I don't know about you, but whenever I see David Attenborough, that always brings hope, so welcome to the regenerating Hope symposium. I show that video quite often, the first video in schools, and quite often when I show that, the, the lovely thing of showing it in junior schools, is the giggles and the whoops and the gasps. We somehow, as we get older, lose our wonder of nature, don't we?
But I, I hope that that's really filled you with a bit of fun and a bit of awe of the majesty of creation, so . Thank you for coming to the regenerating summit today, Regenerating Hope Summit. And I suppose this is part of the virtual congress, you know, 11 years ago we started this, we had 300 people on this year and we're getting close to 20,000 registrants.
And it's become, you know, a massive thing, it's helped us in our mission of making veterinary education more accessible, more affordable to vets and nurses throughout the world. But also that secondary mission, which was always tied up, which was to help reduce stress because we didn't have to travel, we made training easier, we made it cheaper for people to do it, so they didn't have to worry how they would find to do it. But also, from very early on we realised we were taking many, many miles off the roads because people were choosing to do their training online rather than go to conferences.
Or to at least have a mix of that, so not all of their training was through conferencing. And so that's sort of helped us to create a secondary mission, which I think is so important because if we do not have a planet to live on, we cannot practise very good veterinary medicine. So our mission has become to regenerate the veterinary world into a more sustainable place.
Just wondering why my, there we go, the like it was working. So facilitating the veterinary industry to regenerate into a more hopeful, sustainable, environmentally friendly place, because it's very easy for us to lose hope and we live in challenging times at the moment. You know, I've had a tough time personally just recently, one of my favourite cousins died of cancer.
I've had some problems with my eyes with glaucoma and needed surgery on them. And before I started this conference this week, I decided that I needed some time in nature. It's what gives me peace and and brings out the best in me.
So I walked along our, our coast in Liverpool by Fornby and Crosby. And, and then on Sunday, my wife was going out to see her friends and she dropped me off at my local nature reserve, Lump Meadow. And just having that time to take in nature, to see the beauty of what we have and the beauty that we need to keep, I, I saw a buzzard that was high up in the sky with a, with a crow mobbing it and .
The buzzard had to sort of bring its wings in to move away quicker and I was able to watch this for 10 minutes, I then walked on, saw some herons that were flying up and then as I entered Lun Meadow, Aksel flew onto a fence about 10 metres away from me and me and him had a good stirring match, or her, it was a her. She was looking at me for about 5 minutes before she started hovering and one of the local photographers that took these incredible two photographs for me of of said female kre. Very, very tame and it just fills me with.
The energy that I need to go on and and do this work, which is we all have responsibility for, which is regenerating the world. And we do that I think with the help of our heroes, you know, we've all seen David Attenborough and he's a an incredibly . A figure that inspires us, an inspirational figure.
But of course I have other people that inspire me as well. My wife Rachel Chadwick there has been doing incredible work in her junior school with wildflower meadows, encouraging the kids to a greater love of nature and we know also that if we put children at a young age into natural areas, what it helps their mental health, but actually amazingly it also helps their IQ. Kate Raworth is, an Oxford professor of economics, and I've been reading her book recently, Donors Economics, which shows how do we live in a way that is socially fair for everybody so that everybody has enough to eat.
We waste 30% of our food. And yet at the same time, live within the boundary of what the planet can cope with because we've spent so long considering that the planet has unlimited resources. It doesn't.
Every action we have, there is a cost, and we need to bring in those costs into our economic system, and Kate, as an economist, is looking at the whole system and saying there's structural sin in this system. It makes it very difficult for us to do the right things sometimes. But a really fabulous book and well worth reading.
Richard Scott is the leader for the Eden Project in the North, and has been inspirational to me over the. Last two years and helping me learn more about wildflowers, he sowed wildflowers all over the north of England, but certainly in Liverpool, sometimes in some of the poorer areas, the areas that I was brought up in, at my local school, All Saints, which I was . A student asked and now a governor asked, he's managed to, with the help of the school, create environments in the neighbourhood that that just cheer everybody up as well.
So plants, nature, and, and the natural world and and mental health really do go together. And then finally, Tom Burdes, who's the CEO of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, who very kindly hosted us at Brockhos in September when we held, The first veterinary green discussion forum among many of the big companies, and that was a real thrill to be able to do that as well. Not to think that there aren't people who are against that or don't seem to be doing a lot about it.
Darren Woods is the head of Exxon Mobil, the CEO of ExxonMobil, and they for many years knew about climate change. They had studies that proved it, but they didn't publish those because they wanted to carry on, drilling for oil and gas. We're now at a transitionary phase where of course we need some oil and gas, but we must, must see that companies like this begin to toe the line and begin to be fairer.
James Quincy, an alumni of Liverpool University and is the CEO of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola are the largest plastic polluters on the planet. And we hear some good noises from James that he wants to recycle more, but we really need to see action from him, and we need to hold these people to account, and of course Jabosonaro, who recently was deposed as president of Brazil, has spent most of his time.
Destroying the rainforest of the Amazon to such an extent that the Amazon now emits more carbon than it absorbs. So there's real hope, but there's also obviously barriers to hope as well. And we talked about this last year at our virtual conference when we had Katrina Miller, who's a psychiatrist, speaking about solastalgia, and this is, a condition that is well recognised now, I've seen in all ages, but particularly in the young.
And it's the existential dread for the planet being destroyed and what can we do about it? We probably can't do anything about it, so these people fall into despair and into hopelessness. And I am a believer that we have to pull people out of that.
We do that by the positive stories that we tell that we show a real passion for solving these problems that we have, but these problems can be solved. We know what they are, we have the cost of living crisis, which is partially created by bad economic systems and bad governance. We have the war in Ukraine, it's obviously a worry, there's an existential threat there, but I can do nothing about the war in Ukraine, whereas I can do something about the environment here and further afield.
We know that Brexit has been problematic in the UK. It's happened, but there's still some chaos through from that. And of course we've come through two years of pandemic where we were separated from each other, and some of the, the problems that's caused post pandemic where people are finding it difficult to come back together again.
So, there are obviously issues, we also have water companies who feel it's appropriate to pump. Sewage into the er rivers rather than clean it, and this is allowed by governments who let's be honest, are not that interested about the environment and have shown predilection towards corruption and incompetence. So it's not a very hopeful sign, but I want to take you out of that because of course we have had trouble sometimes in the past, and I, I'll use an example that some of you may have heard of, which is the horse manure crisis of 1894.
In 1894, a man wrote to the London Times and he said, He believed that in the next 10 to 20 years, most of the big cities of the world would be, we'd be unable to walk around them because there would be so much horse manure, that it would be several feet high covering our pavements and our roads, and we wouldn't be able to get from one place to the next. And this caused such a worry and a Ferrari that in fact a big conference was held in 1898 in New York. It was .
A conference with governments and town planners. And it was an 11 day conference and after 4 days, the conference broke up because they were all in despair and didn't know how they could solve the problems. Governments aren't always that good at solving problems, they're populists, they, they kind of follow what they think the majority of the people want, and in fact, this particular problem, the horsemanure crisis, was solved by clever men like Henry Ford, Daimler and Benz, Rolls and Royce, who invented the motor car and the problem faded away.
So we know that as humans we're capable of solving big problems. We had the ozone layer hole that existed because of the use of CFCs and aerosols. That's a problem we've solved.
I believe we can solve these problems. And really it has to start with us, we as individuals have amazing power, particularly when we move together in bigger groups. And I think sometimes there's a danger that we as individuals think, well, the government needs to sort this out, and I think I've hopefully shown there that if we wait for governments to sort problems out, we'll wait a long time.
I don't want to be too critical about governments, obviously there's been the huge inflation reduction Act that's happened in America with the Biden administration who are pouring. Billions and billions of dollars into environmental improvements into green energy and so on, and indeed our own government has encouraged us to buy green vehicles, electric vehicles, and also to ban or to tax plastic bags in supermarkets. So they can do good work, but they tend to move slowly.
And then I believe that we're now seeing more and more businesses that are realising that that their job is not just to make money for shareholders, and in fact this was seen when a big group of share of CEOs got together in America and they said they realised that the. Their stakeholders weren't just shareholders, they were the, the people that work there, their suppliers, their customers, but of course also the environment. So it's great to see purpose centred companies like Hills who we'll hear from later, and many veterinary companies who realise that it's not just about money, but it is also about people on the planet as well.
So there's many reasons to be helpful and I I I hope that by the end of today you feel in a much more hopeful and jolly mood than perhaps er you have been of late with all of the issues that we've had. In January, This time last year we launched our first ever Green Awards, and we had over 300 people on a Wednesday afternoon at a similar time who came together to find out what was going on in the profession and also who were the people that we should be celebrating, and I'm looking forward to the awards later on at the end of today's session. Last year's winners, Davis, veterinary specialists and Old Hall Bets, and then Ellie West and Laura Haan.
And it was interesting when this was being judged. Rather than compete, we saw, why don't we collaborate and actually there can be joint winners because, There is so much good work going on that we can all learn from each other, and this is the whole idea of the regenerating Hope symposium, but also the Veterinary green discussion forum that we held in September and will be held holding again. So it was a great success.
Here is some of the pictures that we took, you saw some of the videos at the beginning, and it was great to see so many people coming together, wanting to do more for the environment, some who were already doing a lot, some who are really doing something but wanted to do more, and some who kind of didn't know where to start. It's a, it's a difficult journey, you know, the journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step, and making that single step, that first step, can often be the most difficult one. Coming together in a group and learning from each other, we realise that we're not on our own, that there are other people who share our concerns and we can move so much quicker.
And you can see some of the testimonials there that we had from some of the er from some of the attendees as well. We're returning it again in 2023, we see this as an event that we will hold every year till 2030. We're hoping that this will become European as well.
And that we'll hold each other to account every time we come to the meeting. OK, how much have we reduced carbon? What are we doing for biodiversity, what are we doing to reduce, to reduce our resource use, to decrease plastic, for example.
And these are just some of the companies that have already said they're coming, we're, we're kind of waiting for a few others that will come through shortly, but if you don't see your company or a company that you're connected with on that list, just ask the question, say, do you know about this, cos of course. Sometimes it's difficult to get the message around as we would like. This is something that we're doing in combination with Vet Sustain who have just launched a carbon calculator that will help you to calculate your carbon.
So if you haven't done that as a business yet, I know that link is going into the chats. Do follow that and have a look and see if that's a useful resource for you. Other reasons to stay hopeful.
I'm really looking forward to April's, presentation today. We now have many more green investors in the environment, veterinary businesses than we had 12 months ago. I think we were the 3rd that got it at Webinar vet, and I know a load more people got the the green accreditation this year, including Old Hall Veterinary Centre.
And Helen Gould is going to be telling us later on about some of the things she's doing in the practise. Some of them are really simple and easy to do. They've made a massive difference and I thoroughly enjoyed going to present her certificate to her and and studying her practise and seeing the beautiful wildflower meadow that her and her practise team have planted.
And of course we've talked a little bit about what Hills have done. I, I was really pleased to go down and spend a day with them in September. They're doing some amazing work and I'm looking forward to Claire sharing some of that with you after this talk.
And then finally, we know that a lot of the great work that goes on with the environment is from our great charities like the Wildlife Trust, like the Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, like the RSPB, the World Wide Fund for Nature. And we're very fortunate as also have today, Born Free who do amazing work, looking at the welfare of animals, as we know from the Born Free film that should be allowed to roam in, in the wild as well. And I'm really looking forward to hearing what Mark has to say, cause Mark was fortunate to go to COP 15 in Montreal in December.
And that was where we discussed about the 30 by 30 pledge, which is that by 2030, our country will have 30% of its land at good biodiversity value. We are in the UK the most nature denuded country of all the G7 countries, and that's something that we need to be a bit ashamed of and we need to turn around. We're gonna be celebrating the amazing work that our er nominees said this year's Green Awards are doing.
And then I'd loved er meeting Jenny Gayet at Spits, we, we've been friends for a number of years, and I was on that journey with. There as she tried to get the planning permission and all the things to build the eco pod. But it looks amazing and I'd encourage you to take her up on her offer of going down there for a couple of days.
They, I believe they have beavers as well, so I'm very keen to get down myself. What have we achieved, cos I think it's important not to greenwash. People have said to me, you know, the the bigger companies have said we're afraid to talk about this because we'll get accused of greenwashing it.
I said you have a responsibility to talk about it because there is so much bad news going on that we need to tell those good news stories. So these are the things we're doing. Are we at the webinar that perfect, no, we're not, but we're trying our best to improve and encourage others as well.
So we've had carbon negative status for 2 years running. We also were re-accredited at green level this year, which I was really thrilled about with the investors in the environment. Many of our team are now working remotely, so we're moving to smaller premises, so there's less consumption and obviously less travel.
We've had team litter pick days, we have our own wildflower meadow in the Liverpool Science Park, which, myself and a number of the team look after. We've done a sustainability series on vet chat, which is the number one UK veterinary podcast, and I would encourage you to go on there, some really inspirational talks. We, we promoted and we encouraged people to, within our own business but outside, to try to be more plastic free.
I made a commitment five years ago to reduce my plastic use by 50% and it's something that I've done. I've probably gone past that to about 80%. You know, we shouldn't be using Coca-Cola bottles once, etc.
Etc. As I said, we had the Greener Forum in 2022 and . We've planted over 7000 trees over about the last 18 months as part of our membership deal, which is you buy a membership, buy one, get 2 trees.
So we plant 2 trees every time somebody buys a membership. And then finally, Luke and I had a really great day in December planting trees in Manchester with Eco Offset who have helped us with our carbon calculations and so on, and that's Chantel Brandwood's company. So we want to do more and we want to create a more sustainable future, and if you look at what we need to do over the next 7 to 10 years, we need to reduce our carbon as individual businesses and as individuals by 45%.
It sounds a lot, but if you break it down into each year, it's 5, 6%. The 30 by 30 pledge which I've already discussed, how do we make our environment more more attractive and biodiverse. How can we bring natural capital into that, and I hope that Mark will maybe talk a little bit about that and the value of keeping land as it is rather than feeling we have to build on it or whatever.
And so how can vets help with all of that? Well of course we've got a big part to play in, in, agriculture and so on, how can we encourage farmers to think in a more green and more regenerative way? I've set myself an audacious goal this year.
