Theme Leads:  Professor Peter Culmer and Mr Adam Peckham-Cooper

Project Managers: Dr Rory Turnbull and Dr Zahrina Mardina

Background

This theme will focus on the methods and technologies needed to reduce waste and promote sustainability, drawing on established partnerships and networks to help the NHS realise its ambition of reducing its carbon footprint to zero by 2040.

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Areas of Focus

Activities are designed to span four key areas;

Building awareness and knowledge exchange for sustainable and net zero healthcare: we will target patient groups, healthcare and allied-health professionals, and the healthcare industry to raise awareness of the negative impact that climate change has on our population health and the need for strategies to reduce the NHS carbon footprint.

NHS Delivering a “Net Zero” National Health Service: we will coordinate knowledge-exchange activities (online workshops) with industry and national surgical representative groups (e.g., Surgical Royal Colleges and Surgical Healthcare Professionals) to promote engagement in net zero and sustainability initiatives, with signposting to practical actions for change.

Assessment of sustainability and carbon impact: in collaboration with WRM Ltd and Oxford Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, we will build a Sustainability Evaluation Toolkit to undertake practical assessments in healthcare contexts.

Working with industry partners and other stakeholders: we will hold networking events with industry partners (Revolution Zero, Vanguard AG, Surgical Innovations, Summit Medical) and other sustainability stakeholders (NHS Supply Chain Sustainability Team, YH AHSN) to better understand sustainability from an industry and systems perspective.

Implementation: we will work with partners to implement sustainable initiatives within the healthcare sector.

These activities will be amplified by dissemination of case studies to catalyse further activity and inspire wider engagement, building experience across a growing network of industry and healthcare partners.

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Key Projects

Surgical Tray Rationalisation

Globally, 4.4% of emissions from healthcare, of which surgery accounts for 33%. Up to 75% of surgical instruments remain unused but still require decontamination. Tray rationalisation involves monitoring and analysing tool utilisation to identify and remove unused instruments.

In 2021, a team from Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust won the Green Surgery Challenge for their work developing a Green Lap Chole Tray. The work went on to inform an Innovation Agency report for the NHSE Sustainable Procurement Team.

Current work is building on the methods developed to support wider adoption of tray rationalisation practices.

NIHR Net Zero Innovation Catalyst

In partnership with the NIHR HRC Network and Pd-M, the Catalst builds on the success of the pilot programme, supporting early-stage innovators to embed sustainable practice into their innovation, supporting translational funding applications and progression toward adoption.

SUSTAIN: The Sustainability and Simulation Theatre for Academia and Industry

Funded by the Department of Health and Social Care in alignment with the Design for Life Roadmap, SUSTAIN is a high-fidelity simulated operating theatre providing a testbed for circular innovations, enabling industry and academia to evaluate new technologies, improve decision-making, and train healthcare teams in sustainable practices.

SUSTAIN is currently in development, due to launch in summer 2026!

General Offerings

We can provide a free meeting to offer general advice on implementing sustainable practices aligned with the Net Zero Innovation Catalyst and identify potential next steps for the given company. Follow-on step are innovation specific but can include:

• Sustainable design review consulting (provided by HRC partner Pd-M)
• Life-cycle analysis
• Support for developing grant applications (several months’ lead time required). This funding could be used to fund:
  • Costs to access SUSTAIN
  • Market analysis (such as through a Place-based Impact Accelerator Account)
  • Funding above sustainable design review if needed (provided by Pd-M).

If you would like support or to engage with the Sustainability and NHS Carbon Net Zero theme, please submit the form available here.

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