Green hospital : bringing life cycle innovation into the healthcare sector

Oral presentationWhich processes in a hospital are particularly resource-intensive? How can cost-efficiency in hospitals be increased and environmental impact be reduced? How can life cycle innovation be applied in the health care sector in order to increase its sustainability? These questions were addressed in the project “Green Hospital”. Environmentally speaking, healthcare is the fourth most relevant consumer sector (after food, mobility and housing). However, there have been very few comprehensive environmental assessments of this sector. As a result, it is unclear where the greatest scope for improvement lies and how improvements could be implemented. To date, efficiency analyses in the hospital sector have only focussed on economic aspects: none have taken environmental impacts into account. The specific goals of the project “Green Hospital” were: (1) to develop consistent and comprehensive knowledge concerning resource consumption end efficiency in Swiss hospitals (2) to analyse determinants of life cycle environmental impacts in the health sector and hospitals (3) to compile a list of environmental best practices and investigate the currently realisable options (4) to test hands-on applications for environmentally optimised processes The Life Cycle Assessment research group of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences analysed Swiss hospitals from an environmental perspective using life cycle assessment. Catering, infrastructure, energy use and the provision of medical treatment (medicine, medical equipment etc.) were determined to be particularly relevant. Additionally, they are working together with partner hospitals to develop and test innovative approaches within the hospital setting