A Kendal dental practice has been awarded a ‘Green Impact for Dentistry’ Gold Award 2024.

Conducted by the education charity Students Organising for Sustainability UK (SOS-UK), with backing from the NHS Healthier Futures Action Fund and Greener NHS, the programme challenges dental practices to incorporate accredited sustainability actions into their procedures.

Across 2024, Crossbank Dental Care completed 123 actions from a list of 167, putting them in the top percentile of practices in the country. Twenty-six practices qualified for an award, and just six for a gold award.

Crossbank Dental Care also earned its Green Small Business certification in 2024.

The practices 2024 initiatives included eliminating clinical waste and single-use plastics wherever possible and improving office admin recycling, including repurposing non-confidential ‘scrap’ paper into notebooks. The practice also focused on turning outside ‘overlooked land’ into green space, together with hedgehog homes, bird feeders, bug hotels and a ‘Hotbin’ composter.

Bex Cooper, director of Crossbank Dental Care, said, “While we’re all thrilled at achieving gold, even more so is its incredible validation that what we’re doing is meaningful and making a difference.

“It’s also been really fun working as a team across the administrative and clinical areas of the practice to see what we can improve.”

In 2025, the team has plans to continue the clinic’s ‘Implant a Tree’ programme in partnership with Cumbria Wildlife Trust. It has also set out to focus on making it easier for staff and patients to use public transport, cycling and walking to reach the clinic.

Bex added, “It’s not ‘oh look at what we can do’, it’s about giving people the enthusiasm, knowledge and confidence that any small changes add up to big impacts.

“We love the relationships we build up with our patients, community, local charities and schools, and we’re definitely looking to take that further this year. We’ve set ourselves a high bar, aiming for a second Green Impact for Dentistry Gold Award in 2025- but we like to think of it as going for green!”

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