In my previous article “Can veterinary practices actually be environmentally sustainable?” we discussed two main areas needing improvement for the veterinary profession to become more environmentally sustainable. We touched on how difficult it is for veterinary practices to become green and this article will explore this in a little more detail.

Table of contents

Can veterinary practices actually be environmentally sustainable?

Simply put, no. At least, not currently – maybe one day long in the future. And the reason for this is the fact that we, as veterinary professionals, must prioritise patient care.

What has patient care got to do with environmental sustainability?

This is best illustrated via an example:

Say you brought in your dog to your local vets to be spayed. What equipment is required and how much energy, e.g. electricity, is needed?

For ease of writing, I’ve split her visit into ‘stages’:

1) Arrival at reception: 

  1. Checking of appointment/patient details and marked as arrived on computer system (electricity).
  2. Weighing of patient prior to admit consultation (electricity).

2) Admit consultation:

  1. Checking of appointment/patient details and creating consult notes (electricity).
  2. Printing of procedure consent form (electricity, paper).

3) Moving to wards/kennels:

  1. Printing of patient form / paperwork (electricity, paper).
  2. Heating of room to a warm temperature to ensure patients do not get cold before / after procedures (gas/electricity).

4) Anaesthesia:

  1. Printing of anaesthetic monitoring forms (electricity, paper).
  2. Injectable medications (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic/glass from bottles + paper/cardboard from packaging).
  3. Gaseous anaesthesia (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic/glass from bottles + paper/cardboard from packaging).
  4. Supply of gaseous anaesthesia + oxygen (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + electricity in supplying to patient).
  5. Removal and subsequent disposal of waste gas / CO2 (electricity + greenhouse gas production)
  6. Monitoring of patient parameters via multiparameter/anaesthetic machine (electricity). 
  7. Heating of patient via heated mats / room temperature (electricity/gas).

5) Procedure:

  1. Surgical instruments (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic and paper from sterile packaging).
  2. Sterile draping (made from plastic + gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic and paper from sterile packaging).
  3. Suture material (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic and paper from sterile packaging).
  4. Theatre lighting (electricity).
  5. Surgeon sterility: hand washing (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from hand wash production + plastic/glass from bottles + paper/cardboard from packaging).
  6. Surgeon sterility: sterile gown, gloves and mask (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic and paper from sterile packaging).
  7. Nurse, anaesthetist + student sterility: masks (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic/paper from packaging).

6) Recovery and discharge:

  1. Injectable medications (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic/glass from bottles + paper/cardboard from packaging).
  2. Oral medicines (gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic/glass from bottles + paper/cardboard from packaging).
  3. Wound covering (consists of plastic + gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic/glass from bottles + paper/cardboard from packaging).
  4. Buster collar (made from plastic + gas, electricity + greenhouse gases from production + plastic/glass from bottles + paper/cardboard from packaging).

This is not an exhaustive list and only serves as an illustration of the sheer volume of equipment and energy required for a routine veterinary procedure. This is a relatively simple example; if this were an intensive care patient the amount of equipment and energy required would be more than double.

Everything listed above is essential

In other words, nothing I have written could be skipped in an attempt to reduce energy or equipment expenditure; with the exception of printed forms. Obviously, paper forms can be easily transferred to paperless computer systems (but convincing an entire team of people to go paperless is a different challenge entirely…). 

Which areas are the biggest threat to sustainability?

The biggest threat to sustainability within the veterinary profession is when sterility is paramount and when medications are required – which obviously occurs on a daily, and almost hourly, basis. This is because there are no sustainable alternatives so we as veterinary professionals prioritise patient health over sustainability and unfortunately have to choose the often unsustainable option.

For example:

Focussing on the procedure stage, sterility is paramount when faced with any sort of surgical procedure. Surgical equipment needs to be sterilised in house then packed in sterile packaging, or bought in sterile packaging – either way this involves a significant amount of energy, plastic and paper. 

The anaesthesia stage has similar challenges. Anaesthetics, and other medicines administered for example antibiotics or pain relief, are packaged within glass or plastic bottles or sheets. Furthermore, some are packaged within sterile packaging for surgeons to administer during the procedure. 

Not only do these stages require a substantial amount of physical material but also, as we alluded to in the last article, require an even larger amount of energy during production. Thus, these stages are incredibly large blackholes when it comes to making the vet practice more sustainable.

The real difficulty is, we within the profession try our utmost to be sustainable. We add in recycling bins, separating plastics from paper, we turn lights off and turn the heating down in appropriate areas, but how much of a difference is this making when we inevitably dispose of tonnes and tonnes of plastic and paper each year from sterile procedures? Furthermore, anything contaminated with biological material, for example surgical drapes, have to be incinerated. So, more greenhouse gas emissions are produced, on top of the emissions already released during the equipment’s production. It’s a never ending cycle of emissions!

Conclusion

Making the veterinary profession more sustainable is a significant challenge. Making the veterinary profession fully sustainable is impossible. At least, it’s impossible in this day and age; maybe in the future with the development of robots and AI we may be fully sustainable, who knows. 

Instead of focussing on the impossible task of becoming 100% environmentally sustainable, and the plethora of difficulties associated with this, we need to rephrase and refocus our efforts into making our profession more environmentally sustainable. And maybe, CEO’s of pharmaceutical and equipment companies can help us come up with a solution which is sustainable and doesn’t risk patient health.

Further reading: