Going green and practicing sustainability is more than just a trend, it’s a reality for a number of eco-conscious businesses—and your dental practice should be no different. You can adopt a ‘green dentistry’ approach in the workplace by identifying unsustainable habits in place and adopting earth-friendly strategies. Here are 4 great ways to be more environmentally-conscious in your dental practice.
Reduce Waste
There are ways you can reduce how much waste your practice adds to the landfill on a regular basis. For example, you can reduce the amount of paper you use by going digital. Use digital solutions to manage patient information and send out all communications by email. You can also focus on reusing and extending the life of certain items, such as shipping boxes. Although waste generation is inevitable in a dental practice, you can be greener by being more mindful about how you get rid of your waste. Provide clearly marked bins to separate different types of waste and encourage your employees and your patients to use them. Another great way to keep waste down is by bulk buying dental supplies to reduce shipping packaging.
Invest in Quality Products
When you are in the dental industry, you need to invest in quality products. Of course there will be some items that you need to use once and throw away, and Single use plastic in the dental industry is common, and they cannot be avoided for hygiene purposes.
There are some tools that can be bought and reused if they are disinfected properly, and some suppliers might even offer to take the used tools back to disinfect and repackage them before sending them back out to you as part of an ongoing service.
Conserve Water
Water consumption is unavoidable in a dental practice. However, there are several strategies your practice can adopt to conserve water. If you have a conventional vacuum saliva ejector system that is designed to use a lot of water, you can make the switch to a water-free dry vacuum system instead. Another way you can encourage water conservation in your practice is by putting up informational posters in your bathrooms that enlighten your team and patients on the importance of saving water. Not only will this remind people to double-check that they’ve turned off the taps after use, but it will also encourage everyone to be more mindful about wasting water.
Be More Energy Efficient
Being more energy efficient is great for the environment, and also for your budget for overheads too. Motion-sensor technology, such as automated lighting, will help ensure lights are only on when they are needed. Other energy efficient methods include switching traditional bulbs to energy-saving LED or CFL bulbs and shutting down computers after use.
These are just a few ways that your dental practice can start being more energy efficient, and while it does take some planning and an effort to make changes, it can also be cost-effective in the long term.
