Sustainability Profile: The Mayne Veterinary Clinic
by Lindsey Raven Emrich, RVN & Green Champion
My journey to becoming an RVN began with a fortunate work experience opportunity at Colchester Zoo, which reignited my childhood dream of becoming a veterinary nurse. After just two weeks, I was lucky enough to be offered a full-time position at the zoo. Although I enjoyed my three years as a keeper, I wanted a more hands-on experience with animals in their natural habitats. So, I took a year off to travel, which was an incredible, life-changing experience. On my return, I was determined to pursue nursing again and accepted a position in Cambridgeshire. I began my nurse training at a Pet Doctor's branch and completed it at the prestigious Animal Health Trust referral centre, where I feel incredibly fortunate to have trained.
The supportive workplace culture here nurtures our interests and initiatives, and I doubt I'll ever want to be anywhere else.
The Mayne Veterinary Clinic came into my life at just the right moment - at a time when I was feeling disillusioned with the veterinary sector. It's a young, progressive practice filled with people who share similar values and have young families, and it has become the best place to call home. The supportive workplace culture here nurtures our interests and initiatives, and I doubt I will ever want to be anywhere else. We have achieved so much and will continue to do our bit, standing proud as an independent practice.
My passion for sustainability is deeply rooted in my love for nature and driven, in large part, by my daughter. Every day, I marvel at nature and wish for it to continue providing us with well being and nurturing in this fast-paced world. I also want my daughter to experience the same. It's undeniable that humans have been the problem, but equally, we can be the solution, so we must work with hope towards that.
It's undeniable that humans have been the problem, but equally, we can be the solution, so we must work with hope towards that.
It was our wonderful manager who recognised my enthusiasm for all things green and encouraged me to take it further by becoming the practice's sustainability lead as we embarked on our own green adventure. I've become that person in the practice who constantly nudges everyone towards greener practices. I often get comments like, "Lindsey, you would be proud of me,” or, "Oh gosh, don't listen to this!" Through regular environmental meetings, I've been able to spread awareness, and I like to think that all our staff now have a better understanding of environmental issues and how we hinder but can also help, too.
Our first-ever team litter pick remains one of my favourite experiences. Everyone was so enthusiastic about the amount of litter we collected, and we even found a glass diamond door knob, which later became our "litter-picking hero" trophy! We’ve continued these litter picks twice yearly, and in 2024, we organised a whole month of “lunch break litter picks". Getting the whole team together and out in the fresh air was great for our team’s mental health as well as the environment.
We’ve had so many green initiatives, from sunflower-growing competitions to insect-house building. We have also won cycle-to-work awards, and this year, we were incredibly proud when the practice won Webinar Vet’s Green Practice of the Year.
The future looks bright, with many more plans on the horizon. We're now collaborating with our local council to build a large bug house in the local park, and in 2025, we aim to achieve the RCVS Environmental Award to add to our accolades. Our goal is to continue being not just an excellent independent veterinary clinic but also a practice that genuinely cares for the environment. Together, we will do all we can to preserve it and limit our impact.
Our goal is to continue being not just an excellent independent veterinary clinic but also a practice that genuinely cares for the environment. Together, we will do all we can to preserve it and limit our impact.
In 2018, I started the Fingringhoe Green Group in my village to find like-minded people. The group has gone from strength to strength with regular group litter picks, recycling days and fundraising events, amongst many other things.
We initiated the ‘Pollination Pledge’ in 2023, encouraging residents to engage in wildlife-friendly practices by creating a leaflet with a list of pledges they could undertake, such as not using pesticides and planting wildlife-friendly plants. Witnessing the community embrace these changes has been incredibly fulfilling.
As part of my work with the Fingringhoe Green Group and to gain further knowledge, I became an Essex Wildlife Trust ambassador. I'm also a critical care nurse for 'Hedgehog Friendly Vets', which was set up by a fellow RVN. We have helped to rehabilitate and release countless hedgehogs, a species that was classified as vulnerable to extinction on 30th July 2021 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List for Mammals.
I have been teaching with Vet Yogi for the past four years. Chloe, the founder of Vet Yogi, works tirelessly to promote wellbeing within the veterinary industry. I contribute by teaching on her online platform, the Vet Yogi Collective, as well as conducting live sessions at various congresses.
