MACARTHUR VETERINARY GROUP

Everyone at Macarthur Veterinary Group is committed to environmental conservation. The management team is aware of the various effects that our business could potentially have and have taken numerous measures to minimise our impact on the environment.

Our ultimate aims in this regard are to:

• Comply with all environmental legislation
• Minimise our waste production/disposal
• Minimise our use of non-renewable resources
• Encourage our staff and clients to also live by these principles

Specific measures that we have taken to achieve these aims include…

• Staff are instructed to always recycle and do other things to minimise environmental impact.
• The installation of digital radiography equipment has significantly improved our environmental footprint: harmful chemicals are no longer used in the development of our x-rays and the reduced exposure times greatly reduces the radiation to both pets and staff.
• Our environmental policy includes practical and specific guidelines for staff in environmental practices. Like many of our policies, our environmental policy is subject to open review by staff which encourages them to take ownership of the policy, and potentially introduce other environmental initiatives of their own.
• Training and guidance of staff in environmental practices is ongoing, through staff meetings/minutes and internal newsletters.
• Recycling of paper and cardboard materials. All recyclable materials are regularly collected and recycled by an independent contractor. Separate bins for paper recycling are placed at various locations inside the clinics.
• Staff are encouraged and constantly reminded by management to recycle ALL paper and cardboard, no matter how small!
• Recycling of glass and plastic products - the clinic generates very little glass and plastic waste, being mostly of a personal nature such as food packaging. Staff are encouraged to wash, and reuse or recycle all containers.
• Our surgical equipment is always sterilised after each surgery following veterinary best practice procedures and disposable medical and surgical items such as syringes, needles, suture materials and other medical disposals are never re-used.
• All syringes and sharps are collected for responsible disposal by our external laboratory.
• All printer cartridges are returned to our supplier for recycling.
• Duplex (double-sided) is our default setting for all printers across all clinics.
• Emails are used for communication rather than facsimile or hard documentation.
• We encourage the use of electronic communication by our suppliers (laboratory, specialists etc.) to enable us to attach their reports directly to clients’ electronic files rather than retaining hard copies of communication regarding patients.
• Local residents provide us with clean old newspapers and towels for use as insulation in our hospital cages.
• Our gardens are planted with drought tolerant native plants to reduce our water usage.
• To help us "being green" please provide us with your email address so that we can reduce paper use by emailing your pet's reminders.