Incorporating eco-conscious initiatives

Mars Veterinary Health recently published its’ 2025 Science Impact Report, which provided a review of the company’s veterinary research and global initiatives that aim to advance veterinary science and clinical practice. In a dvm360 interview, recorded at the 2026 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) in Orlando, Florida, Dottie Brown, DVM, MS, DACVS, vice president of science and innovation for Mars Veterinary Health, discussed a couple of ways that the company practices sustainability throughout its network of veterinary clinics and hospitals.

The following is a transcript of this video:

dvm360: What are some sustainability initiatives put into practice at Mars Veterinary Health?

Dottie Brown, DVM, MS, DACVS: We focus on sustainability in a lot of different ways. So greenhouse gasses, of course, are a very important component of what we do in veterinary medicine and how we can lean into that. And our Linnaeus colleagues in collaboration worked through some opportunities to actually show that it is possible to do the high quality care that we do, but incorporate different methods to contain the greenhouse gasses, and you can actually have outcomes that are important for the environment, that are important for the pet, that are important for the people that work for pets.

By really leaning into these initiatives, we also think a lot about how we engage with the great vendors that we work with. Obviously, there's a lot of packaging that goes to managing thousands of hospitals internationally. So we really want to make sure that we can lean in and say, ‘Is this the best way to be shipping things and to be moving things around?’ And it's a really great responsibility when you are a large network, to take the reins and say ‘we want to do it a little bit differently’ and have partners work with us on that. And so the ability to really cut down on the waste, to think about how we move things around. Reusable totes, [for example]. The things that are in the [Science Impact] Report are really critically important for us.

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