It is so wonderful for us to have a presence at events like the London Vet Show, where we can offer live sessions to community members and see delegates return year after year. Wellness is so important within our industry and helping to spread this message is really rewarding.
Find out more about VetYogi
The Mayne Veterinary Clinic is a small independent veterinary practice based in Colchester. We've been making pets feel better since 1981, and that’s just one reason why we’re such a popular family vet – we’ve looked after generation after generation of pets for local people.
We are all dedicated, experienced veterinary professionals, and we love what we do. It’s a
pleasure coming to work every day, and our customers say it shows. Happy vets mean happy animals… and happy animals mean happy owners!
We are a modern, forward-thinking team with young families, so we all appreciate the importance of looking after our environment for our children's future. As veterinary professionals, we pledge to care for animals, and an important way of doing this is by protecting the environment we all live in and depend on. Therefore, helping the planet and our pet friends truly goes hand in hand.
Our green journey started back in 2019 with some small but impactful changes. We switched to 100% renewable electricity, conducted a radiator audit to ensure efficient heating, added draft proofing, and transitioned to LED lighting, all of which had a positive effect on reducing bills and electricity usage.
Our nurses swapped to using marigolds (washing-up gloves) for cleaning instead of wasting endless disposable gloves. We also switched to using old drip lines as tube ties and paper bags for clients instead of plastic ones. Additionally, we streamlined our waste recycling – every little bit helps.
The next step was to join the ‘Investors in the Environment’ (IIE) scheme. This framework felt right for us, offering support, ideas, and encouragement. We saw its benefits in assessing our environmental impact and identifying areas for improvement. We started with bronze accreditation in 2021 and proudly achieved green status (the highest award) in 2024. We are committed to annual audits with IIE to maintain our accountability and transparency, keeping up with any changes in legislation and our practices.
An important starting point for accreditation is the development of an environmental policy and action plan. We identified the following key environmental impacts where we can improve in relation to our services, products and operations:
Consumption of electricity, gas, water, and other resources through the running of our practice premises
Use of volatile halogenated anaesthetic gases (isoflurane) during anaesthesia
Waste generation and disposal
Transport emissions (staff travel)
Use of raw materials, including prescription drugs and medications
Procured goods and services with their own environmental impact
You can read our full 2023/24 environmental policy here.
We set some ambitious objectives and goals to ensure continual improvement in our environmental performance. Here’s an overview of some key actions we've been working on since 2023:
By focusing on more sustainable ways of working in a veterinary practice, we initially reduced our carbon emissions by 15.2% in 2021 (compared to 2018), but we felt that we could do more. Using the Vet Sustain Veterinary Carbon Calculator, we calculated a new baseline for our carbon emissions in 2023 and are continuing our journey towards reaching ‘net zero.’
While continuing to work on reducing our carbon footprint, we signed up with Eco Offset to help us offset those emissions we just couldn't completely eliminate by funding equivalent CO2-saving projects elsewhere. Eco Offset provides a vital role in ensuring that the projects we invest in are verifiable and trustworthy. We have set ourselves very specific goals within our carbon offsetting project, ensuring that we balance enough investment in projects that will sequester carbon from the environment to the equivalent or above of the carbon that we produce. In addition, we like to invest where we can in projects that have the dual role of increasing education rates in children. Some of the Eco Offset projects that we have funded include:
Tree planting
Providing cleaner, safer water to those in Cambodia
Improving cookstoves in Rwanda
Rainforest preservation in Brazil
Renewable energy production
Deforestation projects in Brazil
Not only have we offset the clinic and proudly become a carbon-neutral business, but we have also offset the carbon emissions of our staff and Pet Health Club members!
We’ve set up a fantastic staff recycling centre in our kitchen, and we make the most of our local council kerbside recycling, which covers the big four: cardboard, plastic, glass, and tins. For more specialist waste, we use the TerraCycle schemes and are constantly looking for ways to optimise our recycling process.
As you will read below, when choosing products, we consider a range of ‘green’ criteria, including recycled content and ease of recycling within our workplace and local community. Can it be reused, refilled, recharged, reconditioned, or upgraded? We also support local recycling by purchasing recycled products and encourage our suppliers to use recycled-material packaging that can be reused, recycled or returned.
