Transcendentist®, a trail-blazing dental wellness spa in Berkeley, California, announced today its nomination for an Environmental Excellence Award. The nomination was made to Business Ethics Magazine; the 15-year-old publication devoted to greater social responsibility in business, by the Sustainable Business Alliance ("SBA"), a business group that promotes sustainable business practices and policies. Past recipients of the award include Hewlett-Packard, Odwalla Juices, and Timberland.

In forwarding the nomination, Terry O'Keefe, Executive Director of SBA, noted that transcendentist® "has taken steps to make its practice the most ecologically and environmentally sound dental practice in the country."

Transcendentist® is the first dental office in 9 Bay Area counties to voluntarily submit to multi-agency inspections by the Bay Area Green Business Program, resulting in the office receiving the Bay Area's first "green certification" issued to a dental office. www.greenbiz.abag.ca.gov. (The Bay Area Green Business Program is a partnership between environmental agencies, professional associations, waste management entities and the public.) transcendentist®'s commitment to eco-friendly practice permeates everything from the carpets on the floors (they are untreated, natural wool with jute backings), to the use of digital imaging instead of traditional x-rays (75 to 90% less radiation for clients and no toxic x-ray development chemicals), to the use of cloth patient "bibs" and recycled paper throughout the office.

Transcendentist®'s offices are not only environmentally friendly, but people friendly. The lounge looks like a combination spa and cozy living room, and is appointed with lush plants, rich cotton velvet furnishings, candles and a rock fountain. Earth tone colors, meditative music and specialty teas await the visitor, as does a relaxing foot massage with every new patient teeth cleaning.

Transcendentist® was co-founded by a husband and wife team, Dr. Fred and Ina Pockrass, in March 2003, whom O'Keefe calls "truly pioneers in their industry." The Pockrass' spent a year doing research, business planning, projections, and market analyses before launching the venture. "We decided to create a sacred space where the whole person is honored," says Dr. Pockrass, DDS, a 1981 graduate of McGill University in Canada. "Is our practice holistic? Yes. We are all whole people. Are we a spa? Yes again. Are we a place where wellness rules? First and foremost."

Ina Pockrass notes the motivation for transcendentist®'s environmental consciousness: "Mahatma Ghandi said 'Be the change you want to see in the world', and we live by those words. We decided to 'walk the talk' with transcendentist® and to implement as many eco-friendly innovations as possible. We believe consumers of dental services are ready to embrace a wellness model of dentistry."

"We're committed to changing the way dentistry is practiced one tooth at a time," notes Dr. Fred, who moved to California in 2000 after operating his own successful dental practices in Canada, and after spending twelve years studying meditation and setting up a Western-style dental clinic in Northern India. He met his wife Ina, a former partner at 2 prestigious San Francisco law firms, on the Big Sur Coast, in 2000.

Transcendentist® has already been featured on one local television spot (KRON-4 news), in a Berkeley Monthly article and will be featured in the November/December issue of Spa Magazine. The office is located at 3030 Ashby Ave., Suite 101, Berkeley, California.