Sustainability at Minster

The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice provides an Equine veterinary service in Yorkshire and comprises two RCVS-accredited sites. At The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice we take pride in offering a compassionate, dedicated and high quality service to our clients. We acknowledge that our day to day operations have an impact on the environment and have identified the key aspects that contribute to our environmental and carbon footprint:

• Consumption of electricity and water
• Waste production and disposal
• Paper usage
• Transport of personnel and animals
• Medicines usage and disposal
• Procurement of goods and services contributing to emissions and pollution

The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice is committed to enhancing our environmental performance through a journey of continual improvement by working through the Investors in the Environment accreditation scheme. Our environmental commitment can be demonstrated in our established objectives and goals below:

• Compliance with all applicable environmental regulations and societal expectations
• Monitoring our key resource usage and implement conservation techniques to achieve our environmental targets
• Implementing a waste management policy with a focus on reducing, reusing and recycling
• Publishing and distribution of an annual organisational sustainability report.
• Engaging with colleagues and clients to encourage climate action and sustainable animal care
• Minimising unsustainable transport use
• Practising responsible medicines usage and disposal
• Taking part in a sustainability project with the practice team
• Working with suppliers to ensure they acknowledge and decrease the environmental impact of their products and transportation
• Undertaking independent annual audit with Investors in the Environment

The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice is part of the VetPartners family. VetPartners are passionate about encouraging sustainable veterinary care and reducing our impact on the environment. Our goals can be found in our Sustainability Strategy and include using renewable energy, diverting waste from landfill, undertaking charitable fundraising and ensuring a kind and inclusive workplace culture.

The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice will continue to improve our environmental management system through annual reviews and updates, taking into account any changes in legislation, our organisation, and other factors. We will convey this policy to all our colleagues ensuring that they are provided with training to increase awareness of environmental matters.

Abbie Pickles is our Green Champion and has designated responsibility for the day-to-day implementation of this policy. Please contact [email protected] if you have any queries.

Our Environmental policy can be found here.

The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice is committed to sourcing and procuring ‘environmentally preferable’ products and services that meet current performance, safety and regulatory requirements.

By adopting this green procurement policy, The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice agrees to:

• Act in accordance with the waste hierarchy (see below), avoiding the unnecessary procurement of products and services where possible.
• Use the criteria set out below to make decisions relating to the procurement of goods and services.
• Review and, if necessary, update the policy on an annual basis.
• Share the policy with all staff making procurement decisions.

Green Procurement Criteria

The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice will consider the following criteria when making
procurement decisions:

• Eliminating or reducing the procurement of products or services that have the most harmful environmental impact.
• Purchasing greener products available through existing suppliers, such as energy saving office equipment, biodegradable cleaning products, recycled content/FSC stationery and where appropriate, use reusable and refillable products.
• Selecting products which have certifications which recognise sustainability efforts e.g. FSC, Energy Star, etc.
• Procuring locally sourced/manufactured products where possible.
• Practicing good stock control to prevent the over-ordering of products.
• Considering vehicle emissions when organising stock deliveries to minimise delivery mileage.
• Actively encouraging suppliers to stock products and services that have minimum environmental impact and reduce the packaging in which products are supplied.
• Asking suppliers to provide clear information about the processes and materials used in their manufacturing processes, identifying any processes harmful to the environment and seek suppliers that are working towards the phase out of such practices.

It may not be possible to purchase a green alternative for every product or service. Compromise may be required. The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice will endeavour to:

• Address the significant environmental impacts of current procurement.
• Set targets and dates to achieve changes in purchasing practice.
• Engage colleagues responsible for procurement decisions with general environmental awareness and provide support for them to improve the sustainability of our supply chain.
• Work co-operatively with other departments and neighboring organisations to purchase environmentally sound products.

Abbie Pickles is responsible for the implementation of this policy and the monitoring of
procurement activity in accordance with it.

The Minster Equine Veterinary Practice will make this policy available when requested to
interested parties including members of the public – a copy is available on the website

Our Procurement policy can be found here.

Our latest Sustainability Newsletter can be found here.

Follow this link here to view our iiE Bronze Award Certificate.