Part of our Green iiE accreditation involved creating a Green Procurement Policy, which details our criteria for selecting products and services with minimal environmental impact that still meet performance, safety, and regulatory standards.
We understand that it might not always be possible to buy a green alternative for every product or service. However, we try to choose reused, refurbished, remanufactured, and recycled-content products whenever possible and organic or fair-trade items when practical. We also consider the impact of their production or extraction, look at energy consumption for any electrical equipment and ensure that products are not hazardous to humans or the environment. Good examples of this are our use of biodegradable cleaning products and energy-saving office equipment.
In 2022, we rolled out a sustainable travel plan for our team, incentivising walking, public transport, cycling, or car-sharing. Our team enthusiastically embraced these eco-friendly options, contributing to our reduction in carbon footprint.
Their commitment was perfectly illustrated in May of 2024 when we participated in the 'Love to Ride' challenge, collectively cycling an impressive 395 miles and saving 151 pounds of CO₂ in the process.
In 2024, we introduced a sustainable travel plan for our clients. We reward those who visit the clinic in an environmentally friendly way, whether it's for an appointment with the vet or to collect their pet's medication.
Clients are encouraged to let us know how they arrived at the clinic, and their names are added to our 'eco raffle' each time they visit. We hold a draw every three months, offering Beco toy prizes as rewards for their sustainable efforts.
As Sustainability Champion, I'm responsible for the day-to-day implementation of our environmental policies, but I'm lucky to be supported by a great green team that is always coming up with ideas and a really supportive management team that is really open to our ideas.
When we started on this mission, we all made a ‘planet pledge’, and as a team, we regularly take part in green activities. Here are just a few of the activities we've gotten up to:
Tree Maintenance 2024 - we assisted in a community project, removing plastic tree sleeves and wooden stakes, and picking up litter along the way.
Love to Ride 2024 - we cycled 395 miles and saved 151 lbs of CO2 in the 'Love to Ride' challenge.
Litter Pick 2024 - we collected 19.5kg of rubbish throughout April.
Hedgehog Highway - we installed a hedgehog highway in our Wellness Garden.
Christmas Tree Planting - in 2023, we planted a tree for each pet in our Pet Health Club as a Christmas gift.
Another aspect of our green procurement policy is to look for suppliers with an environmental policy that matches our criteria. We can then encourage them to reduce the environmental impact of their products.
In addition to examining the impact of our clinical work and the resources we use, we are trying to help our clients understand how they, as pet owners, can make more sustainable choices. We’ve started a series of sustainability newsletters, with in-depth information and support on topics which include:
Sustainable Pet Ownership – Waste.
Sustainable Pet Ownership – Pet Food and it’s Carbon Pawprint
We’re incredibly proud of what we have achieved and honoured to have received some fantastic recognition for the work we have done. In 2022, we were shortlisted for ‘The Green Veterinary Practice of the Year’ by The Webinar Vet Virtual Congress.
In 2023, we were shortlisted for ‘Sustainable Travel Champion’ in the iiE Awards, standing alongside two big companies: Elanco and The British Veterinary Association (BVNA). Although we didn't win, it was an honour to be recognised alongside those companies.
In 2024, we won The Webinar Vet's ‘Small Green Practice’ award, and I was thrilled to personally win ‘Green Personality of the Year.’ Receiving these awards was truly humbling. It fuels our commitment to making planet-conscious decisions and inspiring others to do the same.
We believe that being sustainable will become easier in the future, but in the meantime, we are committed to continually monitoring our resources and making improvements where we can.
Our biggest plan going forward is to begin work with SageTech Veterinary who will provide us with apparatus to start collecting our anaesthetic waste gas to limit its release into the environment with a plan to (license approval pending) recycle these gases back into use.
Find out more about SageTech Veterinary
Begin with small steps to avoid feeling overwhelmed and incorporate enjoyable activities to maintain team enthusiasm. Remember, the adage "every little helps" truly applies here.
Present your sustainability ideas to your colleagues and encourage ideas and participation through friendly competitions.
If you're a passionate Green Champion, your actions will inspire others. Lead with enthusiasm and commitment.
Embrace the process and take joy in the positive changes you're making.
If you're passionate about sustainability and have any feedback or ideas to share with us, we'd love to hear from you. In the first instance, please email the team at NVS – cube@nvs-ltd.co.uk.
