Environmental footprint of veterinary practice: Challenges and sustainable solutions

Veterinary medicine plays a pivotal role in ensuring animal health, food security, and public well-being. However, its environmental footprint is increasingly recognised as a critical challenge for planetary health. This review synthesises evidence from the past decade (2015–2025) to assess the major drivers of environmental pollution arising from veterinary practice, including pharmaceutical residues, greenhouse gas emissions, waste generation, and resource consumption. Findings show that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), ectoparasiticides, and endectocides contribute to significant biodiversity loss and aquatic toxicity, while inhalational anaesthetic gases such as isoflurane and desflurane have global warming potentials hundreds to thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide. Large volumes of single-use plastics, untreated wastewater, and inefficient procurement processes further increase the sector’s ecological burden. The review applies the Avoid–Optimise–Substitute–Compensate (AOSC) model alongside the One Health framework to propose an integrated sustainability roadmap for veterinary services. Strategies include transitioning to low-impact pharmaceuticals, adopting low-flow anaesthesia systems, improving waste segregation and recycling, implementing water-saving technologies, and embedding life-cycle sustainability principles in procurement and clinical design. Evidence from 2023 to 2025 highlights successful case studies demonstrating measurable emission reductions and cost savings through greener practices. Importantly, the findings underscore the urgent need for the integration of environmental policy and sustainability principles within veterinary education, professional training, and regulatory frameworks. Such transformation will enable the veterinary profession to fulfil it’s One Health mandate protecting animal health while safeguarding human and environmental well-being. • Veterinary practice contributes to environmental pollution through pharmaceuticals, gases, waste, and resource use. • Integration of the One Health and AOSC frameworks provides a structured pathway for sustainability. • Recent evidence reveals measurable emissions, biodiversity loss, and resource inefficiencies. • Adoption of circular economy principles, low-carbon anaesthesia, and eco-safe pharmaceuticals can mitigate environmental risks. • Embedding environmental policy, sustainability education and regulation is urgently required.