I want to have 300 practicers commit to put solar panels on their roof. By the end of 2023. We can do that in the UK, it can be anywhere in the world.
We are working with some suppliers to see if we can get some discounts around this, but whether you do with my help or on your own, I'd love to hear about what you're getting up to in that area. You know, I've had solar panels on my roof here at the house for 14 years. I did it because it was the right thing.
Now I'm being told by other solar panel suppliers that it's. Economically the right thing as well, so if you're not doing this, this is an easy win now, of course it will take some time to get your money back, but with the cost of energy, it's much, much shorter than it was when I started on the solar panel journey 14 years ago. There is a survey link on there which Dawn is going to place in, and I would encourage you to fill that in, even if you're not thinking about solar panels, it would be great to see who has them, if you already have solar panels on your roof, that's fantastic.
But let's see if that's something that we can accomplish together as a group. So this is something that I'll be talking about a bit over the next year. But do come and and you know email me at Anthony at the webinar vets.com if if you want to have a chat about this as well.
Here's our programme, we're gonna be starting with, with Claire shortly, then moving on to Helen talking about what Old Hallett Centre has been doing. April, looking forward to hearing from her about the, investors in the environment update. And then Mark is going to finish off talking about why sustainability matters.
We'll have a short break to allow you to go to the loo and things, and then we're gonna have the green awards. So I'm really looking forward to the day. Just want to finish off by saying, you know, this is my passion project, it's something that I've been committed to for almost all of my life, you know, as a vet, but also a lover of the environment and of people because it's all connected.
And so we need to show our passion, we need to show our heart, and of course our heart is also an acronym, which stands for hope. You know this is something, this is something we can do. The world is in a position where there are issues, but we can turn the ship around.
We need to show empathy because not everybody will think the same as we do and that's why when we had the Greens discussion forum, it was so important that we didn't have binary arguments, but we listened and we discussed. And we learned from each other and we learned how we can solve some of these bigger problems, not by arguing but by discussing and listening. Of course with all of this action is so important, you know, words without action is meaningless.
So what small things can we do, all big things can we do to make the world a better place. But to be realistic, you know, we, we, 300 might be too big a number, I hope it isn't, but to be realistic in our goals, finally to realise that this will take time, you know, I, I love, over the last two years planting wildfire meadows. But you need to wait to watch the flowers come up and sometimes they fail and sometimes they succeed.
Sometimes you get a much better showing than others, but you learn, but you learn patience as well. So thank you so much. I'm really looking forward to today, I'm really looking forward to presenting and and welcoming er Claire, so I will stop sharing now.
And invite Claire to come forward to give the next presentation. Claire is the MD of Hills in the UK. Hills have been doing some amazing work on the environment.
I, I don't want to steal her thunder. I had a, an interesting day with the Hills team down in in September. I was talking to them about how I think we can start to do more on the environment, but I think there's also.
So much that all the companies can do and that's why I've invited Claire to share with you what Hills are doing to help the environment. So Claire, it's over to you. Thanks, Antony.
Thanks very much. So, thank you, Antony, for that setup. I'm gonna launch in with something that I find very hard hitting, but I, I watch on a fairly regular basis because it really does keep me quite grounded with regards to the subject that we're talking about today.
Fun fact, Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Mankind about 140,000 years old.
Let me put that in perspective. If you condense the Earth's lifespan into 24 hours, that's one full day, then we have been here on this planet for drumroll please. 3 seconds.
3 seconds and look what we've done. We have modestly named ourselves Homo sapiens, meaning wise man, but is man really so wise? Smart, yes, and it's good to be smart, but not too smart for your own good.
Yes, we have split the atom. Yes, we build clever machines that navigate the universe in search of new homes, but at the same time those atoms we split created nuclear warfare. In our quest to explore the galaxy rejects and neglects the home that we have here now, so no, that cannot be wisdom.
Wisdom is different. While intelligence speaks, wisdom listens, and we willingly covered our ears to Mother Nature's screams and closed our eyes to all of her help wanted signs. Wisdom knows that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so if we were wise, we would not be shocked when we see storms that are stronger than ever before, or more drought, hurricanes, and wildfire than ever before because there's more pollution than them.
Before, more carbon, more trees cut down than ever before at a record pace. We have increased the extinction of animals by 1000 times the normal rate. What a feat.
In the next 10 to 100 years, every beloved animal character in every children's book is predicted to go extinct. Lions gone, rhinos gone, tiger, gorilla, elephant, polar bear gone in 3 seconds. Yeah, very, very hard hitting, I would say.
And I guess that's what brings us together today because that sort of message really moves us and it creates a call to action. And in the words of Jason Clay, the, the senior vice president of WWF, we do need to begin to manage this as if our life depended on it because fundamentally, as we all know, It does. So, so what brings me to, to join you today?
Well, actually, Anthony and I met probably about 1 year or so ago. I'm relatively new to Hills. I've been managing the Hills business for, just coming up to 3 years now.
And when Anthony and I first met, we, we clearly had an alignment on what we felt was important in this area. But to the point he made earlier on, there was a real nervousness from my side to, to speak up and be proud of the work that our company is doing in this space, because I, I was worried on a personal level, maybe, maybe it wasn't enough. Maybe we could be doing a little bit more.
But then through conversations with Antony and like-minded people, it made me really realise that we all need to speak up, and we all need to be proud of, of our contribution to, to improve the situation and move things. Forward and really our responsibility in in Hills is to unite our consumers, our customers, all of the veterinary healthcare professionals, our suppliers and our employees behind our ambition and be proud and speak loud about what it is that we set out to do. Because the reality of it is, it will take businesses and industry leaders to come together to, to create the sea change that is needed.
It will also take communities, it will take relationships between veterinary practises and suppliers. It will take the role of individuals to take one conscious step and decision to move things forward. So we all have a role in, in some form, and particularly as a key supplier and participant within the industry, Hills absolutely has a role.
We see that Innovation is really critical to achieve breakthroughs in this, in this area and to accelerate the progress that's required. We also have a role to, to educate because it's with education that we can raise awareness and we can help individuals understand how we can collectively value change. And most importantly, it's, it's in the form of partnership because with partnerships, that's when we can bring like-minded people together with the same and and ambition and we can really make progress through that partnership and that's something that I'm really proud to say that in hills we do a lot of.
So working for Hills as part of the Colgate business allows us to serve for a much bigger purpose than ourselves. Our ambition is to reimagine a healthier future for all people, their pets, and our planet. So how, how do we translate that through to our strategy on sustainability and social impacts?
Well, interestingly, in, in 2021, the Colgate business for the first time actually put its strategy in this space down on paper and it was a, it's a 100 page document. It, it's incredibly thorough. It really does outline what our ambitions are, what partnerships we already have in place, what certifications we already have, what certifications we aspire to, to gain.
It detailed exactly how we plan to track against our ambitions and how we're going to hold ourselves accountable. So it's, it's a fantastic document that for me really helps me guide my team and guide us on our day to day decision making and the behaviours that that we exhibit behind delivering against that ambition. Narrowing it down, what I wanted to share with you today are sort of three main areas of the strategy and specifically what Hills is doing in this, this, these 3 areas to really drive that strategy forward.
So firstly, we'll I'll share with you what we're doing to help the planet for a new generation, and I think there's no better way in which to, to demonstrate what we're doing than to actually share with you one of our production sites, how we think about the way in which we make our products, how we really put sustainability at the heart of everything that we do in our manufacturing process. So I'm just gonna give you a short video. To give you a flavour for hills what we do.
Hello, I am Gaggio Scarponi, and I am the plant manager for the Is Soo Peche production facility. Ears is a division of the Colgate Palmolive Company, which is specialised in the production of high quality pet food for more than 30 years. We at Eels produce the highest quality pet food for your pets in our production facility that is located in Usto Peche.
Which is immersed in the beautiful Pallava region of the Czech Republic. These pristine surroundings help us to always keep the sustainability and the environment around us in our minds as we prepare healthy meals for your pets. We like to think that it's like making a delicious home cooked meal for them, although our kitchen is a bit bigger.
As said, it's produced high quality pet food for over 30 years. I'm very proud to be part of this company that puts the consumer satisfaction as a primary goal by taking advantage of state of the art equipment, industry leading production practises, and high professional employees. Our principles of safety environment first, highest quality standards, best nutritional profiles, and great taste are put into action in everything we do.
The ostopeche plant in the Czech Republic was built as a brand new facility in the Pallava region back in 2009, according to the highest construction standards. From the very beginning of the project, the design of our plant was aimed to minimise the environmental impact, and we achieved the international LED certification as a recognition of our sustainability efforts. Just to give you some examples, by reusing the excess of the heat, we treat 100% of our waste water in our state of the art treatment plant before discharging it clean, and we are proud to say.
That we send 0% of our waste to the landfill, being through zero waste to landfill certified by GBCI thanks to our strict policy for waste sorting and reusing. In addition to that, we aim to minimise our carbon footprint by getting over 40% of our raw materials by local suppliers. We take our commitment to sustainability very seriously, and despite the already good performance of the plant on this matter, we are committed to delivering very ambitious sustainability goals for the future, such as getting 10% electricity sourced by renewable sources, reducing the water usage by 5% year on year, and maximising the usage of recyclable packaging materials.
The quality of our pet food is based on both highly automated production technology paired with using only the finest raw materials. We at YLs are very proud of what we do, being our mission to help enrich and lengthen the special relationship between you and your pet. I hope that we contributed to let you know heels and what we do here more deeply.
We are fully committed to produce 100% safe, nutritionally balanced pet food, using only the finest ingredients. And we do this using state of the art technology and environmental friendly processes. And this is how we make the life of your pets longer and happier.
So I'm, I'm really proud to say that all of our hills, manufacturing sites actually have got zero waste accreditation. And our two most recent, plants that have been developed have also got leadership in energy and environmental design accreditation as well. And that will be a criteria for all future, production sites that we also, bring into our, our organisation.
A similar approach is taken with regards to the ingredients and the suppliers that we work with throughout the process of producing the Hills products that we serve the veterinary practises with and your, your pet owners. So we, we're very proud to have a strict criteria behind how we source our products, in terms of adhering to the sustainability requirements that you would expect and holding our partners accountable as well. We also participate in benchmarking across industries and I'm pleased to say that from the CDP assessment of 15,000 companies, we actually operate in the top tier, they're tier A.
Manufacturers with regards to how we address matters relating to forestry matters, water, and climate change. So a very, very clear commitment that we make but continue to raise the bar against our own expectations to improve our ambitions in this area. We have a number of partnerships that we're very proud of as well.
Most recently, one of the partnerships that we've embarked on is with the Ellen McArthur Foundation, as of 2018. This is a foundation that we're now working with to really understand the opportunities that sit within the circular economy so that rather than also thinking about waste, we're actually looking at products from end to end so we can keep them within that circular loop. So all sorts of different aspects are contained within our ambition and we're making great progress on that journey.
When we look at recycling, for example, from our perspective since 2019, 65% of our corrugated boxes have been recyclable worldwide. And from a Hill's perspective across all of our products that we make, 70% were actually recyclable as our 2019. Now our our ambition is to, to make that 100% recyclable, and we're on that journey and some things are more difficult than others.
But at 70% in 2019, I think it really does demonstrate our commitment to deliver against that 100% ambition that we have. We also have a significant opportunity to improve our carbon emissions, most recently, in the in the American Feed Industry Association. There was a big discussion around carbon emissions.
From our perspective, we're in a situation where 57% of pet food ingredients actually is the contributor to our carbon emissions as a, as a manufacturer, and the commitment that we have made is that by 2040 we will reduce that by 90% versus our 2020 benchmark. So some bold ambitions, but I think the progress we've made today indicates our level of commitment. And our intention to absolutely fulfil against those ambitions.
The second pillar which I'll touch on is the power of science-led nutrition, which science, as you know, based on your experience with the Hills brand is what underpins our proposition, you know, that is fundamentally at the heart of everything that we stand for. So science. Ingredients, working across predictive biology all the way through to making sure that we are trusted by veterinarians, a very, very important aspect of how we operate.
And within that comes this increased desire to improve our ingredient transparency. Which can be accessed on our own websites in terms of the Hills pet website that you can see as much information as possible about ingredient transparency and we continue to challenge ourselves to make improvements in this area moving forward. With with the recent economic situation and with COVID.
Where we source our ingredients from is, as you probably appreciate it it's evolving and changing, which makes it harder for us to provide full visibility of, of exactly where all of those ingredients are sourced, but we are continuing to challenge ourselves as to how we can make that information accessible and transparent to you. And in terms of the third pillar, pets bring people together, and the power of this really cannot be underestimated. And in terms of how we approach this from a sustainability and social impact perspective, I'm really proud of some of the work that we do in this space.
It's really far reaching and it really does make a significant impact both on pets and the people who they spend their time with. So as a global initiative, I'm really proud of the, the food shelter Love initiative that we've run worldwide and since 2012, we've managed to actually provide 13 million pets with their forever homes through the donations that we've made and the work that we've done with those shelters. I'm particularly proud of the partnership that we have in the UK with the Blue Cross.
Absolutely wonderful charity that we work with, and we support them wholeheartedly with what they're achieving and their mission, and we provide them with as much support as we can to help them through their rehoming programme which they're putting in place. Just to give you a flavour for some of that, I'll just share last year's initiative that we ran. Well we wait.
I just There's some really inspiring work that we're doing there and really putting pets at the heart of everything that we do. Similarly, in terms of how we help support in times of need, and, and really couldn't be more relevant given what's happened in the news over the last 48 hours. We, we do actually operate a major disaster relief programme which really.
Helps ensure that pets are fed and that they are looked after in an environment of uncertainty such as what's just happened over in Turkey and Syria and equally with the unrest which is taking place over in Ukraine and Russia, etc. Something which is possibly a little bit more related to what we're gonna hear about later on, is some work that we actually do over in South Africa. And this is some work that you may well have no visibility of.
So I just want to share this with you just to demonstrate where we see our responsibility and how far reaching it can be and the impact that we can have. Asshoteno about to take off 3 persons on board. OK, can you please send me the names on WhatsApp?
I Yes, and we also have the 6 wings in the. But that Mpolo is a. Operating from here to the back.
Thank Go Yes, which dog is Miss Oli? Here car. Here you go.
