Sustainability practices are gaining more buy-in from the entire industry, from distributors to manufacturers and the veterinary clinics they serve.

Sustainability is no longer a buzzword or feel-good practice for veterinary medicine. In today’s marketplace, it just makes good business sense, said Julia Loew, senior vice president, Commercialization, MWI Animal Health.

For instance, one of MWI’s sustainability initiatives has been to practice better order consolidation. By encouraging customers to place orders fewer times per week, MWI’s team can pack orders more densely, use fewer boxes and coolers and coordinate fewer shipments and emissions. Consolidating orders means fewer boxes to unpack, fewer orders to reconcile and fewer invoices to process. “That’s critical time saved for short-staffed veterinary practices,” Loew said. Many vet practices are small, local businesses. For them, time is of the essence – and time spent managing paperwork or unloading boxes is time they could spend caring for animals. “We know many veterinary practices face work force strains due to staffing shortages,” Loew said. “By helping to improve operational efficiency – by simplifying paperwork or expediting the process of unloading and stocking deliveries – we can lessen the impact on veterinary practices and on their individual workers. That way, they can focus on pet care rather than inventory management. It also prevents small practices having to store and dispose of large amounts of packaging waste.”

This all helps to improve worker satisfaction among staff. Veterinarians and veterinary technicians want to help animals and support pet owners, rather than dealing with inventory delivery and unloading products onto shelves. “Our initiatives free employees to get back to what matters most – helping their clients and caring for their patients,” Loew said.

Green targets

Sustainability is a priority across MWI’s parent company Cencora, because it is a priority for the global organization’s customers – from manufacturers to suppliers to veterinary clinics and producers. The focus on building and implementing sustainable solutions has grown across all industries in recent years, and the animal health sector is no exception to this trend.

“By promoting and integrating sustainability, we’re responding to the requests of our partners and their clients,” said Loew. “Sustainability also makes good business sense and increasingly has become a business imperative. Sustainable practices help to reduce waste, improve efficiency and better allocate employee resources.”

MWI continues to focus on reducing its environmental impact through a science-based target, set in line with the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) guidance. Cencora has committed to reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions 54.6% by FY2032 from a FY2019 base year. The organization has also committed that 82% of its suppliers by spend, covering purchased goods and services, will have science-based targets by 2027. “Our emissions targets were validated by the SBTi as being consistent with the reduction required to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said Loew.

To reach its emissions reduction targets, MWI plans to reduce consumption through optimization programs and energy efficiency measures and will decarbonize its operations with investments in renewable energy and alternative fuel vehicles.

Along with order consolidation, MWI has also introduced more innovative packaging and waste solutions. MWI’s distribution centers utilize auto packer technology that processes an order every eight seconds and reduces the chance of errors. Orders are placed into custom-fit cartons with no dunnage or packaging waste. In the UK, the company uses electric vans for most shipments.

While MWI has been delivering using reusable totes in the UK for several years, a major initiative now underway in the U.S. is a high-touch service implementing a returnable tote delivery program for ambient and cold chain orders via a dedicated courier partner. Orders are placed into innovative reusable packaging that reduces the need for single-use cardboard boxes, Styrofoam containers and other dunnage. (MWI uses roughly 1.2 million single-use Styrofoam coolers across its network annually.) “Not only does this cut down on waste, but it also saves veterinary practices valuable time and physical effort that would’ve been spent breaking down and throwing out disposable packaging,” Loew said.

MWI’s environmental and social impact team tracks the organization’s global environmental sustainability progress with yearly reports – “helping us to stay up to date on our advancements towards our goals and measure our successes,” Loew said. “Thanks to this reporting, we’re able to show how small changes, such as consolidating packaging and orders, can yield sizeable results.”

For example, between May 2020 and March 2021, MWI used 91,515 fewer containers for its products through order consolidation practices. This 19% reduction in packaging saved 146,424 pounds of cardboard, 1,245 trees and 315,161 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from delivery vehicles.

“But there are many ways to measure the success of a program, and one of the most important is through the direct response of our veterinary clinics,” Loew said. “For example, the rollout of our reusable tote program continues at a national scale, and that’s because we know there’s a demand for it. When we talk with clients about the reusable tote program to help them cut down on shipping and packaging waste – and the time required to handle it all – their eyes truly light up. For us, that’s how we know it’s a success.”

The value of sustainability practices

For veterinary clinics, many of which are small and independent, Loew said the benefits of sustainable practices on operational efficiency cannot be underscored enough. “Many practices tell us that running their inventory and processing orders more efficiently could save them half to a full headcount in terms of the time and process management required.” Sustainable workflow initiatives and ordering practices can have tremendous benefits – including increasing retention and job satisfaction – vet staff have more time to do what they love, which is taking care of animals.

“To look at the big picture: the health of people and animals is so closely linked to the health of our planet – and everyone benefits when we operate in a way that delivers value and protects the environment,” said Loew.

