entistry has come a long way since the ancient Egyptians treated a toothache by covering it with the split-open body of a freshly killed mouse. One day soon, dentists will likely be able to regrow decayed teeth and gum tissue with stem cells, and immunize patients against cavities. But whether they’re drilling into sensitive nerves with sharpened stones or laser beams, the need for companies to stay ahead of the competition doesn’t change.

	FAST FACT: Using recycled aluminum eliminates the mining, refining, and reduction processes.

Dentsply International Inc., for example, a provider of dental supplies with more than $2 billion in 2007 revenues from sales of products such as artificial teeth, tooth whiteners, and topical fluoride, wanted to show attendees at the Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting last February that it is a leader not just in whitening teeth but in Greening its image, as well.

But York, PA-based Dentsply wasn’t looking for a basic rinse-and-spit PR gesture. Wanting to send an eco-friendly message to all attendees, it particularly wanted to address the under-40 demographic with its Green-leaning preferences. Dentsply wanted to grab younger clients and cement a business relationship it hoped would last longer than a temporary filling by demonstrating it cares about environmental issues — a unique attribute, given that a third of the toxic mercury in wastewater comes from dentists’ offices.

“Dentsply wanted to show young dentists that it is aware of today’s issues and that ‘this is not your father’s tooth implant,’” says Kent Jones, senior vice president at 3D Exhibits Inc. in Elk Grove Village, IL, which built the company’s exhibit.

The Marmoleum, recycled aluminum, and FSC-certified wood in Dentsply International Inc.’s new exhibit adheres to USGBC LEED standards.

It was a canny play to a younger generation for which a pro-Green stance is common. For example, an ABC News/Washington Post/Stanford poll in 2007 found that adults younger than 40 were 25 percent more likely than those over 40 to think that global warming will be a very serious problem, and more than 20 percent more likely than their older cohorts to think global warming actually can be addressed though concrete actions. With well over a third of American dentists below the age of 44, Dentsply’s strategy was sure to resonate with the company’s target audience among the show’s 34,500 attendees.

Crowning Glory

Dentsply’s old booth was about as attractive as bridgework done in East-
ern Europe. Ten years old and a mash up of pieces kluged together, “The booth was a modified portable exhibit littered with product brochures,” Jones says. With the 2008 redesign, Dentsply had a booth that gleamed like bleached bicuspids.

The materials in its new exhibit adhered to the standards set by the federal government’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Establishing an independent authentification of the booth’s eco-friendliness was a pre-emptive promotional tactic, since 90 percent of those polled in a 2008 Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship Survey said they believed that any company that makes Green claims has to prove those claims are legitimate.

The resulting exhibit consisted of 12 island-like stations called “pods,” representing the company’s eight divisions. The wood used for the pods — and the exhibit’s shipping crates — was FSC certified. For the pods’ goal-post-like uprights, Dentsply used recycled aluminum, which eliminates the mining, refining, and reduction processes. The aluminum was also powder-coated, avoiding the use of oil-based paints, which might contain VOCs.

Because of the pods’ portable nature, Dentsply can ship as many of them as it needs to any given show, as opposed to the old configuration, which forced them to ship the whole booth to every venue no matter if it was one or all eight divisions exhibiting. “In the end, Dentsply saves in shipping costs and in greenhouse gas emissions,” Jones says.

Other exhibit elements, including countertops, kick plates, and display-case backs, were made of Marmoleum, a natural material blended from linseed oil, wood flour, resin binders, and dry pigments, then laid onto a natural jute backing. With a life span estimated at 40 years, the durable Marmoleum doesn’t have to be discarded anytime soon, either, saving on waste products and therefore energy consumed. (And when Dentsply does toss it, the hypoallergenic material will safely biodegrade back into the ecosystem.)

	FAST FACT: Marmoleum is a durable, natural material made from linseed oil, wood flour, and resin binders.

A low-voltage lighting system and fluorescent fixtures in the headers consumed approximately half the energy of the previous booth’s lighting and focused theatrical-style illumination on each of Dentsply’s portable product displays. Finally, the exhibit’s carpet was partly manufactured from recycled plastic bottles: Its 1,167 square yards represented 5,251 pounds of bottles and carpet not dumped into landfills, and an energy savings of 513 gallons of oil that didn’t have to be spent in manufacturing new rugs.

The Tooth Will Out

Due to a combination of factors, Dentsply had virtually no time to toot its Green horn prior to the show, other than a general press release. Instead, the company printed “Certified Green” stickers and plastered them on each of the eight pods to reinforce the message that many of its Green efforts were validated by LEED government standards.

But Dentsply’s plan to Green up its act didn’t end with the exhibit. The company is evolving the booth by exploring ways to offset the carbon wasted in manufacturing shipping crates as well as shipping itself, proving once again that going Green is less like pulling teeth and more like straightening them: It takes time.