Go on The canine unit is only as good as the work we give them. So if we give them tracks that are too old, if we pick them up too late, if we contaminate the tracks, so there's a whole lot of things that go together to make the canine units successful. The life of a dog is not an easy one, even though they think it's easy.
Their, their day to day activities can be very strenuous, sometimes very long distances. So they need to be very healthy. Their body needs to be well nourished.
A good feeding regime and a good system of care is vital to maintain a healthy dog body so that they can, they can do the job that's required of them, which is very, very tough. So we got involved to provide food for the dogs that, that we're working. And luckily we have a, a specific diet called performance, which is really designed for really hardworking dogs, higher in protein, higher in energy, which is, is what we know these tracking dogs rely on.
Oh, I got to win this fight. We give them equipment. So for example, we've given them some anti-heat blankets because they work in such hot environments, we've got to try and get them to cool down as quickly as possible and to make sure they don't get heat stroke.
Their drivers, their work and what they've been trained to do. So that's, that's, that's what makes dogs so important. It's infectious, so it's the same with somebody who loves their job and does it very well.
The dog gives off that energy and that will to work and the love of doing what they do. And I think it inspires everyone around them. Their enjoyment of, of pleasing their handlers.
So at the end of the day, when they, when they come right and they've they've done an excellent check and it's been the whole day and they, they, they find their target. The, the, the look on the dog's face, you can see how happy they are. So, I mean that's, that's infectious for me.
We sponsor the dog unit because it's looking after biodiversity, which is important to us as a company, to us as a country, to us as the world. And I think if we don't keep these open wild spaces, we lose a lot of our soul. So it's some incredible work that the Hill South Africa team have had the privilege of participating in and I'm very proud to be able to share that with you as part of our our wider strategy with regards to making a difference, in terms of work that Hills does.
Bringing it a little bit closer to home and just kind of drawing things for a bit of a close. I, I just wanted to, to also share with you the way in which we see our role of assisting with veterinary healthcare teams. So one of the key areas of focus that I've certainly been working on with the team is really evolving our ways of working with veterinary practises to help them move into more of a digital space.
So taking all of our tools away from admin intensive, paper-based and unsustainable formats into something which is much more digital and eco-friendly. In a similar way, making sure that our communication that we share with you in clinic for usage either is recyclable or biodegradable in in one form or another, and that remains a real commitment that we'll continue to make and continue to improve our progress on. We, we also, are very keen to work with, clinics to help them on any recycling ambitions that they have themselves.
So this is an example of a of a recent terra cycle project that we've been working on, particularly with charter vets, and there are a number of other veterinary practises that we've helped them to, to bring this to life. Make, you know, being aware that there are some products within our portfolio that at this stage we haven't quite managed to get into that recyclable format. So therefore we have a role to help you with that recycling process.
When we then also start to look back into the office, we try and make sure that we take accountability for our own actions as well. So we currently are going through the process of zero waste accreditation for our head office. We have moved our team onto hybrid.
Cars, what you'll see here is there is a board with a number of Post-it note stickers, which is our individual personal pledge for 2023 that we made in January as a team in terms of our one specific action that we will take behind sustainability. Some of the other visuals here represent the work we've done with the Blue Cross. And one of the other things that, you know, we've also initiated this year is that any group meetings that we undertake, we do them in a carbon neutral fashion.
So, it's a real commitment that we make in terms of what we do individually, what we do with our veterinary practises that we work with, what we do as an organisation. So just bringing things to close, I think for us, sustainability absolutely is a collaboration. We have big ambitions.
This really is a positive story from Hills and hopefully this provides you with some renewed hope that large corporates like ourselves recognise our responsibilities. We would like to get there faster, but we are doing everything we can to, to make a difference. We're proud of what we're doing, and I certainly hold my team accountable to deliver against this.
We on occasion would like to be getting there faster, but the reality of it is we stand true and we hold ourselves accountable. We are committed, and a question I would possibly leave you with is, do you think that Hills could play a role in helping you in your practise? Deliver more against your sustainability ambitions, because if you work with one of our territory managers have that conversation.
That's what I would encourage you to do. So hopefully that gives you a, a feel well. What Hills has to offer.
Claire, that was fabulous, loved the videos as well, some fabulous work you're doing there. I know you also get impatience as well that you want to move quicker, but you're, you're going quite well, quite well, it's. So sometimes it is just making steps, you know, making sure that you're moving in the right direction rather than the wrong direction.
I looked when we came out to chat that, you know, in that decade when nobody was really talking about carbon, I think Hills reduced their carbon by about 14 or 15%. We, we now need to do sort of 4 or 5% a year, so it's an obvious step up. But in some ways, you know, governments and businesses are starting to realise that and moving more towards doing that as well, aren't they, so I think it's .
You know, it is so important, none of us are perfect, but let's look at what we are doing and and encourage each other. Indeed. So thank you so much, Claire, and we're gonna move on to Helen.
We're gonna do questions more at the end. I'm gonna, I know we're running a little bit later, we're all very passionate about this topic. We're gonna get Helen in next.
Helen, I had a very enjoyable day. I think it was in the autumn, we drove across, I know I'm sorry, it was a car. It is a hybrid car, so we, my wife and I came across to our Appleton.
In West Milan to see Helen's lovely practise that won the veterinary Green practise of the year along with er Davis that last year. And some fabulous things that's going on in the practise. I'm going to leave Helen to share that.
I love the wildflower meadow, but I also love the fact that you could see all the team was totally committed to it, Helen, so really looking forward to the presentation. I'm gonna pass over to you. Helen's gonna be passing on the award shortly, she's gonna be doing one of the the judging bits afterwards.
So, Helen, I'm gonna pass over to you and looking forward to the talk. Great. Well, thank you, Antony, for that very warm introduction and for the chance to speak today.
It's quite an honour. I'm a little overwhelmed, but here we go. Great, thank you very much.
So I'm Helen, the owner of Old Hall Vets, last year's joint winners of the greenest ve practise Award, which we were very excited and surprised to get. I'm gonna give a quick overview of our green journey. And talk about some of the things we've been doing while we move through that journey.
It won't be a long list of, tips and tricks, as I think it might get a little bit boring, and there's plenty of really comprehensive lists out there. There's one on our website, which you can check out. And also Vet Sustain, BSAVA.
Lots of these organisations have got fantastic resources there and, and lists of things you can do. And So I'll just mention the photographs, if you go through, there'll be a few little garden pictures. These are all from our small but very prolific practise and wildlife patch.
So I hope you enjoy that as you go through. And the biodiversity crisis is every bit as important as the carbon one, so, it's important we think about that too. So who are we?
. It's not doing it. There we go, yay. First of all, we're very ordinary.
We're just an ordinary small opinion practise in, a little rural town in Cumbria, Appleby. We're all companion animal. So we haven't got a big.
A big resource team behind us, we've not got any of that kind of stuff behind us. But I think because we are small, we can implement things quite quickly, and we have enthusiasm in abundance. Everybody is really keen to go on this journey.
So it's been quite a long journey. We had a slow start in the early 2000s, like a lot of people started with recycling and like trying to plug draughty holes in a very old building. But in 2011, I became the sole owner and we moved premises, which was an opportunity for, for change, .
So, This isn't actually the new premises, this is my house. It. You might have seen it on Grand Designs, so it's an eco house built on the ground.
So having built an eco house, I was quite aware of a lot of measures and tech that could be employed in making a building more efficient. And we did what we could while refitting the new practise. So this is the practise, just an old warehouse that we refitted.
This is us in our vinyl reusable aprons and recycling our masks. And all in our bubbles, remember those days, so prac we actually put that little porch on, during COVID, COVID porch, but it's been really good because it has reduced energy use by stopping the weather hitting our front door, . So we insulated, like mad, lots of insulation in there.
This is a heat recovery unit, which we have to move fresh air into the building, but warm the fresh air as it comes through by by passing it next to the outgoing cold air. So we get a constant air flow, which is great because it keeps the place really fresh, but bad smells don't build up, and, obviously prevents some of the heat loss. What else did we do?
We upcycled. Upcycle we use, but we, secondhand and stuff. This is a, an old kitchen unit that we reclaimed and, and put into our kitchen in practise.
You can also see our milk bottles because we buy milk in bottles and the washing up liquid bottle, which is, refilled at our local refill place, food waste for composting, wash recycling. So we're doing all sorts of things, . And you can't see the flooring on there.
I thought you could, but oh there we go, flooring. Our flooring's made from recycled materials, so you can make lots of green choices if you want to. And So, We also Recycle as you can see, so whilst I know that recycling is quite near the bottom of the resource use pyramid, it's obviously much better to not use.
Or reduce use or reuse it, but it's it, I think it has a double use recycling because it's a very visible activity or can be. So this is in our consulting room. And so all the clients can see we've got all these coloured bins, and they can watch us pull open our syringe wrappers and put the paper bits in the paper recycling and the plastic of general waste and they can see what we're doing with things, and the paper towels and animal hair all go in the composting.
So, it, it's a good way to, to get those conversations going with clients and to create awareness around grouping issues. I think in the veterinary profession, we have a real responsibility to create those ripples of change within our communities, and the consult room reception are good places to start, and as vets we are respected and trusted, and I think can be forces for white to change. So, Often Often the workplace can be seen as somehow separate from your everyday life and somebody else's responsibility.
I mean, even I could recognise that feeling in myself, although being the practise owner, it really was my responsibility. But I, I notice that generally speaking, everybody's a little bit more wasteful at work. They perhaps perhaps than they would at home, perhaps leave appliances on more, worry less about the resources generally, and don't have the same level of stewardship as perhaps if you do if you're paying the bills.
It's an interesting phenomenon and probably carries through to all workplaces. It's certainly not just a veterinary thing, it it it's in every workplace. And I think, you know, I think that's what we really need to change and get people to think about a little bit more.
So, it's about time I was thinking about all this, I attended the webinar given by the inspiration or Ellie West, about the Davis vet journey and the involvement of investors in the environment. And that was a bit of a game changer for us because I thought, oh great, if we join investor in the environment, we can get some recognition for what we do, and also some guidance and make it a real practise project. So, the IAE programme, and I'm sure April's gonna talk about this at length, so I'm not gonna say too much, but it does give you a structure to work to, some clear aims and objectives, a timetable, I don't know about anybody else, but I need deadlines to work to, otherwise I don't always get things done.
So it really helps if there's somebody else there holding you to account and saying, right. On the 30th of July, I'm going to do your audit, and you need to be ready for it. So I, I like a bit of pressure like that, and I'm a bit last minute.com.
I can hear my practise laughing about that right now. Anyway, so there's also lots of resources to help, help you with, and obviously the progression to the, to the awards. You also get a mentor to help.
Our mentor was Jan. She's not a compost bin, but she is the one that suggested we started composting in the first place. I remember our first meeting, and I explained what we were doing and thought rather naively that maybe there wouldn't be so much more we could do because we were doing, we were doing a lot.
But she just smiled knowingly and suggested that we composted our paper towel and animal hair. So we did, and as you can see. We can see there Jay is putting the animal hair and paper towel in the compost bin and I've got a basket of vegetables grown using the compost.
They're grown at home, not at the practise, we haven't got enough food at the practise. So, that reduced our waste to landfill by 50%, which is quite huge, . Anyhow, every time I think we've done quite a lot and gone as far as we can, Jan will give us a little more push in the right direction, and we can find more that we can do.
And of course, now that that's the Stainer out there. With all their resources, there is so much information and, and the journey never ends. So, With AIE we started measuring resources.
That all seemed a little bit onerous at first. I thought, oh, you know, it's going to take a lot of time and effort and, you know, what have you. But you get into it, and, I also worried that we, you know, you have to measure for a year to get a baseline year before you can start to see a difference.
Oh, it's gonna take a year before we can go for rewards and things. But it's amazing. There is a lot of information out there, you'll find on your bills.
Yeah, utility bills, things like that, there's you'll, you'll have your, metre reads and things like that. So you can look back and get a lot of baseline data, from before you start measuring really. So we did that, .
On lots of different things. And then started to take action. We just started with 3, I think we're doing electricity water.
And paper and landfill, that's all, but anyway. And you can see whether you're making a difference once you start measuring. So we use reduced our electricity use by 18% in the first year, and it has gone down beyond that since then.
Obviously you do your big, your big wins, your quick wins first of all, and you can get some quite quick big reductions, and then after that it's small incremental stuff. Measuring also helps you to know when things are going wrong. During the pandemic, we were unable to get our, air conditioner heater serviced, and by, by noticing what was happening with the electricity use, we realised that there was something wrong with it.
In fact, you had a blocked pipe, which we didn't know, and managed to get that sorted out. Also measuring does demonstrate savings. Obviously if you can, if you shave 18% off your fuel bill, that is a huge incentive for incentive for all those recalcitrant bosses who don't want to make change.
So but I, I mentioned quick wins, a few quick wins, a big one, changed to a 100% renewable electricity provider, that really helps your carbon footprint. Turn the heat down, the appliances off if not in use, all that sort of thing, same as you do at home, do it at work. A low flow anaesthetic circuit is huge in a vet practise because, our anaesthetic gases are big contributors, to, to the, to greenhouse, to the greenhouse effect.
Adjusting means of travel and journey plans, that's important for us as well. Composting was good and electronic communications. We are, we've pushed and pushed and pushed with our electronic communications to reduce paper use.
And our paper use is is quite small now. So, anaesthetic gas reduction, this is our little, our Humphrey ADE circuit. It works on gas flows of, 0.3 litres.
Every animal, Great Dane, hamster, anything, 0.3 litres. So you can imagine that.
The isoflow you so with that level, is, is very, very small. Of course, you, you do that and then to reduce even further we looking at multimodal analgesia. So we, we, we use much more lidocaine these days.
Castrates always get a good lidocaine injection in their balls and, we use that lidocaine along, . Incisions, and obviously for dentals and things like that to reduce the need for to turn the iso flow up. OK.
Travel, travel's a big carbon emitter, so we encourage cycling. This is Fiona, our super cycling vet. She's also a DIY expert and or DOY enthusiast, and, she made our little bike shed there, which you can see there, which is somewhere safe to put the bikes.
It's actually now being about to be superseded as our neighbouring business has been inspired by what we do on our building a shared bike shed for two businesses. So that's the ripple effect in action. It's really great when you can see that other people are taking on board what you're doing and wants to do more themselves.
