Hello, it's Anthony Chadwick welcoming you to another episode of Vet Chat, which is the UK's number one veterinary podcast, and I'm very fortunate today to have Sarah Heath and Alistair Cliff on the line, both from IVC Evidencia. We're going to be Talking about sustainability, but also sustainability and pets as well, which I think is something we haven't maybe talked about quite as much. So, first of all wanted to welcome you both onto the podcast and thank you for the splendid document that you put together, which really shows how seriously IBC videncia are taking all things sort of sustainable in your positive port print documents.
So perhaps. Sarah, could you just introduce yourself to the audience, and then, Alistair similarly, and then we can maybe chat a little bit more about . The report and about some of your objectives for the next year or two with regard to sustainability and the other elements as well.
Yes, of course, and yeah, thank you, Anthony, very much for, for inviting us on today. So, my name's Sarah Heath. I'm IBC evidence he is, director of sustainability and ESG, and for those who don't know the acronym that and that's Environmental Social Governance.
My, my role is to, is to develop, our sustainability strategy and to implement it across our global operations, and to, to, to, to reach out to our stakeholders both internally and externally and, and to understand what's important to them and to make sure that our, our strategy is, is aligned to those. To those expectations and and actually and and meeting meeting, meeting those those requirements. So just in terms of my background, I, I, I've, I've, I've been with IBC since since June, and prior to that have worked in, implementing sustainability strategies in, in multinational organisations for the last 20 odd years.
So a lot of experience, Sarah, and it's great that you're bringing all of that experience into the into the veterinary profession as well. Alastair, I suppose that's one of the fascinating things about IVC Evidencia with the size that you now are, you can get. Very, very talented people in all of these areas like Sarah to come forward with this huge amount of experience, which I, I think must have been very valuable as you've been putting the, the positive Paul Prince reports together.
So I mean, perhaps just introduce yourself to us and then we can, we can get right into that. Yeah, thanks, Antony, and, and, and thanks again for having us on the podcast. So my name is Alistair Cliff and I'm the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, and I've got the privilege of working with clinical leaders across our European and Canadian group to drive clinical standards and build the ways in which we can do that increasingly sustainably.
I think, you know, to, to your points, my, my role is to, to lead the PETS pillar of our sustainability strategy, which you, you've alluded to, and Sarah might give some more details on. And that includes everything from welfare initiatives through to research grants and, and also how we work, with the, you know, the responsible use of, of antibiotics within our clinics, but also within the, the profession as a whole. And I, I think, you know, as a company, We do have scale.
We are present in, in more than one continent now, as well as the Europe. And, you know, I think we recognise that our company can be a force for good, and we can actively work with the profession and, and, and also with our own teams to provide opportunities. And you know, we, we feel that we, we have a responsibility to do that.
And you're right that I, I started my, my sustainability journey, if you like, as part of the, the leadership team with, with IBC Evidencia just a year or so ago, and I have learned so much about what sustainability means from Sarah, and from others. And I think the, the, the key thing which I've learned is that Sustainability and clinical outcomes are very closely interwoven with one another, and what represents a sustainable approach will almost always represent an approach which improves the outcome for that pet. And I think that's, that's, it's really, it's really interesting and exciting to think about all the initiatives that we can build around that concept and And how we can find different approaches which acts as a conduit to link together our, our people and the planet and our pets and, and also their owners into this very virtuous circle, of sustainability.
I think it was really interesting, we were talking to Craig Bennett who's the CEO of the Wildlife Trust in in one of the earlier podcasts. And he was very much talking about how vets can be a real example in the community. We're obviously trusted within the community, we're recognised as being animal advocates.
And so the things that we do in our local communities, be it have solar panels on the roof or have a. Wildflower meadow, all of those things don't just affect our practise, but actually shine a light out to the larger community about, well, you know, vet practises are doing it, we should be doing it as well. So, and I think it's lovely to hear.
I, I think, in my view, most, if not all vet practises are very purpose centred. We all go into the job because we love animals. And it's great to see that business .
Across the board I think it's becoming more purpose centred, but I think it's at the heart of what pet practise is about anyway, so we shouldn't be surprised to see that, you know, at IBC Evidencia, should we? That's something which I think we're really wanting to, to, to give, we, we want to give our practises the, the tools to, to be able to demonstrate that more clearly. I think there's a, there's a balance we, we're conscious there's that there are sort of two sides of, of what we can deliver in terms of sustainability.
