Climate Care
Program

Vets for a Greener World

Leading the Change

Greater Springfield Vets recognise that climate change represents an immediate threat to all life on planet earth. As it effects wildlife and domestic animals as well as humans, climate change is a significant animal welfare issue.

Our owner Jeannet Kessels founded Vets for Climate Action in 2019, to give the industry a platform to advocate for action on climate change and to educate pet owners on the impacts of climate change on their pets and other animals. You can find more information on VFCA and the amazing work the organisation does here https://www.vfca.org.au/.

Reducing carbon emissions is the single biggest thing that we can all do help tackle climate change. At GS vets we are stiving to do this by having solar panels at our Eden’s Crossing and Springfield Hospitals, and we have an electric vehicle charging station at our new Springfield premises. We are so committed to reducing our emissions that we are currently undergoing accreditation to become Queensland’s FIRST carbon neutral veterinary practice!

Launching the Program

In mid 2022 we started the Vets for Climate Action Climate Care program. The program consists of a series of six modules tackling different ways we can reduce our carbon emissions, cut the amount of waste we generate and reduce our consumption of precious resources such as water.

We have a dedicated group of staff that make up our Climate Care team; they work hard to implement sustainable practices within GSVets, engage with the veterinary community to promote environmental awareness, and drive positive change within the veterinary industry and beyond.

The Climate Care Team

Business Coordinator Hayley Girvan - Springfield

Dr Christine Fraenkel - Augustine Heights

Module 1 – Water for Life

In 2022 we completed the first 2 modules: Water for Life and No Time to Waste.

In the Water for life module we made many changes to the way that we use water, and have reduced our water consumption by an amazing 30%! The actions we took to achieve this included:

Fitting flow restrictors to drastically reduce the volume of water coming from out taps.
Checking for leaking pipes and taps and repairing these as needed.
Setting new protocols to reduce the amount of water used in surgery – both while vets are scrubbing to become sterile, and in cleaning our instruments.
Getting the water tank at our new Springfield hospital up and running.
Watering our gardens in the early morning or evening only.
Changing the way that we use bedding to reduce our laundry.

Module 2 – No Time to Waste

The No Time to Waste module focused on reducing the amount of waste that we create and diverting as much waste as possible from landfill. We set up strategies to reduce our consumption of single use products as much as possible, and have set up several new waste streams to keep waste out of landfill. The waste streams that we have now at each of our practices are:

Carboard recycling
Co-mingled recycling
Drinks container collection (donated to the charity Down to Earth)
Food and organic waste
Battery and ink cartridge recycling
Soft plastics recycling at our main hospital at Augustine Heights.

Get involved!

We also have some recycling programs for our clients, and we would love your support with these!

Royal Canin Food packaging recycling program: each of our clinics has a collection bin for the return of Royal Canin and Eukanuba food bags and pouches.
Return your medication dispensing bottles to the clinic and we will sterilise and reuse them – there are collection points in each of our practices.
Our grooming salon produces an abundance of pet hair which is a great addition to compost or a worm farm – hair is a great source of nitrogen for plant growth. If you want to get your hands on some of this great stuff please email climatecare@gsvets.com.au

By reducing our resource usage and diverting waste from landfill we have reduced the amount of rubbish we produce by about 25% which is fantastic.

Climate CareProgram

Climate Care
Program