And So the other thing we did was involve everybody. I think, you know, everybody has their strengths, and the team are great at coming up with ideas and all gives them ownership. So.
The nurse who's really good with detail does all my measuring of everything. The receptionist who's a compulsive tidier, does the recycling and composting, and she wasn't the greenest person to begin with, but she is right into the recycling and composting now. The vet who likes clinical research designed our protocols for reducing anaesthetic gas use.
We've got a nurse who who loves finding out about new products and she researches alternative greener products and also speaks to our suppliers about what they're doing and and encouraging them to be a little bit greener. The nurse in charge of social media and Facebook shouts about it all. Again, it's really important I think to do that.
One of my nurses, a really good seamstress, she made, the, the, the hat, the hats and the oh gosh, I'm running out of words now, all the. I'm doing. The surgical drapes.
Thank you, thank you. I lost my words. The surgical drapes, as you can see, and they're, they're great.
The scrub top here is made from recycled materials. You can see I'm wearing a, a reusable surgical gown there. We use washable vet beds all the time, and our kennels are lined with newspaper.
We don't use single use anything if I can avoid it. So, I think it's important to encourage ideas as well, get everybody to bring their ideas forward. Again, that, that, that creates ownership of the whole process.
So, the environment is a recurring agenda item at every practise meeting, and we encourage colleagues to put forward ideas. So I think these bottom up changes are much more likely to succeed. And I wanted to I wanted to create a culture in which everyone is start is thinking about the environmental effects of every decision that's taken.
I think if everybody did that at every level of society, all around the world, government, business, home, everywhere, then we would start to have to make differences. So you know, think about every decision, what is the environmental effect of me doing this? Is there a better way of doing it?
And I really feel like seeing how my colleagues are working at work, that we have are getting to that point, in the practise, which is a joy to see. So these are little ideas that have been brought forward quite recently. Claire in the office said, well, you know, sometimes we do boil more water than we need.
We try not to, but things happen and people don't have the cup of tea that we're planning. So now we have a flask by the kettle, and if you've got too much hot water in there, you put the hot water in the flask and it's there for the next person when they want their room. Here, the nurses, the theatre nurses noticed that they were throwing away water from the autoclave when they were draining the autoclave.
So now it drains into the mop bucket and we use that water to mop the floors. You can also see, next to the autoclave is a water purifier, which we use to purify water that goes in the autoclave. It does, it's quite a new thing.
We found that it does produce an awful lot of heat whilst it's going about its business. So we, we actually move it to the room that needs the most heat. So we're actually using that heat as well.
I don't want it in a room that then gets too hot and we have to cool the room. So, that helps as well. It's all about thinking, thinking through what you're doing and thinking, well, yeah, can we use this in a different way?
So, People are important, and you said that as well, Antony earlier on. People are very important and I think our wider community is also important, and it's important to be a part of that wider community and of our whole global community to understand the. The importance of doing something, for our, for our, for the environment.
So, I offer two days paid leave for volunteering in the environment, social or community projects. You'll see some pictures of that in a minute. We work with schools and other groups, to as well get the message across.
And involve clients. Here, we've got two things that we're doing to involve clients. We have a, a zero waste box for, blister packs and things like that.
So a lot of clients bring their blister packs in. Of course, they bring all their blister packs. It's amazing how many blister packs people do produce, not just their vetter ones.
So I was really interested to hear that ills will sponsor some recycling. And I will be getting onto my heels up tomorrow, finding out about that, because at the moment we're paying for that. Anyway, but it's, it's a good thing the clients will bring their, their blister packs in and it, it increases their awareness.
We also, plant a tree for everybody that walks or cycles to the practise. This is the sign on our front on our door, so people see that as they come in and. They're not expensive trees, we're just doing the 20 pence tree from Eco offset, but it all helps and it's all raising awareness and encouraging people to, to make that little bit of a change, you know, OK, I walked the dog up to the vets instead of getting in the car.
And So what else have I got here? Oh, this is a tree planting, tree planting in Oswater. I'd say being in Cumbria, it does mean we've got some great environmental projects on our doorstep.
And what a fantastic day that was. Not that I was there, unfortunately, I was the one left working in the practise. Everybody else went off doing that.
So, So a summary. I think for, for any green journey, start with small changes, it will grow because you become more enthusiastic. You need a little bit of baseline data and I found that outside accreditation did help us maintain focus.
Go for some quick wins, so that you can see some change quite quickly and, and that will spur you on. Work to the strengths of your team. Encouraging them to bring ideas to the table and use those ideas, even if you think actually that's not gonna make a huge difference, using them just, just engages everybody.
And obviously we need to shout about it. We need to shout about it to everybody and, and slowly more and more change will happen. I think.
Especially in the, in the veterinary profession, there is so much change now going on and it and it feels as though we've reached that point of exponential growth with it. And the ripples that we're creating are becoming waves, and we can have hope for the future. So thank you very much for listening and and maybe speak to you later.
Bye. Helen, fabulous talk. I love the idea of the ripples.
I think it's so important we as a veterinary profession are trusted in the community, so, you know, that company saw that you were doing a bike shed, they put a bike shed together. They're similar with the wildflower meadows with the solar panels, so thank you. I do have to disagree very strongly with one point you made.
Oh go on. You said you were at an ordinary practise, there is nothing ordinary about your practise, so please do not put yourself down, you are doing amazing work, and as Ellen said, listening in, she said she loved the idea of the flask, and I think also the the autoclave as well, so what an inspiring talk, I loved hearing, there we go. So inspiring, Anne, one of my older university colleagues, so great to see you on, on, on the call as well, Anne.
We are falling a bit behind time, we're just too enthusiastic, that is your problem, my problem, and Claire's problem. So we're, we are falling a bit behind, but I think it's all been good stuff. I do apologise to people.
Next we're we're gonna ask April, now April does have a little bit of a sore throat, so we do have to be kind to April today, she's very kindly agreed to give the tour. I think April's been doing amazing work as the leader of investors in the environment, encouraging people like myself and Helen to put ourselves forward to do the accreditation. I know there are more and more.
Business is now getting greener status, as well as the silver and bronze, so it'd be lovely to hear how that's all going, April, but you know, thank you in case I do forget for all the great work you're doing to encourage us as vets to just think that bit greener, so over to you April. Marvellous, thank you. Oh goodness, worse than I was expecting.
So I'll do my best. To muddle my way through this presentation, but Helen, you're an absolute inspiration and thank you so much for sharing very candidly your journey and your pathway because I think it really It's a story that really kind of tugs on the heartstrings and it also feels very Achievable as well, and I think that's something that people in very busy veterinary practises can probably relate to. So I'm here today to talk a bit specifically about the accreditation process, Focusing less on why to get involved because I think a lot of the other speakers have have really covered that well today, but how you can get involved, some of the benefits of accreditation and what's actually required, what that looks like, and then I'll have try to leave a little bit of space if anybody has any questions, and I'll give you a few top tips as well, but I think that Helen has given some really excellent ones.
So thank you again. Helen, my name is April. I've been leading on investors in the environment for about 7 years.
I'm a chartered environmentalist. I've got a master's in environmental management, so it's been a real focus area for this portion of my career, but I have a grounding in biology and in water quality initially. And so it's understanding some of the effects on biodiversity in the early stages of my career that made me really want to work with organisations to help them understand their environmental impacts and actually take action at the source before it became a problem when it some of these pollution aspects would escape into the environment.
We do lots of training, lots of empowerment and enablement, because this journey is something that we all need to be on, we all need to go on together. Investors in the environment, it's important to know as well, we're a not for profit organisation, so we're really, we exist to help people. Our mission is to enable rapid impactful action in organisations.
There's a lot that we have to do. We're facing a climate biodiversity crisis, it's tough times economically, across the veterinary profession, there are a lot of pressures on people, practises are overstretched and under-resourced, so how can you actually do that? But what we try to do is help people start from wherever they are and start from a position of success and then build on those successes over time.
One of the big areas that we're working really hard at is helping our members to slash their emissions in half by 2030. Now this is an important target for us globally as well as nationally because we need to cut our emissions in alignment with the 1.5 degrees targets globally to help us to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
So it's something that we're trying to help enable people to actually do and within their own organisations, but also within their spheres of influence, whether it's customers, employees, their personal lives, all of that definitely comes into the picture. So we're making it easy and also rewarding to do your bit for the planet. I think people need to feel that encouragement and that directionality as well.
So we help focus with reducing your carbon credibly, preventing environmental harm, and also supporting nature. So we're trying to put sustainability at the heart of smart business practises, and to do that, as I said, people need help, so they need some guidance and a framework to follow them, to follow to help them get there. In practise, supplementing your quality management system, which may be the practise standard scheme, so it's about integrating environmental management into what you might already be doing from a quality perspective.
We aim also to through audit or assessment to help you understand what you need to do to cut your greenhouse gas emissions, tackle waste, which in the veterinary profession is often something that is at the forefront of people's minds. And then supporting nature, but to do this and make progress in a very structured way. So it's not enough to just calculate a carbon footprint, it's what you actually do about it that counts.
So we're on track for some pretty staggering planetary warming practises can track their tackle their climate impacts by focusing on energy. So reducing your electricity, it was amazing to hear about what Helen's been, what she was able to achieve within a year, cutting electricity by 18%, but you can also switch to renewable energy sources as a as an effective way to improve your impact on the climate with regard to electricity. Looking at your heating systems as well, but also focusing on travel, both how staff get to and from work as well as for business purposes and also how clients do that.
So it's great to see your cycle shed. Helen, and I know that some things will be easier for others, and more difficult for some as well, depending on where you're located. But tackling your anaesthetic gas usage is another big one.
So as far as your direct carbon emissions go, what we're seeing with most practises is that it could be up to 13 of your greenhouse gas emissions. So it's something that you can start to manage, and reduce. So tackling waste, so from correct waste segregation to actually reducing waste through better procurement, focusing on reuse, many of our IIE practises are looking at waste as a real driver for staff engagement.
We've got lots of different templates that can help you create a waste management plan that will help with legal compliance, understanding what your different waste streams are, but also going further and then making tangible reductions. So the new practise standards scheme will also the the award will also focus on if you can demonstrate reductions in your waste that can help you make a good case for getting that award. Boosting nature, so consideration for sustainable models of clinical care.
Getting staff involved to consider the environment of those daily small decisions, but also including giving advice to pet owners, for example. So in clinic practises are using the IIE framework to make progress on how they manage responsible pharmaceutical stewardship. From managing parasiticides and antimicrobials and providing people with resources on preventative healthcare.
So this is what is known as sort of a multi-solve. So it's providing benefits for nature as well as, you know, improving clinical care as well. People are at the heart of sustainability, of course.
So when people are so busy in practise, empowering a few people in the team to run the scheme may only be one person, but it should be. Contributed to by by the whole team overall. We can provide some specific training to upscale key staff to generate enough awareness across the practise that will add up to those.
Measurable and significant changes. So from AMR to lower flow anaesthesia, and again, the practise standards are emphasising this through their general practise requirements to appoint a sustainability champion to have a mean and have a means for team members to suggest sustainability ideas and improvements as well. So who's it for?
It is for anybody, but ultimately we're trying to introduce capacity into organisations so they know what they need to do and they begin to act on it. The ultimate vision is that they will start to, you know, sustainability won't feel like a bolt on or an environmental project, it will just be what you do, so changing the way ultimately that you operate. We're really experienced working in the veterinary sector, so we've got a good knowledge about the key aspects that are significant and material to veterinary, environmental impacts, but we've also positioned ourselves to to support practises to meet the new PSS sustainability requirements as well.
I mentioned integrating environmental improvement into those everyday working practises. And then I think this is significant, getting on an auditable pathway to cutting carbon, tackling waste, and supporting nature. There's a lot of pledges being made out there, but unless you can actually demonstrate that you're doing something about it and stay committed publicly as well as much as to your staff and customers that you are going to continue to improve over time, and that's really, really important.
So we work with lots of different practises from really small ones like Helen's to very large ones as well, so we've got different solutions that can be tailored as well to certain types of organisations, as well as others that sit within the veterinary value chain. We've got lots of expert guidance from kind of those easy wins to a little bit more technical as well from carbon footprinting to even specific advice around energy. So what are some of the benefits?
Cutting costs, we all know that energy prices right now are absolutely staggeringly high. So if you can tackle your electricity use and cut it by 18% in a year, that's fantastic, and from this for many years now, what I've seen is as soon as people start to actually look and measure and monitor, just that awareness generates reductions and changes in behaviour, and there are some more difficult things can be that can be tackled over time. You can plan those in.
And it's good for business. You can improve your reputation, and add marketing value, so just being able to show that you're part of this journey, that you're doing your bit as much as anybody else, can really give you an edge and also help you, attract and retain staff. Having an environmental management system can help generate a significant amount of awareness about your legal compliance issues.
So if there are, for example, waste segregation, correct waste segregation is a big one, making sure you have a process in place to check the systems are being observed, that you're segregating things as appropriate, but also following your duty of care obligations. It's just one compliance area. So I mentioned about attracting and retaining staff.
We found that a lot of practises working with us have been successful at recruiting people on the basis of their certified investors in the environment certification. So it shows not just that you're doing little projects here and there, but you're committed and you're committed to making those improvements over the long term. And then it provides an externally verified sustainability audit you can show to people internally as well as externally as well.
So how does it work? This is a really simplified way of talking about environmental management. I think it it it's really helpful.
So what you have to do is you appoint some green champions, that's typically people who will lead the way. They might be the ones that pull together the evidence that are sort of the eyes and ears for the rest of the team so that they can generate ideas and enthusiasm. It could also be specialists as well.
But you would commit to publishing an environmental policy, so we have a vet specific policy that you can use as a template and adapt that with some advice from your IE support advisor, but it's essentially commitments to, you know, reducing your resource consumption, preventing environmental harm and reducing waste. You'll measure some resources depending on if you're at the beginning of that journey a little bit more advanced and what some of your goals are, we can give you some advice on what resources to measure that will be material to your environmental impact. And then once you have a baseline, start to set some targets.
