All the team at Blue House Vets are committed to ensuring we protect our people, planet, and patients.

We have set up a number of initiatives including but not limited to:

• reducing use of anaesthetic gases
• reducing chemical cleaning
• enhancing our environment with bee friendly planting,
• bug hotel
• on site composting
• recycling
• mental health training
• eliminating unnecessary single use materials in clinical settings
• reducing paper use where possible
• quality improvement training for staff
• training on responsible use of antibiotics
• and many more!

As part of the IVC Evidensia Group, Blue House Veterinary Centre recognises that it has a legal, moral and ethical responsibility to reduce our environmental impact and improve our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods.

We will encourage all employees, customers and suppliers to do the same and where possible implement sustainable practices.

Responsibility

IVC Evidensia and Blue House Veterinary Centre is responsible for ensuring that the environmental policy is implemented, with all clinic and IVC Evidensia Group employees having a responsibility in their area of influence to ensure that the aims and objectives of the policy are achieved.

Policy aims

We endeavour to:

• Comply with all relevant local or country specific environmental regulations
• Incorporate environmental factors into business decisions
• Increase employee awareness by encouraging good environmental practices across our global operations
• Minimise noise disturbance to neighbours

Materials and waste

• We will minimise the use of all materials across the company
• We will reduce packaging as much as possible and recycle it where facilities exist
• We will seek to buy recycled and recyclable products
• We will favour more environmentally friendly and energy efficient products wherever possible
• We will evaluate the environmental impact of any new products we intend to purchase
• Cleaning materials used will be as environmentally friendly as possible
• We will only use licensed and appropriate organisations to dispose of waste, whether it be commercial or clinical
• Use natural materials from sustainable sources
• Phase out materials that have been shown to be harmful to the Environment or Wildlife Energy and water
• Reduce carbon footprint of business, through more efficient use of energy within our operations and by working throughout our value chain
• We will seek to minimise the amount of energy and water we use
• The energy consumption and efficiency of new products will be taken into account when purchasing, renovating or specifying Transportation
• We will reduce the need to travel, restricting to necessity trips only
• We will promote the use of travel alternatives such as e-mail or video/phone conferencing