ambitions and objectives

NATURE AND BIODIVERSITY

Alignment to SDGs

6: Clean water and sanitation. 12: Responsible consumption and production. 15: Life on land.

Ambition

Reduce our negative and enhance our positive impacts on nature

We will develop our nature footprint to provide a baseline for setting nature targets, guided by the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) and aligned, where feasible, with the K-M Global Biodiversity Framework.

Most of our environmental legal compliance obligations fall within this category. We have undertaken a review and are working to achieve compliance across our operations. Several of the following objectives will contribute to our legal compliance.

Cat food pouches being washed out in a sink. — Draining cat food pouches for recycling

Objectives

To realise our ambition and set targets to start tracking progress we will:

Focus on sustainable resource use by:

Continuing to work on water stewardship, a material issue given the high volume used at our wildlife centres and the risk of water stress associated with climate change. We are exploring treated water use reduction through efficiency measures, alternative water sources (borehole and rainwater harvesting) and increasing treated wastewater reuse. We will set targets for wastewater reuse and fresh water use reduction, which will where relevant consider the sensitivity of local water availability and potential for water stress.

Continuing to explore ways to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of potentially harmful herbicides on our land, through our herbicide working group, collaborating with internal and external experts, and peers.

Reducing absolute waste generation* through more sustainable consumption across all RSPCA operations, and diverting waste from landfill.

Prioritise nature on our land by:

Undertaking a nature assessment of the land across our estate portfolio with support from our internal experts, as well as peers in the conservation sector. This will enable the future development of nature action plans promoting restoration and conservation initiatives, including sustainable and regenerative land management for grazing and hay-making areas, woodland protection and restoration.

Developing standards for leased land to ensure its management and use aligns with our nature and climate ambitions, as well as our values.

Enhance ecosystem health through collaboration by:

Exploring partnerships with neighbouring landowners to scale nature initiatives and develop green corridors, supporting ecosystem connectivity.

Sharing our work on herbicide reduction and land management with partner boarding establishments and branches, and encouraging uptake of these methods.

Investigating the animal welfare implications associated with rewilding activities, with the aim of developing an informed RSPCA position on welfare in rewilding, and internal policy for inclusion in the RSPCA’s Policy Booklet.

*Excludes specific medical waste, the generation of which is not in our control to reduce (e.g. animal remains or infectious waste)