There are certain things that, that by making a change at group level or country level, for example, you know, switch to renewable energy, we can do that, we can do that in terms of 111 national contract, we can. That change immediately, but then we can also do a lot of things by actually really giving our, our, our local vets the, the, the tools and the advice that they need on, on, on the small changes that that they can make, whether that's, you know, small things like segregating their waste properly and actually making sure that we're maximising recycling or as You say, giving the right advice to, to clients and actually, as you say, being that real that real example, in terms of, in terms of both good animal welfare, but also sort of, you know, translating into sort of awareness of biodiversity and environmental impacts and those sorts of things. So, so those are, those are things that we, we definitely want to, want to build on in the, in the years ahead.
I think I, you know, I was at COP 26 and, and I see the three elements which is government, it's individuals, and it's also business. And, and whilst I think government are doing some interesting things, often they move quite slowly. The beauty of, I, I think if we are to solve the climate crisis over the next decade, I think business is going to be so important because as you say.
You know that that ability to, to look at sustainable energy across, you know, a group of practises can have an enormous impact. All of us can make those little changes as I've done, you know, I'm just looking, I've got solar panels on my roof and I've got my dishwasher on and it's not costing me any energy, which is rather nice, so but that's a very small thing, but if we all do it, it, it actually adds up, so individuals have a power. But obviously business, small and large, I think can potentially be the biggest catalyst as we move towards that whole concept, which I know you're moving towards as well of, of net zero, so perhaps.
Just to explain to people what that is because we hear a lot about it, Sarah, you know, on the news and so on, but I know that's a journey that IVC Evidencia have committed to, perhaps tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, I mean, we've made the commitment that we want to transition the business towards, towards net zero in terms of our carbon emissions. It's, it's, it's a complex, I mean, it's a complex and and challenging, sort of undertaking, .
Particularly in a business like ours, which is made up of so many, small sites, all slightly different, and then, across so many across 17 different countries, so, so it's, it's we're, you know, we're we're saying it it is a challenge that we have ahead of us, but we've got, we've got . We, it's a case of breaking it down really and looking first of all at moving to sourcing our electricity from renewable sources. We're making good progress on that.
We've got, where we're around about the 55% at the at the moment heading towards, and then the target is to get to 25% by the end of 23. . But, and then obviously to 100% and you know, as, as soon as we can after that.
And then we're looking at electrification of our vehicle fleet, which is obviously something which, which, you know, governments are driving, and then looking at the actual practise buildings themselves and where we can make savings, and actually it's been really pleasing from the audits that we've done so far to actually see that there are some real massive opportunities there, in terms of, in terms of using using our . Using the the our electricity and gas far more efficiently within practises. So doing some, some small things and, and I think this is the message that we really want to get out to our practise teams as well and this is something we're gonna be working on over the year ahead is, is making sure that they understand that by those, those small steps that they take, which might be overlooking at lighting or heating or.
You know, they always say, you know, you always say, if you turn down the heating by a couple of degrees, it actually cumulatively makes a massive difference. So, so by all coming together as a group, we can make a massive difference and really push the push the business forward. And what's fabulous is that we know that our, and our teams are so passionate about this.
If anything, it's something that I'm getting sort of on such a regular basis is is practise teams contacting me saying we want to do more. Here are our ideas. This is we, you know, how much faster can we go?
We, we, we really, really care about this, so, so actually that's, that's brilliant to have that, that level of support and also to have the support from, from board level as well. So, so, you know, we, we've got it at both, both, both levels of the organisation, but, but should be really, you know, really make a difference in terms of our objectives. And in and in some ways there's no point if we don't make big audacious goals and you definitely sound as if you're doing that.
So I will look forward to, to following the journey as it, as it rolls out. We obviously have Alastair here as well, who is, is majoring on the, the pets pillar. And I think there's some really cool stuff that you're doing in that area and that you've obviously mentioned in the report.
Yeah, obviously, as a, as a vet as well and as a dermatologist in a former life, antibiotic stewardship is something that's very close to my heart. So perhaps tell us a little bit about, you know, some of your targets and maybe some of the things that you're already doing, to reduce our dependency on antibiotics, and to be able to keep them for those special occasions when they're absolutely necessary. Absolutely, and, and I think.
