Delta Dental Environmental Stewardship Program

Our Sustainability Goals and Mission

We’ve set aggressive goals to help build a more sustainable future for generations to come by tracking sustainability practices, improving our programs and reducing our environmental impact.

Our Goals

• Establish our position as a sustainability innovator and leader
• Consider environmental impact when making business decisions
• Help our employees make sustainable choices at work and at home
• Track and report on our environmental impact and progress
• Work with suppliers, business partners and customers to help guide environmentally responsible practices across the industry

Mission

• To preserve limited natural resources, such as water and oil
• To improve our sustainability efforts through conservation and waste reduction
• To educate, encourage and empower our employees to be more environmentally responsible

Green Procurement and Resource Conservation

Paper Use Reduction

Our conservation goals ensure that we utilize products and materials efficiently. For example, in 2009, we expanded our electronic claims and digital attachments capabilities so that dentists throughout our enterprise region can transmit all their claims, x-rays and other attachments electronically. This helped reduce costs, save paper and lessen our environmental impact. We have conserved the following resources since the launch of more electronic service capabilities in 2009:

• Wood conserved: 26 tons
• Net energy reduced: 209 million BTUs
• Carbon dioxide (CO²) prevented: (CO² is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere) equivalent: 41,725 pounds CO²e
• Wastewater eliminated: 155,532 gallons

In addition, we purchase environmentally preferable paper stocks. Over 80 percent of our envelopes are 30 percent post-consumer recycled, and all of our internal paper use is at least 50 percent post-consumer recycled. Using recycled content paper and envelopes helped us conserve the following resources in 2010:

• Wood use conserved: 690 tons, or 4,832 trees
• Net energy reduced: 1,682 million BTUs, or the energy used by 19 homes in a year
• Carbon dioxide prevented (CO²) equivalent: 200 metric tons, equal to taking 43 cars off the road for a year
• Wastewater eliminated: 2,128,967 gallons or the equivalent of 3.5 Olympic-size swimming pools

We based our environmental impact estimates for paper on the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator. For more information, visit papercalculator.org.

Carbon Footprint

We actively manage a carbon footprint inventory with the World Resources Institute (WRI), using their Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the international calculation tool widely used by governments and businesses to understand, quantify and manage greenhouse gas emissions. We are also working to project future carbon dioxide (CO²) emissions and identify greater opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint.

Greener Facilities

Our energy efficiency efforts helped us reduce our carbon footprint by more than 300 metric tons of CO² and energy costs by 2 percent in 2009, and we became an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) WasteWise Program Partner in 2010. Through the EPA, WasteWise Partners receive technical assistance, data management tools, outreach and educational materials to help them track their internal waste reduction efforts.

We’re working toward making all of our facilities more efficient.

San Francisco Headquarters:

ENERGY STAR rated (ENERGY STAR is the national energy performance rating that helps energy managers assess how efficiently their buildings use energy, relative to similar buildings nationwide.)

LEED Gold Certified (LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design], is an internationally recognized green building certification system that provides third-party verification that a building's design uses strategies to conserve energy and water, as well as reduce CO² emissions and improve indoor environmental quality.)

Alpharetta Office:

• LEED Silver Certified for Core & Shell and Commercial Interiors

Rancho Cordova Offices:

• Making major lighting improvements with a goal of ENERGY STAR certification
• High ENERGY STAR rating at three buildings

Waste Reduction

Our waste diversion rate (the amount of total waste that was recycled or composted) was 51.42 percent in 2010 (we recycled and composted 877.64 tons out of a total of 1,706.7 tons), a major improvement from the baseline of 29.35 percent in 2008.

Thanks to our 2010 waste reduction efforts, we avoided 2,679 metric tons of CO² emissions. That’s like taking 575 cars off the road.

Information Technology

We're making our IT operations more energy-efficient by:

• Retiring older, less efficient computers, monitors and printers and replacing them with newer ENERGY STAR-rated equipment
• Continuing to improve our Data Center's energy efficiency
• Working with a large accredited asset management company to handle all surplus materials and equipment in the most environmentally friendly method possible
• Establishing programs to centralize printing and to optimize standby and shut-off modes
• Advising employees to turn off or unplug all nonessential equipment

Employee Programs

Our Environmental Stewardship Program provides for the best use of resources and a healthy work environment for our employees. Our first sustainability survey, conducted by a third party consultant, found that more than 90 percent of our employees were supportive of our sustainability efforts.

Ongoing employee programs will include:

• Regular lectures from experts on sustainable home and business practices
• A "Going Green" section in the company's monthly electronic newsletter, including conservation tips and resources
• An outlet for employee questions, comments and suggestions on how Delta Dental can improve its sustainability efforts
• An enterprise-wide reuse and recycling initiative for cellular telephones and printer cartridges

Our long-term commitment

We’re committed to building a more sustainable future for generations to come through strong corporate citizenship and active environmental stewardship.

E-mail us with your feedback or questions about our Environmental Stewardship Program.