Sustainability
About Donaldson’s Vets
Donaldson’s Vets is an independently run small animal practice, with the main hospital located in Huddersfield and 6 branch practices spread out across West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.
At Donaldson’s, we care passionately about looking after animals. We pride ourselves on providing ‘Total care’ for pets and are here to help with all aspects of pet ownership. Donaldson’s services range from helping to choose the most suitable family pet, through routine vaccinations, health checks, neutering and nutritional advice, to advanced diagnostics medical and surgical facilities; we have advanced orthopaedic and soft tissue surgery, on-site CT scanner and dedicated Intensive Care Ward at our 24-hour clinic at Somerset Road, Almondbury. We strive to provide a personal service second to none.
Key Impacts
As a Veterinary Practice, and a business, we understand the impact of our practical activities on the environment, both local and nationally. We, as a company, are eager to minimise these and utilise alternative methods in order to lower our carbon footprint.
The following is a list of key business activities identified by our company that contribute to our effects on the environment:
- Use of fossil fuels (Gas and oils)
- Use of electricity
- Use of water
- Waste Production and disposal, both clinical and general
- Use of Anaesthetic gases
- Emissions from transportation of clientele and employees
- Use of Pharmaceuticals (Antimicrobials, Antiparasiticides)
- Procurement of goods and services
- Construction of infrastructure (Extensions and new buildings)
Our Actions
As we have identified some of the key areas our business is contributing to the production of carbon emissions, we at Donaldson’s are actively working towards reducing our footprint.
Sustainability at our Hospital
The Donaldsons Vets Somerset Road Hospital was custom built with the goal of keeping carbon emissions at a minimum and to have limited impact on the immediate environment.
The building itself was constructed with triple glazed windows, enhanced insulation, solar panels and was fitted with air source heat pumps, and heat exchangers. This allows the building to maintain adequate heat while keeping a continuous source of air flow throughout the structure. The heating systems are powered by the energy produced from the on-site solar panels, improving the energy efficiency of these modules.
The internal structures are fitted with motion sensor low energy lighting, to reduce unnecessary usage.
Our Waste Management
Across the Donaldson’s vets branches, we aim to be as sustainable as possible with our waste management systems. Where possible, we recycle our single use items into the appropriate areas. Each practice has the facilities to recycle the basics, i.e. paper, cardboard, cans; we now have the facilities to allow for glass and food waste recycling. Sterilisation pouches and packets from syringes and needles, a daily waste product, are separated into the paper and plastic aspects, cans and pouches from feeding inpatients are cleaned and recycled in the appropriate areas. Providing an item is not contaminated, it will be recycled in the appropriate bin.
General waste is minimised where appropriate and sorted through the local councils.
Clinical and offensive waste management is used across all practices and are disposed of in the appropriate manner. The majority of Donaldsons, including the hospital, primarily use clinical waste, separated into infectious and contaminated. This ensures the correct disposal of hazardous waste without compromising safety of the workers. At the Sowerby Bridge practice, due to the smaller staff size, the practice is able to utilise both offensive and clinical waste effectively while minimising the risk of cross contamination between the categories.
Donations for kennel spaces
As with most veterinary practices, Donaldsons uses newspaper, towels, and blankets to provide suitable kenneling areas and bedding for our patients. To minimise costs and emissions through supply of these items, we regularly ask for donations from the public and disperse them where needed across our branches.
Single use consumables
Single-use surgical consumables, such as drapes, gowns, shoe covers, can fill up clinical and general waste. For this reason, Donaldsons aims to use re-usable items where deemed clinically appropriate, without increasing risk to patients. Re-usable drapes are available throughout Donaldsons and are used as much as possible, alongside re-usable gowns, hats and designated theatre shoes to remove the need for disposable shoe covers. All fabric materials are washed separately from non-theatre items and lint rolled, before being re-sterilised for future use.
