Environmental Sustainability Policy Guide

Here at Regency Vets, we acknowledge that our veterinary practice will contribute to the impacts on the environment and it is very important to us to be as sustainable as possible whilst still providing the best standards of care to our patients. We have identified key impacts relating to our business that contribute to the environmental and carbon footprint and through the implementation of this sustainability policy we will work to reduce this.

Key Impacts and Actions

Use of electricity
- We ensure to turn of equipment and lights when not in use and have our practice PAT tested annually to ensure all equipment is functioning properly. We only use tumble driers/air conditioning when absolutely necessary, instead using clothes driers outside when possible.
Waste general & disposal
- We use a commercial recycling company and ensure we recycle all that we can within practice having multiple recycling areas to ensure staff are encouraged to follow our policy.
Use of anaesthetic gases
- We primarily use a circle breathing circuit which allows us to maintain a low oxygen flow rate and reduce the quantity of anaesthetic gases used under an anaesthetic. We also continually keep our drug protocols up to date to provide maximum analgesia, including local anaesthetic, which in turn allows us to administer less anaesthetic gas during our procedures.
Carbon emissions from transport
- We encourage clients to walk to the practice where possible; we will also aim to dispense medicines at the time of appointments so there is less travel to and from the practice. We also aim to reduce the number of visits required by carrying out medication checks at time of vaccines.
Consumption of raw materials
- We ensure to order from companies who also follow a sustainability policy and reduce the use of single use materials where possible. Within this industry we have to use single use materials such as needles and syringes, but we ensure to recycle the packaging for each and the plastic cap from needles. These are then placed in specific waste containers and disposed of appropriately. We use re-usable consumables where possible, such as surgical gowns, surgical hats, incosheets.
Paper-free administration techniques
- We use QR codes on labels rather than printing out data sheets for clients.
Water conservation
- We use alcohol based surgical prep to reduce water use.
Stock management/ drug wastage
- We ensure to manage our stock levels effectively to reduce wastage and minimise the transport for our deliveries
Unused medications
- We ensure clients are aware they should return any unused or out of date medications to us for safe disposal.
Use of parasiticides
- We use oral treatments where possible in dogs to reduce the risk of wash-off into waterways and use a risk based approach to reduce use.
Use of antimicrobials
- We adhere to safe antimicrobial use as per the PROTECT poster and our antimicrobial guidelines.
Responsible use of medicines
- We reduce drug wastage by stringent stock management and ensure correct drug disposal.
Procurement of goods & services
- We ensure to use companies who also have a high belief in a greener future and do their part to reduce their carbon footprint. Many of our consumable are manufactured to create less waste and the transport of these good are planned effectively to reduce the transport and fuel wastage for these journeys.
Team waste
- We have appointed a Sustainability Champion who will ensure all team members understand the importance of following the sustainability policy and will continue to encourage the team in continued participation

We at Regency Vets are pledging to reduce our environmental impact through a journey of continual improvement and through our commitment to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Practice Standards Accreditation Scheme Sustainability Award