Your green dental office

Initiatives and quality labels for sustainable dentistry

What’s your shade of green? During the summer of 2021, the Dental Punk podcast and Quintessence Publishing were on the lookout for dental clinics in Germany and Austria that were positive examples of becoming more “green”. In November, winning practices were awarded the
”DIE GRÜNE PRAXIS” (the green practice) quality label. They have all implemented innovative and inspiring measures for operating more sustainably. This label for sustainability indicates to patients that the clinic not only cares about them, but also about the planet. Even more importantly, it may serve as motivation for more dental offices to up their game when it comes to adopting sustainable workflows.

Advantages of a “green” label

W&H is one of the founding partners of the “DIE GRÜNE PRAXIS” project. “At W&H, we are aware of the responsibility we share as a company and producer of medical products worldwide. Our goal is to contribute to health – and that includes our planet’s health. Initiatives such as DIE GRÜNE PRAXIS are great because they raise awareness of the importance of the topic and feature those who are already actively supporting it. I believe role models like these and sharing knowledge in the dental community is important and valuable,” explains Pamela Polanetz, member of the Environmental Management team at W&H. “We are very happy about the good resonance and the positive feedback coming from dental practices as well as the industry in general,” says Lars Kroupa, Dental Punk, initiator of DIE GRÜNE PRAXIS.

More green initiatives for green dentistry

The World Dental Federation (FDI) has founded an international project called “Sustainability in Dentistry”. The initiative aims to increase awareness of the need for sustainable actions in the dental community. Oral health professionals can use a guide to identify actions that can lead to environmentally sustainable outcomes.

The GreenDOC Dental Office Certification Program by the Eco-Dentistry Association provides tools that walk dental professionals through an attainable process to “go green” – with how-to guides, action plans and worksheets as well as a “going green starter kit”. Offices are awarded points depending on the number and type of initiatives implemented.

The Greening the Dental Clinic initiative by the University of Michigan provides a self-assessment survey and helps you build your “green team”.

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