Nordic Center for Sustainable Healthcare (NCSH) leads, participates in and initiates projects in different fields with a strong link to sustainable and green healthcare. NCSH has taken part in EU-projects, projects with Swedish funding, Danish funding, different Nordic funders and projects financed by participating stakeholders.
Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in any of our ongoing projects, if you need a Nordic partner for a project, or have a brilliant project idea within sustainable healthcare.
We often collaborate with other stakeholders in various countries and professionals with the specialized competence we need in projects.
Ongoing projects
Here we present our ongoing and active projects. For completed or dormant projects, conferences and so forth, please look a bit further down this page.
Circle Health
Best practices of circular management models in healthcare: Capacity building among healthcare workers.
Starting January 2023, NCSH is the lead of the project Circle Health.
This is done in partnership with the Association of Non-Medical Healthcare Managers (SNKOZ) from Poland, with the support of the Erasmus+ fund in the category 'Small-scale partnerships in vocational education and training'.
Circle Health aims to build competencies and green skills among healthcare workers in Sweden and Poland. The project will systematise best practices in both countries, and create a tool kit for the development of circular management models for the healthcare sector.
The priorities are to increase the flexibility of opportunities in vocational education and training, as well as to adapt vocational education and training to labour market needs.
For more information and interest in this project, please contact:
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Closing gaps: Techniques and solutions for reducing pharmaceutical residuals in the Baltic Sea region
Since June 2022, NCSH is happy to participate in the project "Closing gaps: Techniques and solutions for reducing pharmaceutical residuals in the Baltic Sea region". Our participation is in partnership with Scanbalt from Estonia and the Lithuanian Biotechnology Association, and in collaboration with Business Region Göteborg.
Together, the partners in this project will implement a multistakeholder horizontal collaboration. We will share and compare techniques and conditions for using innovative solutions – solutions that have the possibility of reducing pharmaceutical residual within the healthcare sector among the Baltic Sea countries.
The project is funded by the Swedish Institute.
Do you have or know of a solution which reduces pharmaceutical residuals in healthcare waste? Tell us about it!
For more information and interest in this project, please contact:
Grønnköpingkið - World's Greenest Hospital!
Grønnköpingkið is a digital hospital created to showcase Nordic sustainable healthcare solutions. On the platform, we gather and describe solutions and products that increase the sustainability performance of hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
Launched late 2021, the hospital allows you to find solutions within various categories such as waste, water, pharma and chemicals, energy efficiency, and many more. Each category will hold up to 10 Nordic solutions with information about their installation sites, sustainability performance, supplier information, and everything else you need.
NCSH directs enquiries of potential customers directly to the companies on the platform.
If you are interested in showcasing YOUR product or service in Grønnköpingkið, or would like to learn more, please contact us:
Platform for Internationalisation: Energy and Climate Smart Healthcare
Through this project, a platform for internationalisation of sustainable and energy-efficient healthcare will be in place. A number of activities have been planned to:
- Create opportunities for energy efficient innovations to reach a global market
- Increase knowledge transfer and dissemination of information on energy efficient sustainable healthcare
- Identify methods and arenas where innovative companies within the field of sustainable healthcare can export sucessfully
The project is based on a prestudy where letters of intent have been written with innovation arenas in 4 countries: France, Italy, Israel and United Kingdom. A report on challenges when internationalising innovation clusters with focus on energy efficient healthcare has also been produced. Within this project, NCSH will focus on Europe as well as Canada, the U.S, China, India and the Middle East.
The project is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency and started in December 2018. Also as a part of this project are the six international events arranged within the Future of Healthcare: Sustainable and Smart today project. These include:
- Kick off and high level meeting in Helsinki, Finland the 2nd of October 2019.
- Nordic delegation to conference in Montreal, Canada the 15th to the 16th of October 2019.
- Conference for sustainable healthcare in the Netherlands the 15th to the 17th of April 2020.
- Nordic Conference for Sustainable Healthcare in Copenhagen, Denmark, September 8 2020.
- Online seminar together with Yale University in November 2020.
- Health100 and high level meeting in Finland 2020.
For more information about the project, please contact:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 (0)707 94 42 13
Johannes Brundin, or +46 (0)760 93 90 89
Conferences
The Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare 2020
The Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare 2020 was arranged in collaboration with DTU and Upgraded and was held online on September 8. With over 30 fantastic speakers and eight parallel sessions focusing on climate friendly healthcare, resiliency, circularity and more, the conference was a success with over 100 participants. The entire conference was recorded by NCSH and is available to watch on our Youtube channel. This year's conference was arranged as part of the project Future of Healthcare: Sustainable and Smart today.
The Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare 2019
The Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare 2019 was held as a part of EHMA:s annual conference and took place in Espoo Finland on June 17th-19th. NCSH hosted one session on June 17th and one session on June 18th. On June 19th the winners of 2019 Nordic Sustainable Healthcare awards were announced. This year Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) won the award Sustainable Healthcare Organizer of the year, Schneider Electric was awarded the Sustainable Healthcare Organisation of the year, and finally the Sustainable Healthcare Innovation of the year went to Nordshield.
The Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare 2018
The Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare 2018 was held in collaboration with Aktuell Hållbarhet and joined together speakers and participants from over 10 countries with an interest in creating a more sustainable healthcare. This years focus was on areas such as tools for sustainable construction and maintenance of healthcare buildings, international knowledge from sustainable health and care systems, procurement as a sustainability tool and antibiotic resistance.
Read more on topics and speakers
The Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare 2017
In collaboration with Aktuell Hållbarhet, Dagens Medicin and Bonnier Sustainability Media, Nordic Center for Sustainable Healthcare organised a one day conference with speakers from all over Europe to focus on the latest developments in areas such as: sustainability priorities at major Nordic hospitals, state of the art Nordic projects, as well as new and innovative solutions on the market in everything from energy efficiency to pharmaceuticals.
Read more on topics and speakers
CleanMed Europe 2012
TEM took the initiative for the international conference CleanMed Europe 2012 and acted as a project leader throughout the conference held in Malmö, with 350 participants from over 30 countries.
Completed projects
SysteMA
During 2022, NCSH took part in SysteMA (Systemic Design and Sustainable Healthcare for MedTech Manufacturing). SysteMA is an educational project seeking to address the training challenges of sustainable healthcare for the European MedTech industry. The project is funded by EIT Manufacturing.
Read more about the project here.
SysteMA is an international partnership including NCSH's partner Politecnico di Torino, along with many other organisations.
For more information and interest in this project, please contact:
HUSCA - Boosting sustainable innovation with Nordic integrated health data
Together with a Nordic consortia we are focusing on sustainable healthcare innovation in relation to SDGs, Nordic integrated health data, healthcare providers, life science industry and other related industries.
Together, we will envisioning what an innovative and connected Nordic region would look like if health data was shared seamlessly across public-private partnerships in the region. Shared health data plays into the circular economy, as well as clinical research, clinical trials, treatments, innovation- and development efforts means reduced friction and higher degrees of utilisation of expended resources.
For more information and interest in this project please contact:
sWASH & Grow
NCSH is taking part in this new project called sWASH and Grow, financed by Vinnova and under the lead of RISE. This project is focusing on humanitarian crisis and conflicts and providing sustainable and circular of-grid WASH-solutions (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). The SWASH & Grow project aims to improve the condition for Swedish innovative solutions to meet the demands of the customers - aid organizations. The project will, through test beds in cooperation with buyers and users, test innovative sustainable solutions and from this design tools for development, scaling and export. The Project consists of 27 partners and will be running until august 2022. Through its members, NCSH can provide both technical solutions, knowledge and business models for the project.
For more information and interest in this project please contact:
Nordic Strategic Platform for Increased Export of Sustainable Healthcare Solutions
NCSH is one of around 15 members in the Nordic Innovation task force for export of health and welfare solutions. The project is an initiative by the Nordic Ministry Council and aims to unite and increase Nordic export of health-related services and products. Around three organisations from each member country (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland) represent different areas of health export and NCSH is added as a pan-Nordic actor.
Sustainable healthcare has been identified as one of four Nordic strongholds within Nordic health export together with Smart Digital Solutions, Welfare technology and Personalized care.This means that members in NCSH can look forward to increased efforts to expand the area of sustainable healthcare and projects that supports those efforts.
A first report from the task force has been published in 2018 and can be found here.
The Future of Healthcare - Sustainable and Smart today
Together with our project partners Upgraded and DTU Executive School of Education, NCSH has recieved funding from Nordic Innovation for targeting Nordic sustainable healthcare. The aim is to bring Nordic knowledge and solutions for sustainable healthcare to a global market. Through this, knowledge and expertise on sustainable solutions in this sector can be spread and developed further. The base of the project is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, and with additional funding from Nordic Innovation the project expands adding a Nordic perspective. The project will run for 1,5 years.
