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Sustainability in practice

The International Institute for Sustainability defines sustainability as 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs'.
This Sustainability collection brings together BSAVA resources to help highlight and inspire us as to why sustainability really matters and how we can make a difference.
Updated 2025.
Collection Contents
1 - 20 of 32 results
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BSAVA PetSavers interview
Sze Lynn Yuen Author Sze Lynn YuenSze Lynn Yuen graduated from the Cambridge Vet School in the summer of 2024. She has been an active volunteer for the BSAVA from her student days and has been the recipient of PetSavers funding for her BOAS research. Here Sze Lynn highlights her BSAVA volunteering activities and her first steps into clinical practice.
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Congress and EXPO 2025
BSAVA Congress+EXPO25 Author BSAVABSAVA Congress and EXPO is just around the corner! Taking place at Manchester Central in March, Congress and EXPO is the perfect place to get your years’ CPD. Engage with the leading industry exhibitors within the exhibition hall, network with fellow veterinary professions and let your hair down at our renowned party night, CLUBvet. There truly is something for everyone to get involved in at BSAVA Congress and Expo 2025!
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Lifelong learning
One-stop learning shop post-graduation and the BSAVA Graduate Resource Hub Author BSAVAThe BSAVA gives you the tools you need to thrive post-graduation and in practice.
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Positive sustainability
Sustainable travel Author Gavin McAulayThis month, our sustainability journey continues with RCVS Recognized Specialist in Veterinary Cardiology, Gavin McAulay in the driving seat, assessing the travel decisions open to us with a view to reducing the climate change impact.
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Talking point
Pet parasiticides, pollution and the crucial role of vets Author Lizzie CrooseIt’s been more than 60 years since Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring was published, sounding the alarm on the devastating environment impacts of widespread pesticide use, and ultimately leading to a worldwide ban of the insecticide DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane).1 Yet today, the picture is just as bleak. Lizzie Croose reports…
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Positive sustainability
Getting to grips with ecoanxiety Author Zoë HalfacreeVet Sustain Director Zoë Halfacree is recognized as an RCVS and EBVS specialist in Smal Animal Surgery. Zoë has worked in academia and private practice and is a passionate advocate for sustainability, both within education and our daily clinical practices. Here she focuses on ecoanxiety and explores how we can transform fear into hope when considering the damaging effects of climate change.
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Positive sustainability
The power of effective communication Author Jen GaleJen Gale, vet and founder of Sustainable(ish) a platform and online community empowering and inspiring individuals to take eco-action, focuses on the importance of communicating sustainability at all levels in our daily and work lives.
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Positive sustainability
Rubbish and waste Author Zoë HalfacreeVet Sustain Director, Zoë Halfacree, is recognized as an RCVS and EBVS specialist in Small Animal Surgery. Zoë has worked in academia and private practice and is a passionate advocate for sustainability, both within education and our daily clinical practices. Here she focuses on the opportunities of reducing and processing our rubbish and waste to decrease its environmental impact.
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Positive sustainability
Heating and power the sustainable way Author Becky SedmanThe energy used for heating buildings, cooling buildings and supplying electricity is a major, if not the biggest, contributor to your practice’s carbon footprint. Whilst this is a big area to tackle, it does mean that any small changes we make will result in a big difference in reducing our emissions! Becky Sedman, a member of the Vet Sustain Greener Veterinary Practice working group and a small animal vet, explains…
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Positive sustainability
Reduce, reuse and recycle in veterinary practice Author Laura BinnieLaura Binnie leads on the Paragon Veterinary Group Sustainability Project where they are making changes to become a more sustainable business to reduce their impact on the environment and improve their local biodiversity. In this article, Laura shines a light on how to be part of the circular economy and how to reduce, reuse and recycle in veterinary practice.
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Positive sustainability
The impact of food on the climate crisis Author Mel GunnRVN Mel Gunn navigates her way through the complex relationship between our food and the current climate change dilemma.
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Positive sustainability
Why… the climate change problem needs addressing Author Justine ShottonDr Justine Shotton, Director of Vet Sustain and champion of environmental sustainability, conservation and animal welfare, guides us through the thorny problem of climate change and how we as individuals can start to make an impact on combating the problem.
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Positive sustainability
Adopting a positive climate change approach Author BSAVAHere at the BSAVA, sustainability is at the core of all our activities and we are continually looking for ways to offset our carbon footprint on a journey towards carbon neutrality. In this mini-sustainability series we would like to share some ideas on how we can all positively help in our efforts to reduce the pressures which are presently causing detrimental climate changes.
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Sustainability in small animal practices - how to get involved
BSAVA Student Congress 2022Authors: Justine Shotton and Zoë HalfacreeJustine Shotton discusses sustainability during EMS and beyond. This lecture covers the key areas in the Vet Sustain practice checklist:
- Practice responsible resource use
- Be sustainable in your operation
- Use medicines responsibly
- Empower the team.
Zoë Halfacree looks at environmental sustainability in clinical practice. Key learning objectives:
- Recognise the role that we can play in addressing the environmental crises
- Recognise the areas where changes can be made in clinical practice to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare
- Understand the business case for sustainability in terms of mental well-being, staff recruitment, retention and client engagement.
