World Environment Day: What signals are you sending?

The signals are getting harder to ignore. We’ve just come out of the first heatwave of the year in the UK, which seems to be getting earlier and earlier. Temperatures reached over 35 °C in May in London, is this becoming our new normal?

This year's global theme is Climate Action. The United Nations Enviornment Progamme puts it simply: “The question is no longer if change comes, but how we guide it and how fast it happens”.

World Environment Day 2026 is about the urgent signals the Earth is sending, and the signals we choose to send back. Climate Action is also one of the seven UN Sustainable Development Goals that Agria has aligned with since 2018, so this year's theme sits right at the heart of what we're already working towards.

If you care about animals, you care about the world they live in and here at Agria, that’s always been our starting point.

What the Earth is telling us

For pet owners, climate change isn't something we can wait for future generations to to action on. The planet is signalling to us through longer, hotter summers that bring heatstroke risk for dogs and horses and we’re seeing tick-borne diseases appearing in parts of the UK where they weren't before. Declining river quality is affecting the waterways our pet swim in and drink from, and blue-green algae blooms are becoming a summer fixture rather than an occasional problem.

These aren't signals and warnings about 2050. The planet is changing around us today.

The signals we're sending back

At Agria, we've been carbon negative since 2020, offsetting 200% of our measured emissions every year through verified climate projects. In Uganda, the Lango Safe Water Project has given around 40,000 people access to clean water, ending the need to chop down and burn wood for boiling water and protecting local forests. In Cambodia, ceramic water filters have reached close to two million people. In Brazil, reforestation projects are restoring critical habitat and drawing carbon back into the land.

Closer to  home we've planted over 3,560 trees with the Woodland Trust and Eden Reforestation Projects, including our beautiful Agria Acre in Martinshaw Wood. We partner with the British Bee Veterinary Association and distributed over 11,000 packets of wildflower seeds to pet owners and vet practices in 2024, supporting the pollinators that keep nature ticking. Our Net Zero targets of 42% reduction in our emissions by 2030 and 90% by 2040 are validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, and we're following our carbon reduction plan to get us there.

The signals you can send back

The planet is signalling that our waterways are under pressure. You can signal back: check Environment Agency alerts before your dog swims, report pollution when you see it and keep flea-treated pets out of rivers and streams.

The planet is signalling that pollinators are struggling. You can signal back: let a patch of your garden go wild, plant something native, leave the mower in the shed a little longer.

The planet is signalling that our choices about what we eat, and what our pets eat, matters. You can signal back: think about what's in the bowl and where its come from. Consider lower-impact proteins and reduce waste where you can.

And f you want to understand your own pets footprint, Agria's free Carbon Pawprint and Hoofprint calculators give you a personalised picture in just a few minutes. Nearly 4,000 people have already used them and have tips and reccomendations of how they and their pet can take action.

People, planet, and pets

At Agria, we believe caring for animals has always meant caring for the world they live in too. People, planet, and pets, on World Environment Day and every other day.

Find out more about our sustainability initatives at https://www.agriapet.co.uk/sustainability