On 17–18 March, members of the Green Healthcare Hub came together in Nottingham to share progress across the Hub’s multidisciplinary research themes.
The two-day event began with a Carbon Footprinting workshop led by Yan Wang and Ingeborg Steinbach. The session introduced participants to the core methodologies behind carbon footprinting, including process-based cradle-to-grave analysis and environmentally extended input-output analysis. Attendees also received practical, step-by-step guidance on conducting a carbon footprinting study, followed by an introduction to environmental Life Cycle Assessment.
In the evening, Hub members attended a screening at Mammoth Climate Action Cinema of It’ll Never Work, directed by Joe Osborn. The film follows the real-life challenge of converting the UK’s first fishing boat to solar and electric power while maintaining commercial competitiveness. Special thanks go to Jane Harvey for organising such a valuable experience.
Wednesday provided an opportunity for each research theme to present updates on current progress and future priorities. The event concluded with a stakeholder mapping session, helping members identify shared stakeholders and opportunities for future collaboration.
Overall, the gathering was a valuable opportunity to connect, align priorities, and strengthen the Hub’s collective commitment to building a more sustainable future for healthcare.

On Monday 22nd June, the Green Healthcare Hub hosted an interactive session entitled ‘Towards a net zero NHS: Green Healthcare Hub’ as part of the University of Sussex’s Summer of Research festival.
The event was well attended in person and online by stakeholders from different disciplines and backgrounds including, healthcare professionals, NHS supply chain, academics from within and outside of US. Dr Amy Booth and Professor Mahmood Bhutta opened the event, providing an overview of the GHH’s aims and objectives highlighting the importance of translating research into action. Following this, four of our GHH themes presented more detail of their work so far and planned activities in a series of lighting talks:

- Dr Amy Booth – Sustainable Medicines Management - Systems level understanding of avoidable environmental impacts from the way medicines are managed and used in health systems and how to reduce these
- Dr Raveen Menon – Servitisation in lieu of Procurement - To evaluate alternative models of purchasing in healthcare through servitization, focusing on electrosurgical devices and endoscopes, in order to reduce environmental impact, improve resource efficiency, and inform policy and adoption.
- Prof Dimitri Petrakaki and Dr Prans Dhunnoo – Digital and Remote Care Pathways
- Prof Yan Wang – Remanufacturing and Circular Economy and AI for healthcare – Exploring Life Cycle Analysis for medical devices and reprocessing potential

We then broke out into small discussion groups to discuss the question ‘“If we were designing the NHS from scratch today, what would we do differently to make it better for patients and planet?”. Consistent messages from these groups were:

- Patient voice and culture shift to prioritizing sustainability within the commissioning and delivery of care.
- Regular communication of emerging findings to change makers throughout the research process to embed change now.
- Determining who can and is willing to make these changes is difficult.
- Embedding change in historic systems, structures and processes is challenging.
- Move from product focus to process e.g. from linear to circular processing
- Translation of research findings into action is critical.
- Demonstrating the financial benefit of moving to re-usable will be important for sustaining buy in to these changes.

Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to such a productive and thought provoking event.

How Does the NHS Sustain Service Delivery While Meeting Short-Term Financial Targets?
Our collaborators at Aston Advanced Services Group are hosting a Healthcare centred webinar as part of their work on the Green Healthcare Hub.

The discussion will explore how value is defined, delivered, and measured across healthcare systems, and how service-led business models such as managed equipment services can support a more sustainable and cost-effective future.

Speakers include;
Mark Martin, Industrial Fellow at The Advanced Services Group
Darren Riley, Managing Director of D-Hive Ltd
Phil Adams-Howell, Senior Nurse Clinical Procurement – UCLH NHS Foundation Trust

Wednesday, July 1st 2026 12:00–13:00 BST

For further information and to registrar, please follow the link below.