By Greg Cima

Standing on the aged wooden porch of a general store in lush rural Montana, Dr. Dennis L. Wackerbarth looked up at a mountainside that had been stripped away by mining.

He asked what was being mined, and he was shocked by a local's answer: "cat litter."

Since Dr. Wackerbarth's family trip to Montana in the mid-1990s, he has switched to recycled paper and corn-based cat litters in his Shoreline, Wash., veterinary hospital, Cats Exclusive Veterinary Center, and he educates clients about the negative environmental impact of clay litter.

The garden outside Sawyer Lake Veterinary Hospital in Kent uses gray water from the hospital to grow vegetables. (Courtesy of Dr. Jan White)He is also among veterinarians in the Seattle area who have taken steps to be environmentally friendly, such as switching to energy-efficient lights and appliances, reducing water flow from faucets and toilets, implementing recycling programs, hiring chemical disposal services, planting gardens, and extensively renovating clinics and hospitals.

"We can't wait for somebody else to do it, and we all think that the problems are big and the solutions are big," Dr. Wackerbarth said. "If everyone does their part, it will be a huge step forward."

Staff at Dr. Elizabeth B. Davidow's animal hospital, Animal Critical Care & Emergency Services, have also taken steps such as installing light timers and reducing the margins on printed documents. The staff separates recyclables and puts human and animal food waste into biodegradable bags that the city collects.

Dr. Davidow said the efforts are important to her and co-owner Dr. Jean M. Maixner, and some clients and referral doctors have expressed appreciation after noticing a cooperative group has rated the hospital as environmentally friendly. But actions to become more environmentally friendly have had a larger impact on staff.

"Our staff really wants to feel like our business is doing the right thing," Dr. Davidow said. "When we formed the green committee, we just had an outpouring of ideas and suggestions and offers to help investigate things."

Dr. Tina Ellenbogen, of Bothell, has been performing house calls in the Seattle area for approximately 22 years, and she tries to use recyclable and reusable products and to group calls to reduce gasoline consumption.

"Part of that entails trying to educate clients so that you're not polluting and you're also not wasting time," Dr. Ellenbogen said.

Though Dr. Ellenbogen spends much of her time on the road, she said her clients would otherwise be driving to her, perhaps in larger vehicles. She drives a Subaru Forester, which has room for the supplies used in her clinic, Mobile Veterinary Services.

"I'd love to have a Prius or something, but there's not enough room for my stuff in it," Dr. Ellenbogen said.

Dr. Jan L. White said the building that houses one of her hospitals, Saywer Lake Veterinary Hospital in Kent, was a church for 60 years. Since buying the property, she has installed thick insulation, a new roof, a new electrical system, a new heater, new lights, and a permeable parking lot surface. She also stocked the building with cabinets and equipment repurposed from a nearby clinic that closed about the same time as her hospital opened.

"There's always stuff in your practice that you're trying to shuffle out—non-working equipment, old windows," Dr. White said. "This place came with 25 pews, 16 chandeliers, and about 20 windows, and we sent them all into new homes."

Dr. White's other clinic, Renton Veterinary Hospital, is also certified as environmentally friendly. She has spent tens of thousands of dollars on upgrades for the clinics, but she expects to recover her expenses through lower utility bills and energy company rebates.

"You might not save it right that minute, but you will get it back because energy costs aren't going down," Dr. White said. "So it's kind of a long-term recoup."

Dr. White does not think the changes have had a large impact on clients, but one woman told her she would decide whether to come back based on a directory of King County's environmentally friendly businesses.

"I did have one lady who said 'I will check the book every year, and the minute you're not in that book, I won't be back,'" Dr. White said with a laugh. "I said, 'Okay, but I don't expect us to get unfriendly to the environment. It took us a long time to get this friendly.'"