Practice achieves top-level environmental accreditation
Lisa Steinhage is the practice's sustainability lead.
An independent practice in Preston, Lancashire, has been awarded Green Level accreditation by Investors in the Environment (iiE).
Oakhill Veterinary Centre was awarded the accreditation after achieving a score of 77 per cent during a sustainability audit in September.
The iiE scheme provides accreditation to organisations in the UK that have taken steps to improve their environmental impact, focusing on four key areas: leadership and governance, climate change, nature and natural resources, and pollution and waste.
There are three levels of accreditation which organisations can achieve: Bronze Level, Silver Level, and Green Level.
The practice had previously achieved Bronze Level accreditation in 2023 and was aiming for Silver Level this year, but scored highly enough to bypass that category.
Veterinary surgeon Lisa Steinhage, Oakhill Vets’ sustainability lead, worked alongside sustainability champions and the wider team at the three-branch practice to make progress on becoming more sustainable.
Actions taken by the practice included increasing the scope of environmental initiatives, setting carbon reduction targets, managing the impact that work-related travel has on the environment, making procurement practices more sustainable, and regularly reporting progress to stakeholders.
The practice plans to continue to improve its environmental credentials by working on areas such as water management and travel. Long-term, it is aiming to achieve net zero by 2040.
Dr Steinhage said: “It was important to the whole team at Oakhill Veterinary Centre that we took action to improve our own environmental impact at a time when action on climate change is so vital.
“We worked hard as a team, to put the changes in place to make Oakhill more sustainable, and to increase our social impact and presence via a series of projects that a wide range of staff were involved in.
“These projects targeted educational visits to local schools, improving our outside environment at our branches, and coming together to raise money for StreetVet – our chosen charity of the year. It has been a lot of work but it was all worth it to be awarded Green, rather than the Silver we were aiming for!”
Image © Oakhill Veterinary Centre
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