Purchased consumable items are periodically bought in bulk, to reduce the amount of regular deliveries needed. Stock levels are controlled carefully at each branch to limit both excessive stock and the need for emergency deliveries
For multi-use clinical items, these are manually cleaned, chemically cleaned with enzymatic cleaner, then disinfected or sterilised with the appropriate modalities (chemical, autoclave).
To run our autoclaves in a sustainably efficient manner, each practice has its own water de-ioniser. This allows improved efficiency of the autoclave system, as they have access to a constant supply of de-ionised water, and minimises the need for regular water deliveries.
Staff Transportation
As Donaldsons has branches spread across a wide area, with the hospital at the centre. The company is able to cover a 10 mile radius from the centre, meaning staff travel from a variety of locations to work at the hospital setting. For this reason, Donaldsons utilises a yearly survey to appropriately assess how our employees are traveling to and from the facility, looking at travel times and distance, transport of choice, if they are already car sharing and if they are willing to car share. This allows us to get a realistic view of the environmental impact of our employees. Those who use their vehicles for work purpose, i.e. travel between branches, home visits, are required to fill in a mileage form to allow us to track distance travelled and reimburse fuel costs where required.
Laboratory Testing and Transportation
Each Donaldson practice has their own haematology and biochemistry to run in-house laboratory testing when possible or when urgent results are required. The branches are also supplied with microscopes, to allow for standard cytologic evaluation. There is a limitation to what equipment can be kept at a general practice level, however the basic machines and training allow for quick diagnosis and limits the need for packaging and transporting samples on a regular basis, reducing the use of plastics and carbon emissions.
Anti-Microbial Use
Donaldsons complies with government guidelines on confronting antimicrobial resistance, a policy which aims to reduce the need for unnecessary exposure to antimicrobials and optimising their use. We minimise use of antimicrobials by utilising lab testing, both internal and external. All branches are equipped for basic urinalysis, cytology and blood tests, while the hospital allows for more advanced testing. Broad spectrum antibiotics are used as a first line, either as a result of basic tests or whilst waiting for results in a case where it is clinically significant. External lab testing can then be considered when there are suspicions of a resistant strain. Culture and sensitivity tests allow us to identify the exact strain of microbial and which antimicrobial will be most effective, limiting this use of ineffective pharmaceuticals. To ensure that our vets are able to follow a standard protocol, guides on anti-microbial use for set common conditions are available to access at all times on our internal community website. Clients are advised to return shortly before finishing the antimicrobial course; this allows staff to assess symptoms and run additional tests to confirm the elimination of microbials from the affected area, and prevent a break in treatment which could otherwise lead to resistance.
Appropriate Disposal of Pharmaceuticals
Alongside minimising the use of unnecessary pharmaceuticals, Donaldsons supports the Animal Medicines Amnesty Campaign and regularly encourages clients to return their unused or expired medications to be appropriately discarded. This is advertised through posters presented throughout the branches, and clients are encouraged to return their unused medications once they have completed a course. Each branch has a drugs returned book to keep track of what medications are being returned, allowing ourselves to keep an accurate log of how effective our involvement in the campaign is.
Communication
In order to standardize our sustainability process across Donaldsons, we have a variety of standard operating procedures (SOPs) available for members of staff to access on the Donaldsons Vets Community Hub, a website designed for easy to access documents, guides and other resources. This site allows staff to access information from any computer, eliminating the need for paper copies stored in specific sites in a practice. If a staff member would like to suggest an alteration or discuss a certain document, they would simply email the person responsible for that document.
It is also important that our clients are aware of our policies within practice, when a client is registered they are sent a ‘Welcome pack’ detailing certain practice policies. Our website also contains generic information for clients to view whenever needed, including information on our out of hours service, overnight patient care, price list, and managing certain conditions.
In each branch, information is displayed through a variety of displays and posters, educating clients whilst they wait, or prompting them to ask further questions regarding the topic.