sustainability lead Ellie West, European Specialist in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia at Davies, achieved Best Green Champion at the recent IiE awards ceremony in April.
The new pet owner newsletter is one of a range of online sustainability resources now available online. To find out more about Davies’ sustainability initiatives please visit https://vetspecialists.co.uk/sustainability/
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