Paragon Veterinary Group: Leading the Way in Water-Saving
Paragon Veterinary Group (Paragonvet Ltd), based in Cumbria, is an independent, multi-discipline veterinary business with 80 staff members (63.98 FTE), 14 of whom are part of a dedicated Green Group.
Since starting its sustainability journey in 2020, the practice has worked tirelessly to reduce its carbon footprint and enhance local biodiversity. By forming a Green Group and appointing a sustainability lead, the team has driven positive change across the business, collaborating with others, sharing expertise, and celebrating many successes along the way.
Now holding iiE Green status, awarded in July 2025 after 3 ½ years of membership, Paragon Veterinary Group is setting a powerful example for veterinary practices, clients, and other professions across the UK.
The Challenge: Reducing Water Use Without Compromising Clinical Excellence
“We must use clean drinking-grade water in a lot of our operations in our veterinary practice; this is to reduce risk to our patients and to maintain our clinical excellence. However, it is an area of our footprint we are keen to reduce. During our iiE Silver, Green and RCVS PSS Environmental Sustainability assessments, our water-saving technologies and behaviour changes were assessed.”
Taking Action: Water-Saving Technology and Behaviour Change
We installed water ‘hippos’ into older cisterns (newer ones were already slimline cisterns), and attached aerators to taps to reduce the flow rate. We installed several water butts to harvest the rain from our vast roofs.
We only use our washing machines on ‘eco’ mode and only full loads are washed each time. One of the biggest behaviour changes we made was to switch from a traditional Hibiscrub ‘scrub up’ technique to a Sterillium ‘rub’ technique when vets are preparing their hands and arms for surgery. Our scrub taps are operated by the users elbows so can be turned off during surgical prep to conserve water.
We are investigating switching to a different water supplier, one that has eco credentials aligned with our own, will give us more accurate usage information monthly and is less wasteful. We purify our own tap water instead of buying this in, this has slightly increased our water usage but reduces our plastic waste. Harvested rainwater is used to water the indoor plants and keep the orchard trees watered, pond topped up and bog garden kept at the correct moisture level.
Beyond Water: Wider Green Group Initiatives and Staff Engagement
We are encouraging our staff to run/walk or cycle to work (we offer a Cycle to Work scheme) which is great for their mental health and fitness and in reducing carbon emissions, however, this does mean that more staff are showering when they get to work which has increased our water use, but despite this, we are still able to demonstrate a steady year on year decline.
Impressive Results: Cutting Water Use by up to 95%
For the reasons outlined above we have seen a steady year on year reduction in our water use: 36% reduction in 2022 from baseline year 2021, 23% reduction in 2023 from baseline and 14% reduction in 2024 from baseline. And we are hopeful this will continue to reduce to the point where we can’t reduce it any further.
For a more specific example, “‘Scrubbing up’ uses 20L of warm water per scrub whereas Sterillium ‘rub’ uses barely 1-2L (a reduction of 90-95%).”
Inspiring Change: Setting an Example for Veterinary Practices Nationwide
Paragon Veterinary Group’s actions show that even in sectors where clinical standards require high resource use, sustainability can still be embedded in meaningful ways. By investing in new technologies, shifting behaviours, and engaging staff, they’ve proved that small changes add up to significant results.
With water savings of up to 95%, a dedicated Green Group, and continued innovation, Paragon is not just reducing its own footprint — it’s inspiring other veterinary practices, clients, and businesses across the UK to take action too.
“As the lead on our sustainability project I am incredibly proud of all our achievements thus far. We have a very dedicated and engaged Green Group who help make our ambitions reality. We are already planning the social and environmental projects we will be undertaking this year and are really looking forward to adding these to our next iiE Green application.”
— Laura Binnie, Small Animal Vet and Sustainability Lead