HOW DID WE START?
The first changes that we made were easy, simple and cheap. Many of them involved behaviour change like being more careful about switching off lights, not leaving taps running, and closing doors to keep the heat in. Some of them had great spin offs for our patients, like switching to using polar fleece blankets in our kennels and cattery to save on washing and drying costs. Turns out the pets love our snuggly fleece blankets too.
Many of the things we have done have cost nothing but will save us a lot of money in the longer term. Staff no longer get printed payslips, instead they are sent via email. With a little staff consensus and at the flick of a button on our computer system we are saving on paper and printing costs.
Some of the things we have done have cost us money up front. But in the end they will save us money. Great examples of this include switching our light bulbs to ecobulbs as the old ones blow. It might cost a little bit more right now but over their lifetime these bulbs will save us money. We have also spent some money on our computer system so that it receives our lab reports via email. It cost us $1000 to do this but is saving us money on paper and other printing costs as well as the staff time previously spent manually entering these results into the computer and then filing the piece of paper. A true win-win situation.