NationWide Laboratories have entered the British Society of Veterinary Pathology Green Laboratory 2022 to 2023 competition with a Water Awareness Project.
As a veterinary diagnostic laboratory, NationWide Laboratories’ main aim is to provide diagnostic services to veterinarians to safeguard animal health and by extension, human health.
The spread of many zoonoses may be prevented by adequate sanitation and access to clean water; this essential resource should be used with care and efforts made to minimise waste.
Therefore, they decided to try to target the theme of “saving water and raising awareness of the importance of water and water saving” as the focus of their project.
The project consisted of two parts.
Part one was to research and implement small changes regarding water use and measure their impact in their laboratory as well as encourage the teams to save water.
Part two was to fundraise for the Toilet Twinning charity that provides sanitation and clean water in the developing world.
They installed commercially available devices (water displacement bags for toilet cisterns and tap aerators) to try and reduce water waste and conducted an internal campaign to raise awareness of the importance of water and the things everyone can do to save it.
They measured the water use via a water meter before and after the installation of devices in October 2022 and subsequently before and after an awareness campaign in March 2023.
Based on water meter readings, 69 cubic metres of water were used the month preceding the installation of the water displacement bags (October to November 2022) and 66 cubic metres were used the month subsequent to installation of the bags (November to December).
This step was repeated before and after a newsletter raising awareness of water was circulated.
The volume of water used the month before this (January to February 2023) was 66 cubic metres and after was 62 cubic metres.
Via a cake sale in the laboratories and hamper raffle in the sister company NVS, they raised £664 for the Toilet Twinning charity. They were able to be “twinned” with three toilets and two toilet blocks in five countries across three continents: Kabaya (Democratic Republic of Congo), Zembe (Mozambique), Macuelizo (Honduras), Twin Cox’s Bazaar (Bangladesh), and Ishishangolo (Tanzania).
The money raised went towards educational programmes in the developing world that emphasise the importance of hygiene and sanitation and also towards building latrines.
NationWide Laboratories received the following message of thanks from Lorraine Kingsley, Toilet Twinning CEO: “Thank you for your donation. Your donation will enable our partners to work with local communities to build life changing latrines.”
NationWide Laboratories were delighted to be notified that their entry won the first prize and overwhelmed with warm words from Lucy Oldroyd, BSVP Green Team spokesperson.
She said: “It was great to see the team make such an effort to go about this work and to enter the competition given how busy you are and how many other demands on your time exist.
“Congratulations and thank you for promoting sustainability in the profession.”