There's a minimum 2% target that you would be working towards, which really, is a very achievable target, and we encourage those that have a bit more data to set specific targets on different resources. For example, if you're aiming to reduce your carbon footprint, you might be looking at making bigger reductions on your anaesthetic gas usage than you would on some other areas, maybe travel, which, which could be difficult in some years. You create action plans, so that's where we see the operationalizing of that environmental policy and that provides the audit trail.
Who are you holding, who is being made accountable to make sure an action is completed, what works well, what doesn't work well, and is it gonna help you ultimately to meet those targets that you're setting. You need to reduce and manage waste. It's not just about correct waste segregation.
We want to see that you are also making significant efforts at reducing it. You can create a travel plan from silver level and above, so that's where you have an idea of your, your business travel needs, and where you might be able to make investments, whether that's through support initiatives from the cycle to work scheme, you know, setting a route planning if you are provide an ambulatory service if you're farm vet, sometimes that can be something that . It's a tougher nut to crack, but getting to the bottom of what what those needs are and what the the opportunities are to make improvements.
So calculating your greenhouse gas emissions, we've done a lot of work with Vet Sustain to create a vets specific carbon calculator and members have access to our carbon calculator, as part of the membership benefit. You carry out additional projects similar to the ones that Helen talked about, it could be tree planting, it could be becoming a bee friendly practise. Those are really popular in veterinary practises, but it could also be investing in, projects like solar panel installation.
So communication and engagement, so that's where you're bringing people on board. You're demonstrating leadership with your senior senior management team, and then demonstrating how you are inspiring, educating, informing, involving people wherever you can. And we've got 3 different accreditation levels, bronze, silver, and green.
Bronze is largely about setting a baseline, starting to implement some processes, policies and procedures, gathering baseline data, running at least one project, understanding your basic carbon footprint, and then starting to communicate progress and set targets. Silver levels are development level, which really focuses on a bit more data, looking at a little bit more resources and starting to see some achievement of targets, for example, reducing your energy, cutting anaesthetic gas usage, cutting waste, but also we would expect to see more people on the team being involved. From green level, this is often where we see quite a lot of environmental projects being undertaken, and I've got a couple case studies at the end.
I'll show what some are doing. It's a more robust environmental management system. It becomes at this level typically kind of just what you do.
So once you set that baseline at bronze, it's being able to to manage that. On a weekly, monthly, annual basis and demonstrate that you're actually able to meet some of the targets that you're setting. We've got loads of different training and resources that are available.
Some of those are free and some of those are additional certified training, from our accredited pathways to net zero course, which is appropriate for larger organisations that really need to map out that decarbonization plan to a foundation certificate in environmental management, which can be for anybody that's looking at getting some specific personal qual qualifications that leads to associate level membership. Of IMO, which is the professional body for environmental managers. We've also just developed a Green champion course, which is really exciting.
It's an e-learning course, and I think it's an excellent solution for busy vets because you can chip away at it in your own time, but it's a way for you to understand kind of the basics around sustainability, how to do an environmental review, how to reduce your waste, and how to identify those areas for continual improvement. We've got loads of other resources from a short course as I mentioned, the green champion one, we've got a member zone that can take you through the accreditation step by step, and of course we've got that handholding element from our support advisors as well. We also do some interesting and quirky events sometimes from, you know, looking at your digital carbon footprint, to encouraging positive behaviour change in the workplace, so you can watch out for those live events and take part as well.
We have a members area, so if you sign up and you can show, you know, what you're doing at what phase you're at. You can see the, the numbers of accreditations that you've had over time. It's a great way to also allow your stakeholders to verify any accreditations that you hold with us.
We got lots of members that we have over 125 veterinary brands and practises that have joined within the last 3 years. It's been a phenomenal journey of learning and growth and challenge and it's amazing to see so many veterinary teams joining this call to action. Few proud moments.
This one is from Becky from Minster vets, so she was particularly proud of improving the clinical compliance of the team, educating staff. They put in terricycling for their pet food pouches, their blister packs, PPE and flexible plastics, which included syringe and needle packets, but they, she was proud that they had moved just beyond measuring and segregating that way to really reducing it overall. And then Sarah from Sandholevets, another inspiring, vet, very busy, but somebody who's really pulled off a fantastic project, so she was really proud of having converted this little field at the back of their practise into a wildlife garden, so they got the whole team involved over a series of lunch breaks, .
Got them to go out on a rota and, and work on litter picking in the area, planting some trees, and now it's being used by staff and clients alike. So it just really allowed them to connect all those dots for the team. So it's more than just reducing your energy use and resource use.
It's about some of the other benefits that you can provide for nature. OK Davies is a great case study, so, particularly for what they've done around biodiversity as a big focus area. So whilst they're doing all of the other requirements to achieve the accreditation, and they're multiyear green level member now, but they've really focused on engagement projects like on site birdwatch.
They've got a wildlife camera that you can actually look at and see what's going on because they're in a rural area. They do stuff litter picks, tree planting for bereaved, pet owners, lots and lots of focus on reusables, loads of focus on, decarbonization as well, for their heating and and energy systems. This one was a really real delight, Battersea Dog and Cat home, they were on the big green money show recently and their CEO was talking about the different efforts that they'd made in across their practises, so I encourage you to give it a a listen, but they focused on staff engagement projects, so that included appointing recycling champions to make sure that people were encouraged to try to recycle more.
They did a number of different litter picks, improved some of their green spaces, but overall they were able to cobble together, a lot of information across a variety of different kinds of sites to implement that environmental management system, and they're a bronze accredited member that's aspiring to even more. We have lots of case studies, so you can have a look from, you know, how you can reduce waste in practise, but there's also case studies from other sectors that have transferable learnings as well, so I encourage you to have a look at those and learn and see what you can do. So just a few top tips from me is to measure and monitor your energy consumption.
My favourite piece of advice at the minute is to check your energy performance certificate. You can find that if you go to the government website or you search up EPC. You can look at your energy performance certificate, and that gives you a really rough and ready action plan for energy.
It tells you the state of your buildings, if you have insulation or don't, what your heating systems are like, and what some of those key low hanging fruits will be for you on energy. Switch to a green electricity supplier, that's an excellent action that you can undertake, that involves minimal pain in terms of behaviour change, etc. It's a really good thing that you can do to help decarbonize our energy supply here in the UK.
And then you can explore how and where to use renewables for heating and hot water. Can your practise get solar panels? I love that Anthony has that goal to get so many practises to get solar panels on the roof, brilliant.
Train your vet nursing team on lower flow anaesthesia, so make sure that they watch. We have a free webinar that people can access. There's lots of resources that others have provided across the sector.
You can check out that Stain Davies as well have loads of YouTube videos you can look at, but it's a great thing that you can do that also provides that's that multi-sol provides co-benefits for clinical care. And then download the the vet sustained greener veterinary practise checklist, which we've helped with over the years as well. OK, so what happens next if you, if you're interested in joining, you can send us an email, we will support you along the way in terms of, from the onboarding and giving you direction as to what to do.
But in the meantime, you can think about what this could mean for your practise, and find out for your team what they think that you can focus on. Just really quickly, the pathway to accreditation, so once you get your membership, you take part in training, you get that 1 to 1 support all the way up to the stage that you would be have a pre-auit so there's no, mystery in terms of what we're looking at when it comes to your assessment, and then you book your assessment and would achieve the accreditation level that where you meet the criteria. So we've got various resources from how you can put together your evidence pack all the way through to a checklist depending on which level your ambition sits at.
OK. I don't know, Anthony if you wanted any questions or if we have time for that. I think, April, we should really power on because we're, we are running a little bit behind, so we'll, we'll do the .
We'll, we'll do the questions at the end, but I know also you've got a sore throat and everything, so I think you are allowed off because you've done amazingly well to not just muddle through as you said at the beginning, but to do an excellent job. So thank you so much and thank you for everything you do, you know, for the profession as well because I think . The investors in the environment has been a really big thing, which obviously Ellie started I think obviously now a lot of people are, you know, coming in and getting involved in it, so it's fantastic work that that you've done and .
I really appreciate it and you should go off and have a lem sip or something now. Or no, natural, go natural, go some lemon and some honey and some hot water cos that will be much more natural and and better. We've got to walk our talks, have we?
That's what I, I do lemon and if I'm being really naughty, I put a little bit of whiskey in. But that's usually only in the evening when I want to have a good night's sleep. Right.
It's a. That's my tip for you, April, you've given us some really good tips there, so, I'm sure people can get in touch and I know that you and the team are very open to chatting and helping people to get started, because they, as I said, the, the journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step, and sometimes that first step is the most difficult, isn't it, to get started. Yeah, absolutely right.
Thank you. Thanks again April, don't think you have to stay, thank you so much, Mark. Last but by no means Lee.
Good afternoon. We've got, really pleased to have Marker Jones from the Born Free Foundation. Mark is a veterinary surgeon and we've been good friends for a number of years now, haven't we?
We've had some good webinars and debates together, defender of the badges, defender of the lions and the rhinos. But I think what we're gonna do today is very much hear from you a little bit about COP 15 and, and of course the brilliant talk that was organised by your organisation just before Christmas that I went to, which was which was down in London at the Royal Geographic Society, talking a lot about natural capital and how we can. Protect our environments by making them economically sensible to keep.
Your video has just gone a bit mad. Oh no, it's back to normal again, that's good. So Mark, I'm gonna leave it over to you.
I'm really looking forward to the talk. Hopefully if we can get finished by about 4:34, it allows us to do the awards that I know people are really looking forward to and getting closed around about 5 o'clock and if some people want to stay on, we'll be more than happy, I'm sure some of us to answer a few questions as well, so. Mark, really looking forward to the talk, over to you.
Thanks very much, Anthony. So, so no pressure. I'd just like to start by thanking Anthony and the organisers for inviting me to speak today.
As Anthony said, my name's Mark Jones. I'm a vet with experience working with both domestic, but mainly with wild animals, both terrestrial and marine, in various parts of the world. And for the past 8.5 years, I've been working for the international wildlife protection charity Born Free, at which I'm head of policy.
And today what I'm gonna try and do is talk about sustainability in the broadest sense and why it matters in terms of international and national legislation and policy in respect of wildlife and biodiversity and our efforts to protect it. But before I start, just a quick word about the organisation I work for. Bor Born Free was formed back in 1984 by the actors Virginia McKenna and now Dame Virginia McKenna.
And Bill Travis and their son Will. The charity was named after the classic 1966 film that the actors starred in, which told the story of conservationists, Joy and George Adamson and their experience rescuing a lioness cub called Elsa, and successfully returning her to the wild in Kenya. However, the animal that prompted the creation of the charity was not Elsa the lioness, as many people think.
But rather poly poly, the elephant, with whom Virginia McKenna and Bill Travis worked on the 1970 film An Elephant Call Slowly. Now after filming, and in spite of the protestations of the actors, Poly Poly, who was born in the wild in Kenya, was gifted by the Kenyan government to London Zoo, where sadly he died in 1983. And the charity, which was originally called Zoochek was founded the following year and was very much focused on highlighting the plight of wild animals in zoos and other captive facilities and the associated welfare concerns.
So while these days Born Free has expanded its activities to include field conservation projects, the rescue and care of captive wild animals, education and policy work. The charity's always retained its core focus on the welfare and wellbeing of. Individual animals and continues to promote the incorporation of animal welfare considerations into all human activities that involve or impact wildlife.
And I'm going to talk a little bit about that today and why I think animal welfare is important to sustainability. So to that end, our mission is to end the exploitation and suffering of wild animals, to protect wild animals' habitats and ecosystems, and to inspire compassion and respect for wild animals. So today I'm going to talk about sustainability.
Now my fellow speakers in this session have spoken passionately and and with so much knowledge and and so forth about sustainability, mainly in the context of businesses and individuals and how they can contribute. What I'd like to do is to broaden this out and talk about it at a wider level and try to explore its importance in the context of the global crises currently threatening the natural world and human and animal health. I'll try and provide some food for thought on what we mean by sustainability, how it's defined, the shortcomings of the way the concept is often applied, and some of the efforts to redefine sustainability, to make it more relevant and applicable to today's challenges.
And as a vet, as I've said, I'm always interested in animal welfare, and I'll try and make the case for why animal welfare should be a critical component in considerations of sustainability, and I'll wind up with some concluding thoughts. So let's start by taking a look at the global crises we face, how they're interrelated and what they mean for wildlife and biodiversity. The global community is currently facing arguably 3 major crises that have resulted from humanity's dysfunctional relationship with the natural world.
First, we're in the midst of a climate crisis. Most experts and international organisations agree that climate change is caused primarily by greenhouse gas emissions and presents enormous dangers for all life on Earth. Since the mid-19 mid 1800s, the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air has led to an inexorable rise in global temperature, resulting in long term changes to the climate.
And in recent decades, with exponentially increasing human populations and global industrialization, global warming has markedly accelerated and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Now, it's generally agreed that anything above 2 °C average temperature rise would be absolutely catastrophic, and recent efforts have been focused on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
To achieve this goal, global net CO2 emissions need to reduce by about 40% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero by around 2050. Unfortunately, at current rates of progress, we're going to fail to meet these targets. The climate crisis is also one of several key drivers of the crisis facing biodiversity, alongside habitat destruction and conversion and overexploitation of wildlife.
Since 1500, some 617 vertebrate species are reported to have become extinct, extinct in the wild or possibly extinct. And according to the 2019 global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, which is widely recognised as the most comprehensive assessment of its kind, a further million species are currently under threat of extinction. Extinction rates are accelerating, and nature's decline is described as unprecedented.
Since 1970, populations of vertebrate and freshwater species have declined by an average of 68% and 84% respectively. At the same time, wildlife habits habitats continue to be destroyed, and ever increasing numbers of animals are taken from the wild, both legally and illegally, for use as everything from food, medicine, for captive entertainment, sport, for research, to fuel the exotic pet trade, and for many other reasons. And as the 2019 global assessment stated, transformative changes are needed to restore and protect nature.
The current global response is insufficient and opposition from vested interests can and must be overcome. And as we're all too well aware, since early 2020, we've been experiencing a global human health crisis. COVID-19 has to date resulted in about 665 million confirmed cases worldwide and the confirmed deaths of close to 7 million people.
And of course the actual numbers are probably a lot higher because there are many that go unconfirmed. It's disrupted pretty much everyone's lives and has had a huge impact on the global economy. But COVID-19, as we know, is just the latest in a long line of pandemics, albeit to date, arguably the most devastating, most of which are thought to have originated in wild animals.
