Davies shortlisted in IEMA Sustainability Awards 2019

We’re delighted to announce that Davies Veterinary Specialists’ Green Group has been shortlisted for the Best Team award at the inaugural IEMA Sustainability Impact Awards 2019.

The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) is the professional body for everyone working in environment and sustainability.

The Sustainability Impact Awards have been introduced to honour the people and businesses working towards a future-proof environment, society and economy. Organisations of all sizes and from any industry sector were eligible to enter in any of 16 categories. This year’s awards – the first ever – recognise work and projects that were completed or operational between 1st November 2017 and 1st May 2019.

“The awards honour those that are transforming the world to sustainability using innovation, creativity, collaboration and expert knowledge to achieve change,” IEMA said.

“We’ll celebrate those demonstrating their expertise to challenge norms, influence governments, drive new kinds of enterprise, inspire communities and show how to achieve measurable change on a global scale.”

The Best Team award was open to any in-house environment and sustainability team of two or more people, a cross-functional or cross-organisational project team that has delivered a strong sustainability impact for their organisations or projects. Judges were looking for teams with innovative approaches and strategy, those that have won recognition and trust from the leadership of their organisation, with stand-out talents and skills and particularly those with a strong collaborative synergy.

Other organisations shortlisted alongside Davies Veterinary Specialists’ Green Group include teams from; ABP Food Group, AECOM and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, Deloitte, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ingleton Wood, Network Rail and SP Energy Networks. This is a fantastic achievement for our Green Group and a true recognition of the achievements they have made in a relatively short time.

Formed in January 2017, Davies Veterinary Specialists’ Green Group’s aims include:

• Reducing the practice’s carbon footprint
• Reducing waste
• Sourcing sustainable materials
• Reducing consumption
• Developing and promote our CSR
• Becoming a forerunner in developing leadership within the veterinary community UK-wide for environmental and sustainability issues

In January 2018, Davies Veterinary Specialists joined Investors in the Environment (iiE), and in August 2018 we achieved Silver Level accreditation, becoming the first veterinary practice in the UK to do so.

Our achievements to date include:

• Introducing a comprehensive Environmental Management Scheme, including resource use data for electricity, gas, water, paper and waste
• Creating new policies, such as an Environmental Policy, Sustainable Procurement Policies, Travel Plans
• Strengthening and redefining existing policies, such as Corporate Social Responsibility policies and Recycling policies
• Establishing a Terracycle recycling programme, operated by staff within the practice.
• Engaging in knowledge transfer outside of our practice: Ellie West and Patricia Ibarrola have hosted free on-site sustainability education events, a WebinarVet seminar which is available to download, presented posters at conferences (AVA Spring 2019) and published academic and practice management articles
• Making resources available free to other practices, including our new waste segregation posters which are downloadable online
• Actively providing advice to other members of the profession based on our experiences
• Engaging with our regulatory body (the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) and the British Veterinary Association to encourage and support any sustainability initiatives which they may run in the future
• Conducting minimal flow anaesthesia training within the practice, to reduce the release of the greenhouse anaesthetic gases into the atmosphere
• Investigating solutions for reducing chemical and water usage within the practice

Winners from the shortlisted entries will be announced on Friday 20th September at the IEMA Sustainability Impact Awards lunch. We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved so far and wish our Green Group every success at the awards ceremony.

To find out more about our Green Group’s activities, click here

Published articles:

Jones RS & West E (article in press) Environmental sustainability in veterinary anaesthesia. Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia. doi: 10.1016/j.vaa.2018.12.008.

https://www.vaajournal.org/article/S1467-2987(19)30018-2/fulltext

West E, Ibarrola P, Woolridge A (article in press) Waste not, want not: a guide to healthcare waste management and reducing its environmental impact. In Practice.