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The sustainable operating theatre
BSAVA Student Congress 2022Author Zoë HalfacreeLearning Objectives:
- Recognise the role that we can play in addressing the environmental crisis
- Recognise the areas where changes can be made in clinical practice to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare
- Understand the business case for sustainability in terms of mental well-being, staff recruitment, retention and client engagement.
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Sustainability
Sustainable pet ownership Author John BonnerToday’s pampered pets would probably turn their noses up at the scraps offered as food for previous generations of companion animals. But in a world where the effects on the environment of our personal decisions are under increasing scrutiny, can we afford to treat our cats and dogs as privileged members of the family? John Bonner reports…
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Sustainability and the environment
Getting up to speed with sustainability Author BSAVAThe BSAVA has recently formed a new ‘Sustainability Working Group’ (SWG) of interested BSAVA volunteers and staff members. The initial purpose of the SWG is to explore the feasibility of BSAVA becoming carbon neutral as an organization, both at the Association’s HQ (Woodrow House) and Association-wide. Read on to find out more.
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20x20 visions of a greener future now
BSAVA Congress Proceedings 2021Authors: Matthew Sawyer, Sarah Sheppard, Claire Roberts, Becky Sedman and Clare ToppingThere and back again – a tale of travel: This lecture will help us to understand the distance travelled annually in the UK in our cars and vans; recognise the damage done by air pollution on human health in the short term; understand the carbon emissions contribute to the climate crisis, causing damage in the short, medium and longer term; the amount of staff and client generated carbon emissions and air pollution during their commute or travel to the surgery; the actions we can take today which provide a lot of positive benefits to individuals, the practice staff, and the wider community; how practices can facilitate behaviour change for staff and clients and the multiple co-benefits of doing so.
Primary care practice experience of iE scheme: with Sarah Sheppard.
How nurses can drive one health: with Claire Roberts.
How is the green initiative going at our practice? A presentation demonstrating the sustainability journey of Minster Veterinary Practice so far. Since October 2020 we have been trying to reduce our environmental impact with the support from Investors in the Environment. See what we have achieved up to this point, what spurred the whole team to get on board, and what we envision for the future.Going green – the NHS experience: The NHS is responsible for 5% of UK carbon emissions, and 5% of travel in the UK. It is also the largest employer and owns a vast estate across the country. This gives great potential for improvements using both technology and employee engagement. This short presentation will feature examples from Northampton General Hospital, a medium sized acute hospital, as well some drawn from other parts of the NHS, demonstrating the breadth of projects used to reduce the environmental impact of the Health Service.
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Hospital case study: how did we make our anaesthesia practices more environmentally-friendly?
BSAVA Congress Proceedings 2021Author Will McFadzeanThe environmental impact of anaesthesia has risen to the forefront over the last few years; both via the greenhouse effect of the inhaled anaesthetic agents and the environmental footprint of the consumables used. The anaesthetist has an important role in mitigating these impacts through appropriate monitoring and inclusion of steps to offset any increased requirements. Strategies to reduce the use of inhaled anaesthetic agents via the use of appropriate breathing systems, low flow anaesthesia, airway gas monitoring, and additional forms of analgesia are discussed. Alongside this case examples are used to show how nitrous oxide was removed from one referral hospital, and the impact this had on the practice of anaesthesia and the carbon footprint of the hospital, and how a training and implementation strategy was implemented to drastically reduce the volume of inhalational agents and anaesthetic gases used. Finally, some simple steps that can alter the working environment to promote increased recycling and reduction in waste, that have proven successful in our hospital, are discussed. Although a full team approach is required the anaesthetist is often well placed to implement these changes and push for a reduction in your practice’s environmental footprint.
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One Health, One Planet: why sustainability is a necessity
BSAVA Congress Proceedings 2021Authors: Libby Kemkaran-Thompson and Ellie WestLeadership perspective: what is needed right now and how to change minds? This non-hysterical look at the big picture provides information regarding the crisis we are facing, and details the leadership skills for you to personally take it forward into practice and your lives to feel like you’re making a difference. The time is past where we can all sit back hoping against hope that someone else will lead us out of this situation. There are things that every individual can do, but more power to effect change comes with better strategy – this lecture focuses on the practical delivery of change into existing structures.
What is happening in the veterinary sector: a high level perspective: Medical journal The Lancet has called climate change “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century”, but also the greatest public health opportunity. The veterinary sector has a moral obligation to mitigate against and adapt to the triple threats of global heating, resource scarcity and biodiversity loss. The transformative change required for this endeavour has been forced by the global pandemic; the question is how we choose to emerge from one crisis, in order to deal with the next? Small animal veterinary practice has a unique set of environmental impacts, not least the greenhouse gas effects caused by release of volatile anaesthetic agents, but also single use plastic consumption, hazardous waste production, and resource use. Some opportunities are clear; others present a wicked problem with interdependent impacts, inadvertent consequences of changes, and embedded behaviours all contributing to the tangled puzzle. We will need to show the best of what we can do; work collaboratively, think laterally, dissect the detail whilst seeing the bigger picture, and showing leadership in the workplace and in our communities. This lecture will highlight the excellent environmental sustainability work that is underway in the small animal sector, and the opportunities for growth and participation.
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