Scientists estimate that around 60% of the emerging in infectious diseases that affect wildlife are of zoonotic origin, and around 70% of these originate from wildlife. These diseases have the opportunity to emerge and spill over when carrier animals are stressed and when wild animals, domestic animals and people come into close contact with each other. An estimated 1.7 million currently undiscovered viruses are thought to exist in mammal and avian hosts, and it's thought that around half could have the ability to infect people, with bats, rodents, primates, and some birds considered to present the highest risk.
The reasons why zoonosis and pandemics are becoming so problematic in today's world lie, at least in part in the way we interact with and exploit wildlife. Relentless development, and I'm sorry, these slides are moving forward without my control, so we'll just go back a slide. Relentless development in pursuit of economic growth has carved inroads into wild habitats, granting easy access to traders, poachers, traffickers, and facilitating the collection and export of wild animals and plants.
Ill advised expansion of human settlements irrevocably leads to increasing conflict, contact, and often conflict with wild animals. Rapidly expanding human populations are placing massive demands of wildlife for nutritional and medicinal and other uses, and increasing disposable incomes among a burgeoning global middle class have resulted in the commodification of wild animals as exotic foods, traditional medicines, health tonics. Pet it's high in gifts, status symbols or investments.
As a result, exploitation of and trade in wild animals, both legal and illegal, has grown exponentially. Wild animals are collected, farmed, transported, exported and traded in huge numbers, more often than not enduring pretty appalling conditions. Crowding stress and injury among such animals provide the perfect environments for pathogens to spread and mutate, and their close proximity to people when they're traded and sold creates the opportunity for human transmission.
What may have once been small scale subsistence uses of wildlife have become commercialised on a massive scale, boosted by an unfettered global communications and travel infrastructure with dire consequences for conservation and human and animal health and welfare. What I think we're perhaps finally beginning to understand is that these crises are all interlinked and that you can't approach them or find solutions to them in isolation from each other. So, for example, protecting and restoring nature is key if we're to limit the impacts of climate change, since nature acts as a buffer to climate change by absorbing the very greenhouse gases that are causing global warming and providing a natural carbon store, as well as buffering against extreme weather and its consequences.
There's a lot of focus on the development of nature-based solutions and ecosystem based approaches as key parts of our efforts to limit global warming. Of which the planting of trees is perhaps the simplest and best known example. Planting trees is arguably the cheapest and most effective solution to combating climate change that we'll ever have.
But we have to remember that trees don't function in isolation, and scientists are beginning to be able to measure through work that's been done on great whales and elephants, just how important the role of wild animals is to maintaining healthy natural systems that can store carbon and reduce the impacts of climate change. Limiting global warming is also key to protecting wildlife and nature because as the world warms up and environments change, many animals and plants find it increasingly difficult to thrive in the habitats they've evolved to live in. Extended droughts mean little vegetation, herbivores die, predators die, animals come into increasing conflict with people reliant on the same resources, and end up being persecuted, and so on.
Where they're able, some species may move into other habitats because of climate change, where they often disrupt the native wildlife. And protecting nature and wildlife is also key to preventing future pandemics like COVID-19, since while most of the viruses that could cause future pandemics probably originate in wild animals, it's only when we disrupt and exploit those animals that we put the health of other animals and people at risk. So ultimately action across the three major crises is critical if the world is going to make progress towards achieving true sustainability and fulfilling the UN sustainable development goals.
So it's really vital that we take our message about the importance of looking after wild animals and the ecosystems of which they are an essential part to the discussions on climate change and pandemic prevention, as well as those focused on biodiversity itself, so as to ensure that policymakers and politicians really understand that these crises are linked and that protecting wildlife is a key element to ultimately achieving sustainability. But why does sustainability matter? Well, achieving sustainability has become really urgent.
I'm sure you're probably familiar with this concept of Earth Overshoot Day, and according to this, we will have used up a year's worth of natural resources globally by mid July in 2023. And that date, Earth Overshoot Day is getting earlier and earlier every year. So we're clearly failing to achieve sustainability at a global level.
From the perspective of environmental and biodiversity protection, the importance of the concept of sustainability is widely recognised across international agreements and frameworks. In 2015, UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which include life underwater, which is goal 14, and Life on land, which is goal 15. With targets aimed at protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, sustainably managing forests and halting biodiversity loss.
And the Paris Agreement on which global action on climate change is broadly based, talks about sustainable lifestyles, sustainable patterns of production and consumption, and sustainable development in relation to environmental protection. And last year, the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, or IPPIS published an important assessment report on the sustainable use of wild species, and it concluded that ensuring sustainability is critical to reverse the global trend in biodiversity decline, and that would require transformative change in the human nature relationship. But what do we actually mean by sustainability in the context of biodiversity protection, and how do we assess it?
Well, I had a look at the Cambridge online dictionary. Now it defines sustainability as the quality of being able to continue over a period of time. It goes on to define environmental sustainability as the quality of causing little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue for a long time.
But these simple and rather vague definitions don't really begin to convey the complex nature of wildlife populations and biodiversity in their interaction inter interrelations and the relationship between nature, climate, and animal and human health. In terms of wildlife and biodiversity, sustainability is most often couched in the concept of sustainable use. One of the three objectives of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
which Anthony mentioned at the beginning, is the sustainable use of its components, and the convention defines sustainable use as the use of components of biological diversity in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long term decline of biological diversity, thereby maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations. And the aim of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species, and the issuance of permits for international trade in CITES listed species requires the determination of so-called non-detriment to the source population, although the word sustainable doesn't actually appear in the convention text. In the context of planetary and biodiversity resources, these definitions tend to be focused on maintaining or increasing the supply of goods and services extracted from or provided by biodiversity in order to benefit people and to fuel our economies.
I think the danger is by failing to incorporate factors such as culture and social complexity among animals, genetic complexity within within animal populations, and the relative costs of removing components of biodiversity in terms of the loss of key unseen services such as carbon sequestration or the cost of the unforeseen emergence of zoonotic pathogens. The definitions and measures that are currently available for sustainable use may well prove inadequate, with knock-on detriments to our efforts to tackle the global crisis we've been discussing. These additional considerations require a focus not just on numbers, but on the fact that individual animals are key to their social groups and populations and by extension, the wider ecology.
We need to factor in the cost of removing individuals to the social and cultural functionality of the remaining population and its genetic integrity. We need to account for the loss of carbon sequestration when we remove individual animals for trade or other purposes. According to studies carried out under the auspices of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, the activities of each individual forest elephant in Africa is responsible for more than $1.75 million worth of carbon capture over its lifetime, and that's at 2020 carbon prices.
Prices have gone up a lot since then. And there's expectation that similar calculations can be made in relation to many other species. We also need to understand the risks of pathogen spillover when we take animals out of their natural environments and subject them to extreme stress, such as so often happens when they're traded, and factor in the potential costs in our consideration of sustainability.
I would argue strongly that the welfare and well-being of individual animals should be seen as a vital component for successful wildlife conservation and ecosystem protection and restoration. There are, I'm sure, many of us on this call that see respecting and improving animal welfare as an ethical and moral imperative, and I certainly can count myself among them. But the incorporation of social complexity and animal welfare considerations into conservation practises through the adoption of a compassionate conservation approach can also help refine and improve conservation outcomes.
Understanding animal personalities and needs and their individual roles within their societies and the wider ecosystem can improve the success of conservation reintroduction, wildlife rehabilitation, rewilding projects, and efforts to mitigate human-wildlife conflict and encourage coexistence. And introducing welfare considerations into animal management practises can help reduce perceived conflict with people. And in turn reduce the drive for lethal animal control while improving the overall effectiveness of conflict mitigation practises.
The UN Conservation for the UN Convention for the Conservation of migratory species of wild animals, or CMS has an entire work stream that is considering the implications of animal culture and social complexity for international conservation policy. So this is some really progressive work that's been being done under the auspices of one of the big UN conventions, which is, which is really good to see. As we've seen, the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought to the fore the critical connection between the health and welfare or well-being of wildlife, domestic animals and people, and the destruction of natural ecosystems and the trading and consumption of wildlife, whether legal or illegal, and whether they're taken from the wild or bred in.
Is one of the underlying risk factors for pandemics, with crowding, stress and injury among wild animals in trade and the circumstances in which they're traded and handled, providing the perfect environment for pathogens to proliferate, mutate and spread between species and to people along the chain. We're going to be faced with more and possibly more of virulent pandemics unless we take strong action to prevent the emergence and spread of future zoonotic diseases linked with wildlife trade and consumption. This is all the more likely as habitat destruction and wildlife trade continue to expand.
So there are very practical reasons why evaluation of ecological sustainability should include consideration of the welfare of animals. So is there much in the way of cause for optimism? Well, I, I do a lot of work at some of the big UN conventions and I think we're making some progress in this regard on the international front.
The 2019 UN Sustainable Development report stated that the clear links between human health and well-being and animal welfare are increasingly being recognised, and strong government should safeguard the wellbeing of both wildlife and domesticated animals, with rules on animal welfare embedded in transnational trade. The 2020 UNEP reports on preventing the next pandemic went further by emphasising that adoption of animal welfare standards for the care, housing, and transport of live animals along the entire supply chain is needed to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. Additional restrictions on which species can be legally sold should be considered.
And as a result of efforts by animal welfare advocates, welfare is now included in the operational objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity's draught global action plan for biodiversity and health, which aims to mainstream biodiversity and health linkages. Through sector specific plans, including in the health sector, with a view to reducing the common drivers of biodiversity loss and health impacts, and thus promoting the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity alongside human well-being and animal welfare. Animal sentience is already recognised in the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union, the African Union animal welfare strategy for Africa, and here in the UK under the Animal Welfare Sentience Act, which was passed into law last year.
And at the Convention on Biological Diversity's COP15 meeting in Montreal in December, which I, I was, I was at. The Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity framework was agreed by almost 200 countries, which will set the international policy framework for nature and biodiversity protection for the coming decades. It's not perfect.
But among its goals and targets are some progressive ambitions relating to some of the issues I've been highlighting, including wildlife exploitation and preventing future pandemics. These are other references to sustainability and animal welfare within international and regional agreements and national legislation, I think give us a real platform to work from. Interestingly, the South African government's draught white paper from July last year on conservation and sustainable use of South Africa's biodiversity arguably gets us closer to acknowledging some of the key aspects of our relationships with wild animals that are important if we are to achieve true ecological sustainability.
And these include the genetic integrity of the population, the ecological integrity of the ecosystem in which the species occurs, the equitable distribution of benefits, and the need to ensure animal welfare is not compromised. And at its 5th meeting last year, the UN Environment Assembly, which describes itself as the world's highest level decision making body on the environment and to which all 193 UN member states and parties adopted a resolution entitled The Animal Welfare, Environment and Sustainable Development Nexus, which requests. Parties and stakeholders to work together in identifying the linkages between the health and welfare of animals, sustainable development and the environment and human health and wellbeing, and to produce a report which could prove extremely influential to future international and national policy regarding and relating to ecological sustainability.
Alongside many others, we're going to be advocating for the full implementation of this resolution. So, just to, sort of finish up, there are two other initiatives that I want to mention that I think are important in the context of ecological sustainability. First, the one health concept, which I'm sure we're all familiar with, which aims to bring together multiple sectors and disciplines working to attain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment at local, national, and global levels.
One Health is already embraced by a number of international organisations and in December 2021, the World Health organisation, working with the World organisation for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture organisation. And the United Nations Environment programme adopted a definition of one health, which for the first time included reference to the importance of well-being. These organisations are engaged in the development of an international pandemics agreement aimed at improving efforts around pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and we're certainly very interested to engage with that process.
The second is the broader one welfare Initiative, which promotes the recognition that animal welfare, the well-being of biodiversity, and the environment are all connected to human well-being. Its adoption and implementation offers a holistic approach and a tool to support disease risk mitigation, while also contributing to efforts aimed at addressing broader well-being issues and the biodiversity and climate crises. It also helps to promote key global objectives such as supporting food security, sustainability, reducing human suffering, and improving productivity within the farming sector for a better understanding of the value of high welfare standards.
We argue strongly that ultimately the adoption and implementation of the one welfare framework will help progress towards securing the achievement of the sustainable development goals, noting that while the agenda for sustainable development envisages a world in which humanity lives in harmony with nature and in which wildlife and other species are protected. Animals are hardly mentioned and welfare is not addressed. In some senses, one welfare provides an umbrella context within which one health sits.
So we need to push for it to be front and centre in policy initiatives that emerge from the current crisis. So going forward, I think our key objectives, certainly our objectives organizationally, are really reframing the sustainable use narrative to incorporate human and animal health risks and animal welfare concerns, particularly in relation to wildlife trade and consumption. Integrating animal health and welfare into international and national policy through the adoption of one health and one welfare approaches to reduce zoonotic risk and tackle the biodiversity and climate crises.
Valuing and mainstreaming wildlife and nature protection and animal welfare into all decision making. And the adoption of robust implementation mechanisms and provision of adequate resources for wildlife and nature protection and recovery. If we're gonna be successful in achieving true sustainability through international and national legislation and policy making.
We need to not only promote animal welfare and wildlife protection as a moral and ethical imperative, but also as a key mechanism for ensuring ecological sustainability and tackling the crises we currently currently face. I think we're making some progress, but there's a long way to go. So thank you very much for your time and thank you to my fellow speakers in this session for their presentations and wisdom.
And just to finish by saying that at Born Free, we take our own efforts to achieve organisational sustainability forward and outline these efforts on our website. So we take those efforts very seriously and we've got a page on our website which which talks a little bit about that. Fantastic.
So if we have a just a 5 minute break, we'll start back at 25, 22. Announce the award winners and then if people do have some questions, I'm sure a few of the of the speakers would be happy to stick around to to answer questions, so. There we go.
Well, I'm so pleased to welcome everybody back for our green awards. This is one of the most fun parts of the day for me because of course the all of the people who've been nominated and and have come through the, the judging process to be in the final are doing some fantastic work. In practise or outside of practise, and I was thrilled in a way not to be involved in the judging because it was very nerve-wracking last year, so we were very fortunate and we'll, we'll sort of be introducing to the judges shortly.