It, it is one of the key areas that we are looking at as an organisation, and we, we really get it, you know, we, we really understand that by 2050, X number of people are going to, to, you know, die of, of antibiotic resistant infections. And, you know, the, the, there's figures which suggest that that number might start to exceed people who are dying from cancer every, every year. You know, there, there's, we, we are so compelled to, Not just create sound bites around this, but to put in place meaningful measures to actually reduce our dependency on, and, and, you know, to use a, a phrase which is more appropriate, you encourage the responsible use of antibiotics.
So we've got a number of different things that we're doing and, and, all being led by Anna Maria Anderson, who we, we've appointed as the group IPC or infection prevention and Control, director. We've also got, another colleague in Sweden, Dieter Lundquist, who's our antimicrobial steward, who's, who's responsible for creating materials across the group. And I think you, there's a number of, of, of different things that we're doing, all centred around 22 targets or 3 targets.
The, the first is to reduce our use of antibiotics in outpatients, so, so not hospitalised cases to 5% by 2025. And also, sorry, by 2030 for, for antibiotics and to reduce our, our overall surgical site infection rates to 5% by, by 2025. And I think these, these targets are in line with industry targets, but are nonetheless challenging and ambitious.
And so we, we've put in place these initiatives to achieve those, centred mainly around information, so providing teams with the information that they need to understand the issue and make the most informed choices that we can. Centred around leveraging what we have as a company of scale across a number of different, not just, not just cultures, but professional cultures where we can look at what works in certain countries and decide whether that's something which we can potentially replicate. And, you know, good examples of that are, we, we often cite our Nordic countries as being slightly ahead of the game when it comes to antimicrobial usage and And, and generally around hygiene and infection prevention.
And we've got the benefit of being able to take what we learn in the Nordics and, and potentially put that into other countries. And, and so that, that's exciting for us, alongside some of the, the, the, I guess the clinical leadership measures that we're putting in place. So we've committed to put, a dedicated IPC leader or ambassador into 75% of our clinics by 2025.
And that, that might seem like a, a, a fairly easy thing to do, but it's not. But we're, we're finding these people and we're, we're recruiting these people and they become the local leaders, local champions, and, that, that person responsible for leading that cultural change through, through, clinics. So, I think the, the, the other interesting thing around, Infection prevention is, is the part that it plays as a building block in the broader subject of, of quality improvement.
And I think, you know, quality improvement is such a massive, vibrant topic at the moment within our profession. And, and as such, we, we have just appointed, Laura Plaiforth, who many within the UK and international veterinary profession will know as a real advocate for quality improvement, and she joins us on the first of. In February, and it has some really exciting ideas about the, the way that we can drive cultural change to get our teams to improve, to, to engage with quality improvement and, and also the ways that we can roll that out into various platforms.
So, I think in infection prevention, antibiotics, quality improvement generally are, are one of the key areas that we're looking at over the next, you know, 3 to 5 years for, for, For improving our sustainable approach, but also just coming back to what I said during the introduction, the outcome of that is that we will probably also improve our clinical outcomes. And, and that's, it's a, a double whammy and, and why would you not look at that as a good thing, right? And it, and it's interesting, as you say, different countries, when, when I was doing my dermatology and going to dermatology conferences, America particularly had really high levels of antibiotic resistance MRSA MRSP.
And We could see that just their use of, you know, really strong antibiotics, things like vancomycin that should just be used in humans, were being used in animals and obviously, also seeing how some countries like Holland have massively reduced their use of antibiotics just from, there's been the legal requirement, but actually that's encouraged. Yeah, plus as vets to do that, because sometimes I think vets can be blamed for this unjustly, you know, from, from the medics as well. So it it's, it's really great to see that you're involved and, and doing that and I can imagine finding those infection prevention ambassadors will be difficult cos there's a degree of training in that area as well, isn't there, but it's good to see that people are becoming.
More interested in it as an area as well. Yeah, I think that's right. And, and when we put these people in place, the, the key is that we're not just paying lip service to it.
We, we want to put people in place who are going to actively work within that clinic and within a group of clinics to make a difference. So that, that's, that's why we need to be careful how we, we manage that process. But we're, we're very, very positive that we're going to hit these targets and, and we are already moving the dial, you know, just, just before I came on, on the, the, The recording just now, the call just now.