The outputs of this project is a number of international events with the aim to spread knowledge on Nordic sustainable solutions. In total six events will be conducted in five different countries around the world:
- Helsinki, Finland October 2, 2019: Kick-off of project and high level meeting with 100 of the most impactful people in Nordic healhtcare.
- Montreal, Canada October 15-16, 2019: Delegation to Canada to meet Canadian hospitals interested in sustainable and smart healthcare.
- Netherlands, April 21, 2020: Conference with Dutch and Nordic actors to share knowledge, expertise and best practices in the field of sustainable healhtcare.
- Copenhagen, Denmark, September 8, 2020: Nordic Conference for Sustainable Healthcare, hosted by DTU.
- Yale University, USA, November 10, 2020: Online seminar arranged together with Yale University.
- Finland October 2020: Final event to wrap up the project and high level meeting with Nordic stakeholders in healthcare.
For more information about the project, please contact:
The most Sustainable Healthcare in the World 2030
Together with project partners Medeon, Medicon Village, Swecare and Sahlgrenska Science Park, NCSH received Vinnova funding for a pre-study to be the basis for creating a vision to achieve the most sustainable healthcare in the world by 2030 and establish an arena for innovation, collaboration and communication of Swedish sustainable healthcare.
The outputs of this project has lead to a more coherent view on sustainable healthcare and further clarified this interdisciplinary matter. The result will in the long run lead to increased export and reduced environmental impact from the healthcare sector. In order to fully encompass all aspects of sustainable healthcare, MedTech and life science have been addressed and included in the project.
To increase the knowledge base and identify best practice solutions within MedTech and life science, workshops have been held in four different cities in Sweden. The material collected through the workshops have been used to develop both a sustainability guideline for startups within life sciences, as well as a vision for sustainable healthcare.
Guideline - Sustainability in Life Science
The content of the guidline has been developed in collaboration with Medeon, Medicon Village, Sahlgrenska Science Park, Swecare and participants at 5 workshops around Sweden hosted by the projects partners and Innovation+ in Region Västerbotten. A number of interviews have been conducted with companies and other key stakeholders. In total a couple of hundred organisations have been involved in the process.
- The guideline can be found here >>
- References to legislation and other more specific guidelines can be found here >>
- Best practices from some Swedish Life Science companies can be found here >>
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 707-94 42 13
Nordic White Paper on Sustainable Healthcare
In 2019 NCSH completed a Nordic white paper on sustainable healthcare, a project funded by Nordic Innovation. During the project events and workshops have been arranged around the Nordics. The following activites have been arranged within the project:
- Sweden: 15th of February 2018, Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare.
- Iceland: 17th of April 2018, joint workshop with partners.
- Finland: 31st of May 2018, session on Upgraded Life Festival.
- Sweden: 3rd of October 2018, workshop in collaboration with Swecare.
- Denmark: 1st of November 2018, workshop in collaboration with DTU.
- Norway: 29th of January 2019, workshop in collaboration with Nordic Innovation.
You can read the White Paper here >>>
For more information, please contact us:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 (0)707-94 42 13
Joint Nordic Events - Healthcare as a Leverage for Smarter and Greener Cities
With funding from Nordic Innovation NCSH, together with Nordic and Israeli partners, organised a delegation/matchmaking event in Tel Aviv the 14th to the 15th of November 2018. The purpose of the delegation was to increase business, knowledge and collaboration on solutions for sustainable healthcare and smart, circular cities.
Read a summary from the delegation (link to Nordic Innovation)
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 707 94 42 13
Internationalisation of Innovation Clusters
NCSH has with funding from the Swedish Energy Agency conducted a survey and interviews with relevant stakeholders within energy efficient healthcare. The focus has been internationalisation, both in terms of collaboration regarding innovation but also export. The report includes a number of conclusions that focus on challenges that need to be addressed both nationally and internationally.
This report is part of the Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Healthcare, a project funded by the Sweish Energy Agency.
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 (0)707-94 42 13
Green Procurement of Hospital Textiles – Nordic Guide and Cooperation
NCSH collaborated with PlanMiljø in a project which focused on the green procurement of hospital textiles. The aim of the project was to encourage and assist hospitals and regional authorities in the Nordic region in moving towards a more sustainable procurement of healthcare textiles.
