Sustainable Dentistry Is The New Black

– Robert Swan, Author 

There are so many little things we can do, to help save this planet.  One place to start, is to be consciences about environmental sustainability.  Thwink.org defines environmental sustainability as the rate of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely.  If they can’t be continued indefinitely, then they are not sustainable.

Our planet faces some huge sustainability issues – the growing world population (more people on the planet place a bigger strain on our resources & environment), climate change, loss of biodiversity, water scarcity (billions of people worldwide lack access to fresh water), soil erosion and food production and pollution.  An article in the Harvard Business Review titled “The Sustainable Economy,” said that even people that are only concerned about business and not the fate of the planet recognize that their viability in business depends directly on the resources of healthy ecosystems—fresh water, clean air, robust biodiversity, productive land, and the stability of just societies. However, we haven’t been making much progress on reducing the damage that business does to the world.  They identified a very valid problem—it’s generally cheaper to buy a product that has a worse impact on the environment, than it is to buy the equivalent product that does less harm.  “Higher cost to the planet does not translate to higher price to customer.  Of course, this is due to the fact that businesses rarely obliged to pay for the full toll their operations take on the world.” (Chouinard, 2011). 

This is of great concern to Terra & Co., so Amra & Azra decided to do their part and support global sustainability through their sustainable dental care brand. One way they do this, is by offering a natural bamboo charcoal toothbrush.  Bamboo is a very sustainable crop.  It is a fast growing grass that requires no fertilizer and self-regenerates from its own roots.  This means it doesn’t need to be replanted and is a natural material, breaking down over time due to natural processes. Not to mention, that Terra & Co. isn’t contributing to the growing mounds of plastic into our environment.  According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. produces a staggering 32 million tons of plastic waste a year and only 9% is recovered for recycling.  That means a majority of plastics end up in our landfills and much of it ends up in local waterways and our oceans.

Many of these sustainability issues don’t have to be permanent.  If we all examine our behavior and habits, we can directly impact whether these issues can be reversed.  Are you adding to the plastic wasteland that is ruining our planet?  Do sustainable luxury brands and products you use daily, support sustainability?

What are you doing to support the environment?  What brands do you support that are making a difference?  Do you have any tips that we can share to help support sustainability?

We’d love to hear from you!

Photo is a bamboo forest in Kyoto, Japan