I was speaking to the, the chair of our UK clinical board, and we were looking at data for surgical site infections in the UK and we are moving the dial. Those are coming down. And similarly, we can look at trends in our antibiotic usage across a number of our different countries, and they are coming down.
I think a lot of that is, is, or some of that is because of the work that we're doing. A lot of that is because of the professional awareness that these subjects are getting now and, and, That we, we want to feed into that, you know, we, we want to, to, to be a part of that jigsaw puzzle and, and help it brilliant. And I suppose the other side of, of, of the pet pillar is very much as you've said around research, the fact that you're measuring this, if you don't measure it, you can't know if you're making progress.
But I, I know also there is a a research fund within IVC Evidencia and presumably that's mainly for internal work, or will some of those research grants go outside to other institutions? Well, maybe I'll come back to that question and, and just give a bit of a background first so that the research, the research fund, which is run by our group Veterinary Medical Board, is a generous fund which we provide on an annual basis to, a, a, a huge mixture of, of clinical stakeholders within our organisations. So it's available to, student nurses all the way through to, to, you know, it's specialists, but right through that general practise spectrum, right through the, the, the far side.
And it's there because it, our teams wanted it. And, they were knocking on our door saying, look, we want to not just use evidence-based medicine, we want to create it. And I know that sounds very cliche, but, but that, that's what they told us.
And so we, we went all out to create a fund which facilitates that. And not only to create the financial support, but also to put in place mentoring measures to enable teams who are perhaps less experienced at researching from the experience of others. We have some research partners within the group to, to make that happen.
But I think, the, the, The, the subjects of research and, and what it can do and, and whether we would partner with the external companies is, is very open, you know, we, we, we will certainly see a majority of that being used internally, but if someone's listening to this podcast now and, and thinks, look, I, I think there would be benefits in collaborating with a, a large employer, a, a large, a large pool of, of motivated clinical teams and staff, then do get in touch. Because it it's there for collaboration as well, and, and we would happily, we would happily look at that, within the, the, the boundaries and remits of what we've created to, to guide that fund. I remember as a, as a very young vet being given somebody by Stephen Crane, who was working at Hills at the time, just to research into the effect of diet and hyperthyroidism and levels and things and just having that ability to do it, I think it, it, it adds real satisfaction.
For the vets and the nurses working in the in the practise to know that I know I've got a couple of little papers out there somewhere, it's always nice to see them being mentioned in a textbook or whatever, isn't it? I think that's right, and, and it comes back to the question of, you know, what, what, what brings jobs. Satisfaction, what, what brings well-being in the workplace to teams.
And it goes beyond, you know, all the, the traditional thinking on this. And, and we, we need to, we need to provide benefits. We need to give them opportunities.
We need. Easy for them to develop themselves and enrich their working environment as much as you possibly can. And, and, you know, this is a great example of that.
The care fund that we run is another great example of that. And, you know, we, we've got a number of these things going on at the moment, and we, we, we know that they're working, you know, we, we know that they're making us a great place to come and work. And I think that that helps and I know we're gonna be talking about people in our next podcast with you, but actually the.
Your employees see that, that you care as well is really important and we, this has happened for a long time in practise where, you know, the stray cat comes in and it stays in a cage for a week while people kind of work out where it can go to. But as you were saying there, tell, tell us a little bit more about the care fund and and how you set that up and, and what sort of results has that had? So the care fund has been one of the most professionally satisfying things I've ever been part of.
And it was brought about by, actually our, our CEO Steve Clarke, saying to us that, that he felt that we needed to have something in place that provided for pets where there was a financial difficulty. We all recognise that that was the case, but, but set about looking at it really hard to try and, to try and see how that could work and, and also what the benefits could, could be. And as we worked through that, we realised that the benefits of such a fund aren't just to the pets, it's also to the vets who are treating these, these patients and, and also to the owners of those, those pets as well.
So the, the fund, in its, in its, in its purest form is an, an, an allowance of 1000 pounds that every single vet in the company gets given every single year, and they can spend that money on whatever they want to spend on. Now, we guide that through, through some criteria where we, we, of course, want it to be spent on those pets where there's a, a financial and, a, a financial hurdle or, or, or an issue that the owner has in, in affording treatment. But within, and, and you, we've seen that our vets are using incredibly responsibly within those, those, rules.
