Vet School sustainability seminar explores ‘quick wins’ and best practices

What are the environmental impacts of UCD’s vet school activities? What steps can be taken to address or minimise any of these? And how can future vets and vet nurses be equipped with a greater awareness of the environmental sustainability of the profession and measures that can be taken to improve it? 

These were the questions discussed at the recent ‘Sustainability in the Vet School’ half-day seminar, organised by Emma O’Neill, professor of small animal medicine in UCD.

Keynote speaker was vet Ellie West, environmental sustainability lead for the veterinary group Linnaeus UK, which has over 80 practices across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Ellie spoke of her work exploring the environmental impact of veterinary practice and mitigation measures. 

This keynote, attended by some 70 people from across the School, was followed by a talk by vet Niamh Byrne, founder of the new group, Veterinary Sustainability Network Ireland. Niamh spoke of the aims and objectives of this group and how people can get involved. 

Another talk was given by Mary Sekiya, chief technical officer in pathobiology - microbiology and parasitology at UCD School of Veterinary Medicine. Mary is keen to implement sustainable measures in UCD’s research laboratories and has recently completed the My Green Lab accredited professional training. She is chair of the UCD Sustainable Research Initiative, a grassroots group committed to improving sustainability in the practice of research at UCD. 

Other speakers were Sandra Nicholson, assistant professor in veterinary nursing in UCD, who reported on how to link with the UK’s Vet Sustain Network; Paul Noonan, building management systems manager with UCD Estate Services, who talked about the carbon footprint of the vet school; and the event’s organiser Emma O’Neill, who spoke in her capacity as co-chair of UCD Sustainability’s working group on education, training and student experience. 

“The aim was to really get people thinking about how they could make a difference - every small change having a large collective impact,” says Emma, adding that another motivation was UCD’s new strategy to 2030, a key pillar of which is sustainability.

“The focus of the day was for UCD vet school to engage with and learn from guest speakers that are experts in terms of environmental impact, sustainability networks and community groups within the veterinary field internal and external to UCD.”

After the talks, a group discussion took place listing ‘quick wins’ and gathering feedback on suggestions from Ellie West following a Q&A on best practices. The final task of the day was to stream group findings into three categories of actions for the vet school to stop/start/continue doing for sustainability. It is hoped that this work will facilitate the drafting of an Action Plan with consensus for the school. 

“The workshop is one of the first all-school events that we have hosted,” says Mary Sekiya. “The staff in Vet Med have very diverse roles and it was great to see people from across the school getting together with real enthusiasm to brainstorm on ways we can improve sustainability in our individual sections and the school as a whole.  We will definitely incorporate suggestions from the workshop in our upcoming activities and future planning."

Others who helped organise the event were Kate Acton, assistant professor of veterinary nursing and Annetta Zintl, associate professor of veterinary medicine. Seed funding was gained through the initiative, ‘Design Thinking for Innovation; Promoting Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Approaches in Research’, led by UCD Conway Institute with the support of the Colleges of Science; Health & Agricultural Science; Engineering & Architecture and facilitated by UCD Innovation Academy.

Communications coordinator Emma Mescall produced a  feedback report, which included comments from participants.

Assistant professor in small animal medicine, Benoît Cuq described sustainability as a “very underrated yet real concern in our profession”, adding that the workshop was, “a great way to raise awareness”.