Protecting the Environment
Dentsply Sirona is committed to ensuring that our business operations are sustainable and mitigate our impact on the environment and local surroundings. We are in the process of setting out a dedicated climate strategy for both the short term (by 2025) and the long term (by 2050). Read more about how we work to mitigate and reduce our emissions below.
Measuring Emissions and Emissions Reduction
We continually measure and report on our GHG emissions, and used the Schneider Resource Advisor during 2020 as our global energy management system. This allows for near real-time insight into energy spend and emissions by location and respective cost, leading to effective management of our energy use, reduced operating costs and GHG emissions, improved responsiveness to changing environmental conditions, and insight into potential alternative energy sources.
Dentsply Sirona-wide utility costs during 2020 were about $9.2 million, equating to approximately 36,000 MT CO2e. Improved management and reduction of utility spend as a result of insight from Schneider Resource Advisor are estimated to achieve 1% cost savings, which will enable further GHG emissions reductions.
Our global combined Scopes 1 and 2 emissions in 2020 were 38,601 metric tons of CO2e, of which 31,048 metric tons were Scope 2 emissions. This was an improvement from our 2019 Scope 2 emissions of 33,190 metric tons of CO2e. We are currently in the developmental stage of processes to capture, analyze, and report Scope 3 GHG emissions.
The 63,200-square-foot Dentsply Sirona facility that manufactures and distributes endodontic products in Johnson City, Tennessee, has an impressive track record when it comes to going green. Since 2015, the facility, which currently has 215 employees, has been on a mission to recycle and reuse excess materials like electronics, glass, metal, paper, cardboard, as well as save water and electricity.
“We’ve always been conscientious of the environment, both internally and externally, but we noticed that we still had so much excess trash,” said Marcie Littleton, Technical Resource/Environmental Health and Safety Manager at the Johnson City site. “We saw an opportunity to create a cleaner and safer environment for both our employees and our community.”
In going green, they considered all aspects related to the operation in Johnson City and all activities used in collecting, treating, handling, and disposing of hazardous and non-hazardous materials, and recycling of materials.
“We just didn’t know how much power and water we were using or the impact we were having on our neighborhood and community,” she said. “This helped us to realize that it’s the right thing to do. We encourage everyone to practice recycling every day.”
Since going green, the site no longer purchases plastic cups or straws, and even had the glass bottles removed from their vending machines.
Johnson City also received ISO 14001 environmental management system certification in 2016, which means that every year, the site must provide evidence that it remains committed to its environmental management system and respective goals to maintain the certification. “It’s a great accomplishment that we take pride in,” said Littleton. “We are proud to be champions of this initiative for Dentsply Sirona and to set a good example for our business partners and our community.”
Other Healthy Planet Case Studies
2020 Sustainability Report
Read the latest Sustainability Report to learn how Dentsply Sirona is giving back to the planet and key stakeholders.