So we're really pleased with it. And, and what we are seeing are vets who are telling us that they feel far, far more able to deal with situations where owners have financial difficulty. And they report to us regularly because we track this, that they, they feel that their feeling of well-being is, is uplifted by 90% plus when dealing with these difficult cases.
But we, we also know the owners, of course, feel the same, and the pets are, are benefiting enormously from it. So, you know, last year, we, we launched the fund and in its first year, we saved the lives of 881 cases. And we have committed by, by the end of 2020, 5 to treat 1500 cases per year with the, the fund.
But I can tell you now that we're going to blow that target out of the water because, you know, we're, we're halfway through 2022's financial year. We're, we're working our way through it, and we're already seeing figures which are going to, to, you know, see that fund really stretching its, its ability. To make a difference.
Ah, that, that's fabulous news. I, I know that having had my own practise, how much it meant to the team that they saw that the boss was interested in the animals who came in who perhaps, you know, the owners were in in difficult situations, or it was a stray animal that with some fairly basic treatment could be patched up and then. Hopefully sent off to a rescue centre, and I suppose again with the pandemic and, and the issues that that has raised, there are people who've gone into difficulty, you know, unfortunately, and to be able to support them, I think it's also a way of developing loyalty with that client who hopefully in a year or two will be in a better position as well.
So it's, it's quite a far-sighted view, isn't it? Yeah, it, it, it is, and, and, you know, we, we went into it without considering any potential, you know, longer term commercial benefits, you know, for, for sure, we went into purely with the, the intention that we wanted to help and, and that, that's the feedback that we're getting. What I think has worked particularly well is that the vets are given their allocation to use, and it is entirely their decision.
You know, they, they don't have to convene a committee within the clinic. They don't have to check it with their boss. They don't have to do anything.
If they see a case, they want to treat it, they treat it right there and then. And that empowerment that we've seen within our teams has been extremely telling, because, you know, I think, In, in a, in a situation typically where there's financial challenges, then often there's so many different things to consider within a, a, a, a clinic, isn't there? You know, the, the boss is thinking about, about what's going to happen with, you know, with the balancing the books and every everyone's thinking about things from a different angle.
But by using the care fund, we strip all that out completely and we, we shine the spotlight on the well-being of that pet and their owner and our teams. And, it's been extremely a very potent benefit to teams for sure. And I suppose that pulls everything together.
I mean, we, we are doing the sustainability summit on the 19th of January, whether you're listening to this before or after, and really appreciate IBC Evidencia's involvement in the summits and also helping to sponsor the the awards as well that we'll be running on that evening. Sustainability to some people can just mean, you know, that we, we keep the environment in a good place and increase biodiversity, but actually, You know, Sarah, to, to bring you in, sustainability is also about sustainability of keeping team and, and. A, a team, a, a person wants to work for a business that seems to have a purpose to it and and seems to be making a difference in the world.
So all of these things are presumably also helping with keeping staff and, and bringing new team into the business as well. Well, I mean, I think to maybe go back to to sort of one of the points that that we touched on sort of earlier in terms of, I mean, Alistair was talking about the, the, the sustainability making clinical sense. It also makes, you know, sense for for us as a business in in terms of we do want to make sure that we've got motivated, engaged teams that we're.
And that we're seen as a, as an attractive, you know, a good place to work, you know, and so, and the sustainability strategy, I think I mentioned how much our teams care about, care about what we're doing on this and, and, and are pleased with what we're doing and, and, you know, wanting to support us to do more. So, so, but we certainly see sustainability is absolutely not being limited to the environment and our environmental impact. That's obviously a key part of it, but it's also very much about the well-being of our of our team.
Teams, the well-being, you know, the people who work for us, looking at other areas like, you know, diversity and, you know, and our role in the, in the community and then obviously also the, the, the well-being of our, of our clients, and, and then the animals that we, that we treat. So, so, so yeah, we absolutely see it as our, our sort of our full sort of impact on the, on the world based environmental and, and from a social perspective as well. Fantastic Sarah.
Sarah Alistair, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's really fascinating and I would commend. The document, two people to to peruse it is a public document.
So we will put that on the podcast for people to, to have a look at it, but it's fantastic that businesses such as yourselves are, are taking this issue so seriously, so thank you so much and look forward to seeing you at our summit coming up in a few days as well. Thanks very much. Thanks.
Thank you.