A country specific fact sheet was developed for the Nordic countries. This included current status, obstacles and potential for healthcare textiles procurement. The consortium also established and facilitated a network of stakeholders relevant to the procurement of textiles in the healthcare sector. The stakeholders were brought together through various workshops to discuss and exchange initiatives as well as establish voluntary agreements. A strategy was then developed and carried out for the guide’s dissemination amongst Nordic healthcare procurers.
A guide on green procurement of hospital textiles has been developed in close cooporation with the network. The guide was released during 2017 and is available in English.
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 (0)707-94 42 13
Nordic Procurement Network for Sustainable Healthcare
The network was founded as a part of NCSH and as a result of a project on textiles in healthcare. After a few meetings the network was put on hold due to a lack of funding.
National Innovation Agenda for Sustainable Healthcare
The healthcare sector stands for a significant part of the GDP and the overall environmental impact. Meanwhile, there is a lack of a coordinated interaction between the sector’s stakeholders in terms of knowledge transfer, benefits from commercial opportunities and application of newly developed products and services.
The innovation agenda for sustainable healthcare is a collaboration project of TEM, Swecare and Lund University, financed by Sweden’s innovation agency Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency and the Swedish Research Council Formas.
Download the National innovation agenda short version (English) (PDF)
Download the National innovation agenda (Swedish) (PDF)
Sustainable healthcare is a complex area that embraces a range of industries and research fields. Its stakeholders come from various branches, such as private and public healthcare, environmental technology, life science with good environmental performance, construction industry, and more. With this variety of stakeholders, sustainable healthcare on the one hand faces certain obstacles, while on the other has a big potential to act as a platform for the stakeholders of the sector.
The innovation agenda’s starting point is the stakeholder perspective. It provides different solutions to the challenges that exist in the area today. Moreover, it points to the opportunities in the area that have a capacity to strengthen Sweden’s economic growth, employment and at the same time reduce environmental impacts of the healthcare sector.
LED for Healthcare
LED for Healthcare was a project focused on lighting in the healthcare. Healthcare is a perfect sector to test innovative lighting solutions with the existing variety of applications that a healthcare establishment provides: outdoor lighting, operating theaters, offices, garages etc. Meanwhile, the lighting industry seeks ways to test and verify innovations that come together with the shift to the LED-technology, and national credentials for better export opportunities.
The project was funded by The Swedish Energy Agency.
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 (0)707-94 42 13
Sustainable Health Care
One of the reasons behind the success of the Swedish healthcare system in terms of its environmental and sustainability performance is the high number of top-notch products and services developed for the healthcare sector by Swedish companies. However, the potential to boost sales of these products and services, both nationally and globally, is often neglected. The collaboration project Sustainable Health Care launched in January 2010, focused on enhanced sales of sustainable products and services for the healthcare sector nationally and internationally. The project was a continuation of another initiative completed earlier - Sustainable Hospitals. The project focused on technical visits, intensified cooperation between businesses and between businesses and healthcare institutions, as well as new export channels. Within the project, healthcare companies got an opportunity to present their latest solutions to potential clients, while healthcare institutions informed companies about current problematic issues that require solutions. A reference group consisting of a number of healthcare institutions took part in the project along with the businesses.
Project owner: Sustainable Business Hub (Malmö).
Project partners: Business Region Göteborg, Sustainable Sweden Southeast and Hälsoteknikalliansen; Region Skåne and Region Västra Götaland took an active part in the project.
Co-funder: Tillväxtverket.
Project leader: Daniel Eriksson, TEM.
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 (0)707-94 42 13
Green Health Care Öresund
The project Green Health Care Öresund was a joint EU-project between Region Skåne, Malmö university hospital, Region Copenhagen and Gentofte Hospital. The purpose of the project was to develop a network of contacts and gather knowledge about environmental issues for healthcare institutions from the Swedish and Danish sides of the Öresund region. The two key parties in the project were the University hospital in Malmö (UMAS) and Gentofte Hospital in Copenhagen, with TEM as the project leader. Other partners were Region Skåne and Region Huvedstaden (Copenhagen), to name a few.
The project underwent three phases. Initially, the concept of Green Health Care as a system that both has improved environmental performance and generates economic and health-related benefits, was introduced. During the second phase, a model for a “sustainable patient room” was developed as a guidance for construction and renovation of healthcare buildings in the Öresund region. The third phase of the project included an analysis of energy use at two hospitals with the purpose to reduce energy costs.
For more information, please contact:
Daniel Eriksson, or +46 (0)707-94 42 13