Buy-in from both independent veterinary clinics and larger veterinary groups is key to a greener, more sustainable industry. “To advance and grow sustainable efforts, we need to work as partners with veterinary clinics,” said Loew. “For us, sustainability centers on meeting the demands of veterinary practices and helping to minimize impact, not only on the environment, but more critically, on a practice’s workforce. We encourage them to take a holistic approach when integrating sustainable practices into their operations – there’s room at every step.”

Most importantly, Loew said, the responses from veterinary clinics have been overwhelmingly positive. “They appreciate the benefits.” Fewer boxes to unpack, orders to reconcile and invoices to process through practice order consolidation helps them save time, manpower and stress, while fewer shipments and delivery by electric van reduce emissions and carbon footprints. Less waste to manage through reusable totes saves manpower and reduces a practice’s environmental impact while cutting the cost of disposing of commercial waste, and the introduction of biodegradable medical gloves and pill vials reduces a practice’s waste and leads to an overall gentler environmental impact.

Worker satisfaction is also an important consideration, and sustainability efforts can have an outsized effect. In some industry figures, staff turnover in veterinary practices can be above 40% a year. “By helping practices retain their workers through increasing their job satisfaction, we help them save on the costs of hiring and training new employees,” Loew said. Cutting down the time staff are handling paperwork and deconstructing disposable packaging not only reduces physical waste, but also cuts down on busy work. “Our initiatives ultimately free employees to get back to what matters most – helping their clients and caring for their patients.”

An engaged effort

In Mars Veterinary Health clinics, MWI’s order consolidation program is reducing environmental impacts by minimizing the frequency and volume of shipments, thereby decreasing emissions and packaging waste, said Margo Mosher, global director of Sustainability. The introduction of the reusable totes initiative complements these efforts by replacing single-use
cardboard boxes with durable, reusable containers, further reducing waste from cardboard, Styrofoam, and plastic packaging, and supporting our sustainability goals.

“Mars Veterinary Health associates care about the environmental impacts of veterinary medicine, and waste and recycling are priorities to them,” Mosher said. “The reusable tote program helps reduce waste and engage associates on the sustainability efforts we’re making across our veterinary clinics. Once scaled, the reusable tote program could help avoid 700 tons of waste.”

From the sterile, single-use medical equipment and supplies used in exams and surgeries to the packaging of those supplies, veterinary clinics – like most medical facilities – create waste daily, most of which is sent to a landfill or incinerated, thus impacting the health of the environment, animals, and people, Mosher said. “Therefore, it’s important to avoid creating waste in the first place.”

Mars Veterinary Health started work in this space by conducting a waste inventory, totaling the weight and type of all waste from U.S., European, and UK clinics to provide a quantitative picture. That baseline information enabled the organization to track trends and reductions moving forward with the ultimate goal of avoiding waste creation in the first place by identifying opportunities for avoidance and reusability. “For example, our VCA hospitals have embraced the Paws to Turn Off campaign to decrease energy and are piloting programs to recycle medical plastics and nitrile/exam gloves,” said Mosher.

For waste that is unavoidable in some instances, like certain product packaging, the company is looking at more and better ways to recycle and improve circularity. “One example is implementing new recycling streams for hard-to-recycle materials,” Mosher said. “At select Banfield, VCA, and Linnaeus clinics, we’re recycling flexible plastic pet food packaging in partnership with Mars-owned Royal Canin, helping keep waste out of landfills.”

However, reducing hospital waste requires work both upstream and downstream, “with our suppliers to change how products are composed and packaged, and with waste vendors, municipalities, and our associates to improve and increase recycling,” Mosher said. “We’re currently in the process of conducting an internal waste study and piloting waste reduction and recycling options at select clinics to better understand which products to focus our energy on, so we can drive the most waste reduction.”

Mars’ goal setting

Mars Veterinary Health has its own ambitious sustainability goals as a global organization. “Urgent global environmental and social issues – ranging from climate change to antimicrobial resistance – require collaborative solutions,” said Mosher. “At Mars Veterinary Health, we recognize the veterinary industry impacts the environment, society, and pets, and we feel a unique opportunity and responsibility to help make those impacts positive.”

As part of its Sustainable in a Generation Plan, Mars, Incorporated assessed its global veterinary business’s environmental footprint and set targets in three key areas:

Climate change: Combat climate change with a science-based approach to significantly reduce emissions and improve efficiencies across its value chain. More specifically, Mars Veterinary Health is working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to contribute to Mars, Incorporated’s goal to cut emissions 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Waste reduction: “Increasingly employ circular approaches to reduce our clinic waste and increase recycling,” Mosher said.
Pharmaceutical stewardship: Protect the efficacy of antimicrobials for pets and their owners – now and in the future – through responsible use.