Anna Judson er was one of our judges. I don't know Dawn, if we can get the slides up for the presentations if you're bringing up the other people as well. Because we're gonna do the green practise slides first with, with Sean.
But basically, Anna Judson was judging, she's junior vice president of BVA, also April Sotomayor, who you know has had a sore throat, so has gone off, and our other two fine judges were Sean Wensley, who's an ex BDA president and works for the PDSA and is a, is a good friend of mine just up the coast inornby, so we, we talk about birds and things a lot. I. I was very excited to have a black cap on my.
Feeder this this morning just before the webinar started, so it was a good sign. We, we tend to see good birds together, don't we, Sean? Yeah, and then finally we've got Helen who you all know was the joint winner of the Green practise of the year, just gave the brilliant talk before, and she'll be .
Announcing the award for the green, the veterinary green individual, so . Perhaps if Sean, are they, are they your slides there, if you want to control them, if you want to run those slides, and then we can you can perhaps help er Helen just in forwarding those as necessary. Yeah, so I think if I just share my screen and you share your screen with the on that would be great.
We have on the green veterinary practise of the year, I think we're, we're letting you come in as panellists, but you have to accept that to come through. So if, if Sean, you want to introduce the practises, maybe they will make themselves known and come on the the actual . Delegates, panellist list, and then we can actually chat and feel free to put your cameras on.
So I've seen Gemma's come across, and I think we need the representative from Willows and the representative from Frome as well. So Sean, I'm gonna pass it over to you. Thanks very much, everyone who, who did put themselves forward.
Nobody loses in this because I certainly love reading what everybody's doing, and I think it gives me a boost. I know it gave the other judges a boost and . Hopefully it all helps to regenerate hope that that we can turn this ship around, so Sean and Helen, over to you.
Thanks very much, Anthony. Oh well, hello everyone. I, I'm Sean Wensley, and I had, I did have the, the privilege of being on the judging panel, this year, and absolutely to echo Anthony, .
Being able to, to read through the various submissions, did give us, did give us a, a, an absolute boost. I know lots of us care passionately about sustainability, and therefore, we're hoping that lots of the, examples of good practise that we've heard about today are filtering down and through the profession and, and our everyday practises. And if you needed any reassurance that that is happening.
This is a magnificent way of, highlighting the, the normalisation and mainstreaming of the greening of the veterinary profession. It was also, just before I do go on to the next slide, it was a pleasure to meet Helen as last last year's recipient, and I loved your presentation, Helen, so thanks very much for that. So, I'm clearly not going to, to dwell on each of the nominees, but from the, the long list that was presented to us, we have the, the task, the difficult task of selecting 3 nominees, and then, of course, a winner.
So on this Green veterinary practise of the year 2023, our first shortlisted nominee is Willows Vet centre and Referral Service. Willows be familiar to many of you? It's, it is a, a referral hospital.
It's a large practise, with, I know, a, a, a, a substantial staff. And they've clearly, given their size and their scale and their resource, they have put sustainability at the heart of of what they do. So if I pull out just some of the things that are mentioned on this slide, they've introduced a sustainability strategy called the Willows Roadmap, with the aim of halving halving operational emissions by 2030.
They were able to invest 35,000 pounds in a new compressor and state of the art oxygen generator system, reducing its carbon footprint because that means that willows no longer needs frequent HGV deliveries of medical gases. And another one from, I should say, a very, substantial submission. These are literally just a few pull out bullets.
But another one that, caught my attention was this reducing of single-use items, such a. Low hanging fruit, I suppose, a simple but very effective action that lots of practises can take, and they, saved 4000 surgical hats from going to landfill by providing all clinical team members, with washable hats. That's a bit of an insight on willows.
The 2nd in the shortlist for Green Veterinary Parents of the Year was Vets for Pets in Milton Keynes. You can see there that just going back to April's presentation, Vets for Pets achieved silver in the Investors in the Environment accreditation. And, I admitted to say that that Willows just before them achieved the higher, green accreditation.
Of course, the fact that practises are doing this tour is absolutely fantastic and both, are not. Easy to achieve, they do take a lot of of of work and commitment by the staff, so both silver and green are fantastic to see. A few of the things that just jumped out from the, the Vets for Pets submission, they, like many of the practises, had worked through Vet Sustain's greener veterinary practise checklist, which is free to download for anybody to take a look at and structure your, your actions on sustainability and practise.
They undertook activities to disseminate what they were doing. They submitted case studies to the vet sustain, website. And they also participated in good practise sharing with the, the other practises in the Vets for Pets group.
So they had a closed Facebook group, where they could all come in and share ideas and inspire and inform each other. And one of the other things I liked from the vets, that we liked as the judges, and I personally liked, from the Vets for Pets submission, was that they looked at ways to enable colleagues, to travel more sustainably, to car share, to cycle. And they discontinued any split shifts that required, some staff members to travel twice to work on the same day.
So further lovely practical examples of, of everyday activities and initiatives. And finally, over to Garston Betts in Froome, . What we, what we felt really came through from Garson's submission, which was also comprehensive and extensive, was the warmth and relatability, of, of, of the submission and the things that they're doing, clearly, again, very practical things, but also very clear that the whole, the whole team were were involved, enthusiastic, and were inspiring those around them.
Both in the veterinary profession, they were writing articles, they were becoming green champions, including with vets Steyn. And elsewhere in the local community. And here are some of the practical examples that we heard about where, as you can see here, recycling of paper and plastics, battery recycling, terror cycling packets, reducing their single-use disposable wipes, etc.
Etc. And with future plans listed there as well, which, we were really pleased to see this acknowledgement that, you know, they like very many practises, are on our journey. So they're the three, you can imagine it was pretty tough, choosing between them, but nevertheless, we, we did, we pondered and re-pondered.
And the winner for this year's Green Veterinary practise of the Year. Is a joint win for Willow's Vets centre Referral Service and Garston Vets. I know we've had a joint winner in a previous year, or at least once for some of the, the categories, and we just felt we had to, we went to and fro as judges.
And all I can say now is many, many congratulations on behalf of us all to, to Willow's Vet centre and referral service and Garston Vets. You're clearly showcasing a fantastic approach to this, to such necessary work and, Hearing about it will be magnificent for many people. Thank you.
Sean, shall we just allow David and Gemma to say a few words? Absolutely, please, yeah, that'd be fantastic. Just unmute if you can, maybe Gemma first.
There we go. Hello there. Hi Gemma.
Hi. Thank you very much. Congratulations.
Yeah, thank you. That was, that's my surprise. We have been working really hard behind the scenes, so yeah, we're a small, independent team, so it's really good to, good to hear that you, are really pleased as well.
Yeah, we were. Yeah, your enthusiasm came through in, in your application, which was, which was lovely to see. Oh, thank you.
Yeah, and we didn't have any, we didn't have the formal judging criteria that required winners to be either from independent practises or otherwise and to be small or large, but we did like that. We have ended up with a relatively small independent practise compared to a much larger one and, you know, it shows that things are really good things are possible at either end of the spectrum, doesn't it? Yes, yeah.
Yeah, I'd like to say thank you very much. Hi, David. I I'd just like to say thank you very much, an absolute honour to share it.
So, yeah, absolutely over the moon, that stunning. Well done. It's just amazing reading both the work from both your practises and of course facts facts was just.
Mind blowing. You see, I mean, you see these little things from Betstain and elsewhere, all the things that we could do, we see webinars and articles, it's all that we could do this, we could do this, you hear that people are doing that, but when you just see it all together and you see practises that are really going for it, I'm not. With extensive resource or extensive depth of knowledge, it's just.
Get just taking those basic approaches, but implementing them, isn't it, drip, drip, drip drip drip and really engaging the team and talking about it, it's superb. Yeah. Yeah, so well done, well done to both of you.
Yeah, I'll stop screen sharing, not least because I'm terrified that I might press the button on the next winner by mistake, so. Excuse me, everybody, I might be a little bit, . You'll be fine, Helen.
I can talk. Yes, I know. Yeah, you're, you're you're not ordinary, you're extraordinary.
Just remember that. OK then, so, shall we move on to the green veterinary individual of the year? OK, so the nominees are.
Off you go, Sean. So Andrew Prentice. As you can see from this, he's been, a passionate advocate of sustainability within the vets profession for many years, and a, a great many years, that is, before, really, before it all became as sexy as it perhaps now is, and he's, he's been involved.
Looking at the parasiticides, at quite a high level with Imperial College and Grantham Institute and using a lot of research-based, information in his work. So we were impressed by his using his, his strong research basis in the work, his endurance and persistence, really. So he's been at this a long time, and his influence in these other organisations.
That, that sounds true. Next slide, please. Sound like Chris Whitting.
So the other, the other nominee was Laura Binney. She's, she's from Cumbria, so not just up the road from me actually. And we were really impressed with her enthusiasm, her level of out outreach in the local community.
She's got, there's quite a lot of stuff in the local community, and the huge number of initiatives she's been able to, to enact. You know, within her kind of limited sphere, I suppose, and she, she really seems to walk the talk in all aspects of her life, which really came across in her, in her application. And And she's she's with Paragon Vets in in Dalston, I think.
Yeah. OK, should we have the next one? That's more about Laura.
OK, so they've done quite a lot of stuff with wildlife garden and things like that. OK. And the last, the last, shortlisted person was Zoe Zoe Halakry who has, she's at Davis vets and he's on their, green team.
And she, she's, she's been working also with quiet persistence for a long time, both with through her work with Davies and Linnaeus and also with Betsy Stein. And she's got a huge influence in a, in a lot of different areas, and producing some diverse and really high quality work, . Next slide, please.
So, yeah, she's been, oh, here we go, that's great, everything. OK, we can move on and the winner is Zoe. Halferry.
Well done, Zoe. We were very, very impressed and we felt that you, you often don't get much limelight and we felt you should have a little bit today. Thank you so much, Helen, thank you for your kind words.
I really, really am surprised but grateful to everyone, for all that they're doing. So thank you so much. My pleasure, my pleasure.
It's been, it's been, it was really lovely to read all the about the stuff you've been doing and to. Be able to acknowledge that. Thank you, thank you very, very much.
And yeah, as I say, sort of thank you for, for all of the amazing sort of hopeful and inspiring work that everyone is doing. Right. Mhm.
OK. Anthony, you're coming back in? Yes, thanks very much, everyone, and, and, you know, as I said at the beginning, I was glad I wasn't involved in the judging process because it, it was so, so tough, but, you know, and it may sound a bit cliche, but I think everybody is a winner because all of the work that you're all doing is inspirational, not only for us but I'm sure for many of the people listening, we've got.
Over 300 people who came on today, it shows that sustainability is no longer a fringe interest and and regeneration, sustainability probably isn't enough anymore, we have to do more and you know I'd really encourage everybody who's been on today to, to share what they've seen, to start those discussions with people and part of that, we were doing some carbon literacy training with . With Oh Jen Gale, just lost it for a second with Jen Gale last week, and in fact she's doing a session now, and it was very much around. Have those conversations with people, you know, and listen to what they're thinking and what they're worried about and how could we be those heralds of hope that we can say that this is possible, that this work that we're doing is worthwhile and is making a difference as we all add up together, so please do comment about this on social media, I think it's so important that whilst we are known for our high quality, veterinary clinical CPD, this is something that's very close to my heart.
I think it's a really, really important area. So do share the regenerating ho symposium thoughts on social media along with the hashtag VC2023. And please do tag me if you do anything or I'm the webinar vet so that we know, you know, this has been something that you've enjoyed because we want to get this right and for it to be a real source of encouragement for everybody.
This evening on again at 7 o'clock, we're gonna be talking about alternative diets and obesity. And then tomorrow, another really important topic which I think is really er covered in this whole area of sustainability is antibiotic stewardship, it's very much around one health that Mark was talking about. I know Sean is very passionate about that area as well.
So, tomorrow between 2 and 4 we have the, antibiotic stewardship seminar which is kindly brought to us in partnership with Mars Animal Health. So it's great, veterinary health, sorry, that obviously, you know, these are companies that are wanting to, Sort out these big, big problems that are, you know, within the industry and within the world, so . Obesity and alternative diets tonight, it is available for free to watch if you do want to have the recordings, then you have to pay for those and I'm sure Dawn can put those links in the in the, in the chat box, but I'm quite happy if people are to take any obvious questions that anybody has.
We've got Helen on the line, we've got er Sean on the line. I think David, sorry, Mark is still on the line as well. And anybody else who wants to contribute, so all put your cameras on and let's see if anything happens.
If not, we'll, we'll give it 5 to 10 minutes and then we will let everybody go off for their dinner. So let's see if anybody's got any, any questions. Dawn has put those links in the chat, but do, you know, do leave us comments on social media because that encourages us to know that this is.
Working in the right way for people as well. Questions and answers over here. So let's see, .
Lydia's saying she's, she's got a comment rather than a question, Helen, she loves the your use of the word stewardship, it sums up the whole sustainability movement that we're stewards aren't we? This is a, a planet that we're minding and we're passing on to the next generation. And you're muted at the moment, Helen.
Yeah, thank you, Lydia. and you're absolutely right. Is it, this is just a planet that we happen to be living on.
It is not our planet, and then we do have to look after it, for all the other beings that live on our planet. Yeah. Nicola has said, thank you so much, I feel inspired.
Any, any other questions, you can put them in the question and answer box, probably easier than the chat box. I, I'll read out a few things. Cynthia is saying congratulations to the winners.
Audrey, well done, lots of good ideas for us to follow up. Jaw, congratulations to the winners also for other participants. They all deserve deserve consideration for their work and efforts.
Perhaps people can just type in where they're listening in from. It's always interesting to see where everybody's. Coming from, as well as from the UK.
If you're from the UK that's also fine. Tell us where about in the UK. But do put your names in and just again a reminder about the survey monkey for our survey about the solar panels, it'd be really fascinating to see what people are thinking about that and whether that's something that they want to to be involved in.
And Lydia saying she knew Mark when he was a fish vet. So, there you go, Mark, you've, you've done lots. There we go, Cynthia is in the USA.
Claire's in Shropshire. Anybody else coming through? Mhm.
