Sustainable Procurement for Veterinary Clinics: What to Ask Your Suppliers

Procurement is a sustainability decision

What a practice buys matters more than how it runs the building: procurement of equipment and consumables accounts for the largest proportion of the carbon footprint in healthcare settings, and sustainability writers for veterinary practices put "consider what you purchase" first among the actions a clinic can take. The World Veterinary Association has gone further, calling on the profession to research, review and adopt practices that minimise greenhouse gas emissions. Every tray, pad and bowl on an order form is part of that decision.

The frameworks clinics actually use

Clinics do not have to invent criteria. Vet Sustain's Green Procurement List compiles environmentally conscious products and services for the veterinary sector, and its Greener Veterinary Practice Checklist — created with BVA, BVNA and SPVS — covers responsible resource use and waste as core practice actions. A recent evidence review of environmental sustainability in veterinary clinics likewise lists sustainable procurement among the priority action areas, alongside energy and waste. The direction is consistent across all of them: buy less, buy better, and know what happens to it afterwards.

What to ask before you buy

• What is it made of — one material, or bonded layers that cannot be separated?
• What happens at end of life — is there a clean route, or is landfill the only option?
• How much of the product's footprint sits in its manufacture versus its use?
• What data stands behind any environmental claim — modelled estimates, or third-party reviewed?

How paper single-use answers

VOLKOS trays, bowls and scoops are pressed from 100% recycled paper fibre with no plastic liner, no bonded layers and no chemical coatings. On our modelled basis, the tray carries 0.188 kg CO₂ per kilogram of product — against 3.9 kg for a clinic pee pad and 5.9 kg for a plastic tray. At end of life, a clean item biodegrades in soil within 90–180 days, and used items follow the clinic's existing compliant waste route.

The honest caveat belongs in the same sentence: these figures are modelled estimates from the VOLKOS LCA Report (June 2026), not yet third-party critically reviewed — and we say so wherever we publish them. A procurement conversation deserves the same standard from every supplier: numbers with their methodology attached, and claims that survive the question "who checked this?".

Waste is the other half of procurement

Sustainable procurement ends at the bin. The Vet Sustain checklist highlights waste segregation as a practice action that reduces the volume going to high-temperature incineration and saves money at the same time. Single-material products make that segregation trivial — a used paper tray is one material in one waste stream — while multi-component products force the clinic to choose between an imperfect general route and an expensive clinical one for every item.

What this means for your practice

• Start with the consumables you reorder most — trays, pads, bowls — and ask the four questions above of every supplier.
• Prefer single-material products with a clean end-of-life route over bonded composites.
• Ask for the methodology behind any footprint claim, including ours — modelled numbers should be labelled as such.
• VOLKOS supplies B2B in clinic packs, discharge sets and boxes — request pricing and we will send the product data with it.