The Veterinary Carbon Calculator - Providing a Road Map to Net Zero for Veterinary Businesses

VetSalus are proud to partner with Vet Sustain and Investors in the Environment (IiE) to deliver the Veterinary Carbon Calculator, the first tool of its kind to support veterinary practices in calculating their carbon footprint across the globe. At present, Vet Sustain and VetSalus are supporting two groups of practices in a benchmarking project, allowing users to not only view their own carbon footprint, but compare this to that of their peer group and provide collegial support to take action. 

We spoke with Laura Binnie, Sustainability Lead at XLVets UK and veterinary surgeon at Paragon Veterinary Group, to understand her experience with the calculator and how it has helped shape the approach to sustainability improvements at Paragon.  

We asked Laura how long it took to input the data into the calculator, and whether this would be a barrier for completing another calculation in the future. 

The data input process took around 2-3 hours, which was about what we expected. We've been refining a spreadsheet designed to streamline data recording, making the process faster and more accessible. While it has evolved significantly over time, it's still a work in progress. We're committed to continually enhancing our data collection methods to ensure effortless access and, ultimately, more accurate results.

The calculator includes four guides to support users through their calculations, from getting started and data collection, through to interpreting the results and the all-important action plan. We asked Laura how using the calculator has impacted the practice, and what changes have been made (or planned) as a result?

We now have a preliminary roadmap guiding us toward net zero—an achievement that would have been impossible without first understanding our baseline emissions. With greater clarity on our key emission hotspots, we can strategically direct our efforts where they will have the greatest impact in reducing our overall footprint.

Pulling together all the various elements of business operations (energy and water use, travel, waste, anaesthetics and refrigerants etc) can be difficult, any may be a barrier for many time-poor veterinary professionals. We asked Laura about her experience of data collection

Undoubtedly, the most challenging aspect has been gathering the data, and we're continually refining our approach to improve accuracy with each attempt. I appreciate that the document itself is relatively concise—any longer, and it might discourage participation. Once we established a system for recording and retrieving the necessary data, the process became fairly straightforward. That said, since we only run the calculations annually, we often find ourselves retracing steps, having forgotten the methods that worked well the previous year.

Beyond simply calculating the carbon impacts of business operations, using the carbon calculator has allowed Paragon to receive industry recognition which has helped bring all staff along on their sustainability journey. 

This initiative has enabled us to clearly demonstrate our commitment to environmental responsibility—both to our staff and our clients. It has also played a key role in securing respected industry accreditations, including iiE Green and the RCVS Environmental Sustainability Practice Standards. We now have a clear understanding of the areas that require further attention and can effectively showcase the tangible benefits of our efforts. More recently, we've been able to present our carbon savings alongside financial savings, a compelling metric that resonates at Board level and helps persuade those who remain unconvinced.

Finally, we asked Laura if there was anything else she wanted to share about her experience:

I like that we can use it to accurately benchmark ourselves against other practices, especially in the XLVets community, we can use this to our collective advantage and help each other reduce our areas of highest impact. It’s a nice visual and a great talking point!

Thank you to Laura for taking the time to provide her feedback, and we look forward to seeing the changes Paragon and XLVets can make in the future to have a positive impact on animals, people and planet. 

The veterinary carbon calculator is available for veterinary businesses in the UK, New Zealand and Denmark with a range of supporting materials to support users when calculating their footprint for the first time. Visit the Vet Sustain website to begin calculating your business carbon footprint.

If you would like to work with us on a benchmarking project for a group of practices, we would be happy to support you.