I mean, Sean, you're obviously the very much involved in vet sustain and we've we've got the carbon calculator which I think we've also left as a link there. I suppose in the absence of April and and maybe Helen to contribute, it it's it's so important when if you are starting this journey, and it'll be interesting to know in the chat if anybody is in the middle of accreditation with IIE or whatever body they're using. But we have to start first by measuring, don't we, because if we don't measure it, we don't know if we're increasing it or reducing it.
Yeah, and I think Zoe's still on as well, so she might want to come in on that, but . Yeah, I think what, what's great about that tool and a resource for the profession is that it's tailored to the veterinary profession. So there are generic carbon calculators out there, but we were really keen with this one to make it tailored, to, to the, the varying veterinary situations.
I think someone mentioned ambulatory equine practise earlier, you know, that's just one example of where we're not always obviously, in a small animal consulting room. So I definitely encourage people to, to go and take a look at the carbon calculator. And it's a nice way, I suppose when you've got figures, .
As a practise, it's nice to do loads of interesting things in the practise, but it's also nice to be able to measure stuff and particularly when you can measure stuff that's getting better the next time you measure it. So it's great for that benchmarking and and auditing, and then feeding into to other things. Zoe, did you want, do you want to come in on that, and congratulations on your award.
Thank you, Sean. I, I agree it, it's sort of looking at the specific factors, sorry, from background noise, the specific factors, in an individual veterinary practise that can be tailored very much to the individual setting, having branch practises, the use of anaesthetic gases and waste, so it, it really does go in much more depth than the generic carbon calculator. Yeah, I, I look forward to using it actually, cause I just use the IIE one at the moment and it's not, whilst it does cover, anaesthetic gases, I suspect it's not quite as, in-depth as the, as the vet sustained one.
So, yeah. Do you, do you think it's a general question, and perhaps we can, you know, pull in anybody, else who wants to talk. I mean, Andrew obviously is doing a lot in this area, but.
Are we in danger because I think I can do it, although the biodiversity element is really important to me, do we obsess a bit too much about carbon and then. Can we as practises make a big difference in biodiversity, is that more something that will come from the agricultural side, and obviously also, you know, the companies that are creating drugs to make sure they're safe, be they obviously antibiotic stewardship, if we don't steward our antibiotics sensibly, but also all the anti-mintics and so on that we're using as well . Our our green discussion forum is going to be more around biodiversity this year, and I, I just wonder whether we, we have to make sure that we have a very holistic approach because we.
Just obsess on carbon, there's a danger that we can plant all the wrong trees in all the wrong places, can't we? And Mark, I'm sure has got her thoughts on this. So whoever wants to dive in first, look around, see who's who's giving you the eye, and then just go for it.
Go on Andrew. Yeah, I think, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, the, the major, a lot of the sort of media discussions are about carbon footprint and carbon carbon.
Dioxide on it, but biodiversity has, you know, without the biodiversity, there's no point in having a, getting our carbon under control. The, the, the, the main project I'm working on at the moment is looking at medicines use, and it's looking specifically at parasite treatments. I, it started with a slight concern that There seem to be a vogue for treating animals with anti-parasite medication, but animals which may or may not have actually signs of infection and then just asking the question whether that was really necessary and.
Asking the team at Imperial whether anybody was measuring the levels of these products in the environment. And it turns out that one or two of them, they were. And Iidoloprid and fipronil are very high up on the list there of, of products of extreme interest and concern, not just in the UK, but across the, across Europe.
And it looks like that's coming from the, from the animals that we all treat. So, and if imidoloid is in the rivers, then it's gonna be every bit as effective at killing invertebrates there as it is in and on the animals that we treat. So, it's, it's, it's, it's not all about that one product.
It just, it's, it, we're talking tomorrow about antimicrobial stewardship, but, the, the way we treat parasites. Is something that we need to be very careful about, because these are very deliberately highly toxic compounds that are very necessary under certain circumstances, but not necessarily under all circumstances, and our rivers are a real focus at the moment, mainly because of the, the alacrity with which our water companies are pumping sewage or allowing sewage to be pumped out in there, but the, the, the, the cocktail of chemicals. Not just from us but from domestic use and and commercial and industrial use.
The cocktail of chemicals in our waterways is quite shocking. I thought, Andrew, it was interesting that I think it was one of the regulatory bodies were saying that some of the, the water chiefs should actually be given prison sentences. It was as, you know, as as draconian as that, because of course they do it with impunity and seemingly with government protection to do it, which is.
Yes, but again to try and bring all these. It was nice to see that CBS had given some money to fund a PhD at Bristol on, on, on some of these ectopparasiticide uses and possibly we as small animal vets can learn from the large animal vets who treat more, you know, in the face of disease rather than preventatively. One of the reasons that that there's a problem in the small animal field is because it was assumed by the regulatory bodies that there was very little chance of our parasiticides making it out into the environment, and therefore, the, the criteria for environmental impact assessments are very, very low.
But now this new evidence is showing that actually it's not the case. They are in the environments and therefore, those environmental impact assessments should be much more stringent. But you're right, yes, I mean, it's much more common practise in, in equine and monoal practise to be doing much more monitoring of faecal egg counts and, and so on and so forth, and that's very rarely done in the companion animal field.
Anybody else, I think it's, let's let Helen go first. I, I, I was just gonna ask, ask Andrew actually, do you think that a lot of the problem is, is the increasing grooming of dogs and we're doing a lot more washing and bathing of of of of our dogs now, has that impacted? It, it does, it looks very much as if the primary route by which these products are getting out into the, into the rivers is through water.
So it's, it's not just the washing of the dog, but it's washing of the dogs, bedding, the washing of your hands, the washing of your clothes. The studies have been done looking at, the dust collected in the vacuum cleaner and finding that there are products like imidolorid and fipronil in that dust. There are birds' nests out in the park and out in the, in the countryside, lined with fur, which comes from dogs and cats that contains ripronil imidoloprid.
You know, it's, it's, it's going, it's going everywhere, but it looks like the major source from cats and dogs is, yes, it's domestic, domestic water waste. Right, interesting. Thank you.
Cos the highest cos the highest levels of finding in rivers are just downstream from the outlets from water treatment works. Yeah. Over to Sean, you're, you're muted.
Thanks, Anthony. Yeah, no, I think it's it's useful to raise that risk of carbon tunnel vision, isn't it, within sustainability, and I enjoyed. Marks exploration of some of the concepts of sustainability in its broadest sense, and similarly, one health.
So bringing in people, animals, and the environment, and also the different aspects of sustainability, economic, environmental and social, which is some have referred to more recently as ethical sustainability. But anyway, capturing all and and just within the, the case studies. I think what I've really enjoyed is that linking of, access to biodiversity and green space with human psychological well-being, as several of us touched on, or several of you touched on, and the way that some practises have very explicitly married that lovely little space that they've created.
And they've made it be friendly and pollinated and so with it being a space that's designated and intended to be for staff to take breaks, which both promotes breaks per se, which is really important, but also makes, makes it possible to have those breaks in nature. So, so, you know, in, in having access to nature and enjoying nature, even if it's just at this time of year at a dunno singing on the local fence and starting a black cap this spring song. But Sean, I think PDSA are very good.
I remember when I did a some practise and then worked for a short time, did a bit of locuming for PDSA being very, you know, almost religious about taking those breaks, which we're, we're often not quite as good at at in practise are we? And, and, you know, having that sort of holistic approach I think is. It's so important that we, we pull it all together because the, the natural world and the mental health and the one health, they, they do all go together.
So when we silo things, it's never as effective, is it? Yeah, and, and just on PDSA actually, you're right, so there's a good culture of taking breaks at PDSA, but I think you know, Anthony, one of our Liverpool PDSA hospitals in Kirkdale, I was able to go and visit their little nature patch that they'd created and I'd heard about. And it's modest, you know, it's small, it's just got a little bench, it's got a little raised bed somewhere for the bikes, but that's all you need, and the staff were so, are so proud of it.
And they grow veg and other bits and pieces for some of the hospitalised, small mammals. The rabbits don't they? Yeah, it's, it's brilliant.
You don't need acres or half an acre or whatever, it's just a little small patch you can be proud of and enjoy. Yeah, and I've been over as well and taken photographs, so, yeah, amazing. Mark, any thoughts on that perhaps before we see if there's any questions, otherwise we'll maybe close it down, because it's been a, a long, but I, I hope people feel a very, I've certainly enjoyed the the sessions and I've been educated and encouraged.
Which is why you possibly do some sort of, actually we will come to Zoe as well, but Mark, do you want to go first? Yeah, I mean, you know, really interesting to hear people start to talk about wellbeing and human wellbeing, because I, I think, you know, when I look at this from the kind of policy work that we do, which tends to focus on, you know, sort of national and international level policy and legislation and so on, all of these organisations still work in silos. So, you know, you've got the, the UNFCCC working on climate change, which still has, you know, and it's still really hard to get the importance of biodiversity across, the importance of looking after wildlife.
But if, and, you know, on the pandemics treaty that's been worked on, principally by the World Health organisation, which is probably one of the worst organisations I've ever seen internationally for working in silos. Trying to get them to accept that it's important that that treaty should should look at prevention through changes in the way that we interact with wild animals and domestic animals is really, really difficult. They're obsessed with preparedness and response because that's what they see as their remit.
But as soon as you start talking about prevention, take it out of the human health side, but say, you know, we back up to You know, where these, we, where these sort of crossover pathogens originate from, they're, they're kind, you know, they're out of their comfort zone, they don't like it, but it is beginning to happen, you know, there was, I think you mentioned right the beginning an interesting event called Beyond trophy hunting. That we held at the, Royal Geographic Society back in December. We had a guy speaking there called Ralph Shay, and Ralph Shami is, I think he's, he has a directorial role at the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, but he's been given a sabbatical to.
Do some work on the carbon sequestration value of animals, and that brings into play the whole sort of opportunity cost idea, you know, we tend to utilise animals for short term gains, but. What what's the cost of that in terms of what we lose? And I think when you start to talk about those kind of things, you know, Ralph Shaming's working and if people are interested, there, there's a website called Rebalance Earth.
I think the, the, if you type rebalance.arth into the into the address on your browser, it will come up, which talks about this whole value of in, you know, how, how important it is to value individuals, not just, you know, for the I've, I've, I talked about their sort of social and their, their cultural importance as individuals and of course their intrinsic importance, but also because. You know, individual animals are responsible through their activities for the sequestration of masses and masses of carbon, and it's a, it's a kind of service that we don't really, you know, recognise or factor in to our calculations.
So anyone who's interested, do go to rebalance.arth and have a look at Ralph Shammin's work. It's, it's really interesting stuff.
Mark, we're we're hoping, of course, to get Ralph to the veterinary green discussion forum, we're we're sort of still in discussions about that, but the, the thing that fascinated me most about that whole talk, and it was brilliant presentations from some of the workers in the field in Kenya, you know, in some of the resorts, because it was involving local people, suddenly poaching had stopped of of rhino and so on, but. The piece that I found really fascinating, and it's why I, I love to make this holistic argument rather than the siloed argument, is a forest with elephants in sequesters more carbon than a forest without elephants in. Yes.
You know, and there's all sorts of reasons we go into that for the plants that they're eating and you can almost, they've worked on elephants as a kind of, you know, a keystone species. Keystone species within those environments. They also done work on great whales in the marine environment, but you can probably make the same arguments at different levels for.
All kinds of different species that live within forests, and as I've sort of tried to get across in the in the talk, a lot of people talk about planting trees, which is great. Trees are, you know, they are easiest and cheapest way of, of increasing carbon sequestration and taking some of the CO2 back out of the atmosphere. But trees on their own.
Don't function very well. Trees have to be part of a, a bigger planting the right tree in the right environment to plant sita spruce in the middle of the UK doesn't do nearly as well as where it's. But you gotta have the biological complexity around those trees to make that forest function.
In the way that it should, so looking after the animals that live in forests is every bit as important as looking after the trees themselves. And then actually bringing the community in who then understand that they're making money off the forest with the elephants in means that you start to keep hold of the environment because it makes more sense to leave it like that than to chop it all down and and put a. You know it's a question of it's a question of how you value these things and how you realise that value in order to benefit the people who live close to or within those environments who ultimately are the stewards.
So if you, if you know, if you incentivize them to look after it, then they'll look after it. But you know, it's how you, how you do that. There's some very clever ideas with people that they're much cleverer than me about blockchain blockchain technologies and so forth in order to ensure that.
The right people benefit from the, from the, from the efforts to, to protect, you know, these, these habitats and these systems, so yeah. Zoe, just before I ask you to, to make a comment, I, I have to sort of say I was so pleased that you won the award, you've been a great help to me on some of the papers that I've written for a couple of the magazines, because I'm also trying to write outside of the profession, because I, I think it's important that we as vets, Are seen as trying to lead this discussion as well, so thank you for all that you've been doing with with the papers and everything, but obviously, you know, even at Davis, I was there passing some awards in a a a few months ago and things like the Wildfire meadow and things, you obviously take welfare of staff seriously as well, it's all it is all connected, isn't it? Oh yes, absolutely.
I think it's, it really is key that role of the environments and contact with nature and and well-being. Yeah, it's been nice to see the, the flowers growing outside Davies and have the green team to organise that. It's all been fantastic.
Brilliant. Do you want to make any other comments before we see, I don't think there's any more questions, but I'll have a little. I just wanted to say thank you, thank you, Antony for bringing us all together and sort of connecting everyone to collaborate with ideas and for everything that you do and thank you to everyone for all the, the amazing work that that they are doing.
Yeah. No, thank you everyone and it's a great encouragement for me cos none of us can do this on our own, but together we form a network and it's got real power in it, hasn't it? It has, yeah.
Yeah, so thank you. Thanks everyone. As I say, the next session starts in about just under 2 hours' time with alternative diets and obesity, all all all social diseases as well, so it will be interesting to to follow those sessions.
And then tomorrow, Mars Veterinary Health very kindly partnered with us to, to be talking about antibiotic stewardship, so all of the talks are free live. And I think Dawn has left a, a, a URL code if, if you want to buy recordings and things, but, thank you so much, everyone. Thanks so much for all of our speakers.
It's been a pleasure and a privilege for me to, to learn so much from you all and, and thank you for all of the nominees for the awards again for the inspiration that you bring. Within the industry, so thanks again everyone, and good afternoon and maybe see you later, bye bye. Thank you, bye bye.