Mars Veterinary Health already has several examples of in-progress sustainability efforts, including:

Sourcing 100% renewable electricity in U.S. clinics
Offering virtual care and telehealth services
Using antimicrobials judiciously and only when
warranted to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
Waste management and specialty recycling programs for used equipment and pet food packaging
Using lower-flow anesthetic gas techniques to reduce climate change impacts
A recently announced, first-of-a-kind partnership to pilot an innovative anesthetic gas capture solution to prevent harmful greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere

Sustainable procurement is another critical aspect to improving the sustainability of veterinary medicine across Mars Veterinary Health. Procured products are a significant part of Mars’ impact because much of its carbon and waste footprint originates from the materials bought and used in the veterinary clinics. “Part of our sustainable sourcing work is identifying products that have a lower impact on greenhouse gas emissions and/or waste – and substituting accordingly,” Mosher said. “We also prioritize sourcing products with packaging that is reusable, recyclable, or made of recycled content.”

A key component of Mars’ sustainable sourcing work is partnering with its suppliers. Many are implementing sustainable initiatives for their operations and products, and this helps reduce both their and the veterinary provider’s impacts. “A few avenues we’re exploring with our suppliers include sourcing renewable electricity for their manufacturing, using electric vehicles to distribute their products, and making product improvements to reduce waste,” Mosher said. “We’re also offering a training and education program, Supplier Leadership on Climate Transition (SLoCT), which helps suppliers measure their carbon footprint, set science-based targets, and work toward reductions.”

Generally, Mars makes the following recommendations to associates when it comes to procurement and suppliers:

Use supplies only as needed and consider if reductions can be made.
When possible, select suppliers that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and those taking steps to reduce emissions, including reducing packaging waste and improving the reusability and recyclability of their products.
Discuss your perspective on the need for more sustainable options with your suppliers to support positive change within the profession’s infrastructure. Many veterinary suppliers are beginning this work and are supportive of lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within their products.

A unique time and place

On the supply chain side, many manufacturers and suppliers MWI works with have sustainability concerns and ambitions of their own, “so by working to improve sustainability through our processes, we are also acting as a representative for these manufacturers and helping them meet their aims,” said Loew. In order to have a successful partnership with them, all MWI requires is their willingness to keep an open mind about how they can incorporate sustainable practices. “Advancing sustainability is not only about big initiatives, but also finding room to swap one practice for a new one, incorporating where you can, and, ultimately, trying new things.”

MWI also works very closely with partners – suppliers, manufacturers and others – to help them better achieve their own sustainability initiatives. In one instance working with a large pet health and technology company, MWI started collaborating on ways to consolidate their orders so they receive fewer shipments from MWI each week, helping to reduce packaging waste and easy delivery efficiency.

In addition to supporting consolidation efforts, MWI is exploring how its sustainable tote delivery program can be a solution that helps manufacturer partners achieve their ESG goals. “Many of our partners ship direct to our veterinary customers via single use Styrofoam and cardboard containers,” said Loew. This initiative will allow suppliers to send product in bulk to MWI distribution centers where it can be shipped in a reusable tote to our shared customers. By partnering on tote delivery, MWI can help its suppliers eliminate single-use containers and reduce the number of deliveries a hospital receives, further having a positive impact on emissions and reducing the time spent receiving orders.

“Due to our position in the supply chain, we are able to make resources and capabilities available for large manufacturers and suppliers as their products flow through MWI’s system,” Loew continued. “This unique position is a gamechanger for sustainability solutions.”

When it comes to expanding sustainability initiatives, it’s a when, not an if, for MWI, said Loew. “We are committed to leading the animal health industry with our efforts to improve our sustainability.”

As part of that commitment, the company created two new roles at MWI to lead order consolidation and reusable tote initiatives. Matt Black, now director of Transportation, is overseeing courier relationships and working with distribution centers to create a network across the U.S. Meggan Harris, now senior director of Commercial Delivery, is partnering with Black to support the sales team, customers and manufacturer partners as MWI expands its efforts. MWI believes these new roles maximize the company’s focus on order consolidation and reusable tote delivery to customers who want to improve their sustainability and efficiency.

“Many opportunities remain where we can take waste in all its forms out of the process, be it physical waste or operational inefficiency,” Loew said. “As the desire for sustainability and creating healthier futures in the animal health industry continues to grow, we’re here to help.”

Pet owners support sustainability

A January 2021 study from Frontiers in Veterinary Science suggests that two-thirds of pet owners would value knowing their veterinarian received training on the animal health impacts of climate change. Additionally, over 50% would pay more for veterinary services at a clinic with a reduced environmental impact. “We also know that millennials, the largest living adult generation in the U.S., expect their values to be reflected by the companies with whom they do business,” said Loew. “Bottom line, there is a unique relationship of trust between clients and their vet practices, and sustainability supports that relationship.”

Here and now

Mosher said recommendations for veterinary clinics to decrease environmental impacts by reducing waste by reducing, reusing, and recycling without impacting quality of care include:

Identify and eliminate unnecessary use of materials. Look for quick wins to get started – for example, substituting disposable, single-use scrub hats for reusable ones.
Switch to reusable non-medical products, such as dishware and cutlery in kitchens.
Replace paper-based systems with digital ones.
Use water filtration systems in place of bottled water.
Install recycling bins in easy-to-access places, and label them with instructions for sorting materials. Contact your recycling service provider for local regulations and recycling opportunities.
Educate colleagues about waste reduction opportunities and proper waste sorting.

A More Sustainable Veterinary Future