Sustainable Healthcare: 6 steps we’re taking to reduce our carbon footprint
While the rest of the world has caught on that reducing the amount of carbon dioxide we release into our atmosphere as individuals, communities and organisations is a positive step in fighting climate change, dentistry has been woefully slow on the uptake.
The average dental practice uses vast amounts of single-use plastics and energy on a daily basis. Some of these are simply unavoidable in dental care – we understand the importance of PPE in protecting you and our team.
Transport
Research of dental practices in England showed that patient and staff travel make up two thirds of their overall carbon footprint. Paste is conveniently located in Belfast city centre, and is easily reached by bus or train. Many of our staff commute by public transport or car share, and we encourage our clients to do the same when coming to visit us.
Remote/ virtual consultations
Another super convenient way of reducing transport emissions is making use of our virtual consultation service. If you would like more information on any of our treatments, or are in the middle of treatment and need advice, online appointments can be a great way to achieve this without the need to travel.
Paperless business
The environmental impact of paper production is huge – paper mills contribute to deforestation as well as water and air pollution. By using digital technology throughout our practice, we’re reducing our burden, as well as making our services more accessible to you through our online booking and payment systems.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
Another major source of CO2 emissions is delivery services required for transporting products we order. To help combat this we make sure we reduce the number of deliveries by carefully monitoring stock and placing as few individual orders as possible. We also support local businesses by shopping locally.
We’ve upped our recycling game by making recycling stations around the clinic so that we recycle as much of our waste as possible, and you’ll notice we have replaced many single-use products with durable items that can be sterilised and reused again and again.
Green energy
Using a green energy provider has been a simple but effective way to incorporate sustainability into our business, and can also be a practical way of reducing your carbon footprint at home. Companies such as Power NI and Bright Energy offer green tariffs which provide 100% renewable energy and could even save you money.
Sustainable dental products
We stock a range of environmentally friendly oral healthcare products for our clients. Bamboo toothbrushes offer the same cleaning ability as plastic brushes, but are biodegradable and eliminate unnecessary waste. There are even bamboo electric heads available – check out Booheads for new heads for your Philips Sonicare brush. Eco-friendly flosses are available, and toothpaste tablets are a great replacement for toothpastes. Parla toothpaste tabs provide protection from decay and sensitivity, as well as being zero waste and palm-oil free.
As Paste continues to grow, we aim to develop more ways of making dentistry a much more environmentally friendly business and we encourage you to get involved, so please let us know your thoughts and ideas on how we could be greener!