Sustainability
We are making our company as environmentally sustainable as possible.
Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, “Care at our Heart” is based on our care for animals, people and environment.
Our sustainable future, and therefore our ESG strategy, is built upon our need to care about:
Our customers are at the heart of what we do; they are the reason our Company exists.
Our colleagues make CVS, without them we could not run our Company.
Our communities give us a social license to operate, which is required to be a trusted veterinary service provider.
Our suppliers provide us with the resources to provide high quality care to our patients.
Our long-term success depends on the sustainable use of the planet’s resources.
Our industry bodies help set the course of the profession, train veterinary professionals of the future, and give us unique first-hand insight into environmental and social issues.
Our investors provide us with the capital we need to run our Company.
Our Targets & Acheivements
Since 2022, our ESG programmes have been galvanising a Company-wide effort involving our people and our suppliers. We developed our ESG strategy, which involved at the outset, forming six executive-led working groups to focus on the programmes that are most important to our stakeholders:
Energy & Carbon
From July 2022 to June 2023, we have:
- Reduced our business energy use by 12.3%.
- Reduced our operational carbon footprint by 11.1%.
During 2023-24 our targets are to:
- Reduce our business energy use by 5%.
- Reduce our operational carbon footprint by 3%.
Waste
From July 2022 to June 2023, we have:
- Achieved a 5.6% reduction in our annual medical waste.
- Launched resources and a training module to help our practices separate their waste more sustainably.
- Trialled reusable sharps bins.
During 2023-24 our targets are to:
- Reduce our medical waste by a further 5%.
- Reduce the medical waste that is incinerated by 5%.
- Make consolidated waste data available to all sites.
One Health
From July 2022 to June 2023, we have:
- Seen a consistent decrease of 20% in the prescriptions of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HPCIAs) by companion animal practices in the past two years.
- Introduced a practice-specific dashboard which has also encouraged practices to pursue their own individual improvement projects.
- Eliminated the use of Nitrous Oxide in practices from July 2022.
During 2023-24 our targets are to:
- Promote responsible and appropriate use of antibiotics in a way that is consistent with animal welfare.
- Work to better understand the impact of topical parasiticides on the environment and insect life in particular.
- Reduce the overuse of commonly used anaesthetic gases.
People Development
From July 2022 to June 2023, we have:
- Reduced attrition.
- Reduced vet attrition.
- Increased the average number of vets employed to 6.5% (against a 1% market growth).
- Achieved 200 graduate vets employed (20-25% of the available UK pool).
- Achieved an improvement in our employee engagement levels, measured through our Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS).
During 2023-24 our targets are to:
- Increase our eNPS score by 5%.
- Reduce attrition rates by a further 5%.
Wellbeing
From July 2022 to June 2023, we have:
- Increased our eNPS (measure of engagement) to +14.6 from +4.8.
- Increased colleagues saying our wellbeing resources are relevant and useful from 63.0% to 66.4%.
- Increased colleagues saying work has had an overall positive effect on their wellbeing from 40.5% to 45.4%.
During 2023-24 our targets are to:
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
From July 2022 to June 2023, we have:
- Increased colleagues reporting they feel equally included at work from 75.0% to 83.6%.
- Increased colleagues reporting they feel safe to present themselves at work from 73.0% to 84.6%.
During 2023-24 our targets are to:
- Increase the % of colleagues saying they feel equally included at work to 85%.
- Attain workforce data completion rates for ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity and social mobility.