NHS Scotland has won the Sustainable Healthcare Project of the Year 2023 at the inaugural European Sustainable Healthcare Awards. Their winning project, Green Anaesthesia Scotland, works to reduce the environmental impact of medical gases across healthcare services in Scotland.

^{Finalists L-R: Radboud, NHS Scotland (winner), Newcastle Hospitals, and Hull University Hospital.}

“The Green Anaesthesia Scotland project is an innovative and evidence-based approach with demonstrable impact and broad reproducibility. The strategies and procedures have already spread at national level, and improvements first seen locally have now been adopted throughout Scotland and actively adopted in other countries. The project has a substantial effect on reducing CO2e emissions, benefitting both the community and environment without negative effects on patient outcomes.”

- Reflections from the Judging Panel

The European Sustainable Healthcare Awards celebrate the sustainability efforts of healthcare organisations across the WHO Europe region. With the support of Philips, we want to shine a light on the great sustainability work taking place across European healthcare to reduce energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, and waste, helping to speed up the transition to climate-neutral, circular, and resource-efficient economies.

“We’re honoured to be the first winners of this award. Taking these first small steps to phase out nitrous oxide and desflurane can be a catalyst for greater change. Ultimately the aim is to include sustainability in every clinical and managerial decision. A great thanks to the whole team and also to the politicians who listened to our idea and backed it up with the funds, time, and resources that we need”

- Kenneth Barker, Consultant Anaesthetist and Clinical Lead for the National Green Theatres Programme.

Announced in a special ceremony at the CleanMed Europe conference, NHS Scotland was joined by the three other finalists: Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Radboud University Medical Center, and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

From over 35 entries, our four finalists received the top marks across six criteria: impact, reach, cost/benefit, replicability, and innovation - as determined by our prestigious judging panel.

Sustainable healthcare judging panel

Chosen for their wide range of experience and expertise in sustainable healthcare, our judges drew together the final shortlist of four projects.

• Dr Fiona Adshead, Chair - Sustainable Healthcare Coalition [UK]
• Dr Oliver Groene, PhD, CEO - International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services [DE]
• Gary Cohen, President and Co-Founder - Health Care Without Harm [US]
• Sonia Roschnik, Executive Director - Geneva Sustainability Centre (International Hospital Federation) [CH]
• Simona Agger, Professor/Architect and HCWH Europe Board member [IT]
• Robert Metzke, Global Head of Sustainability - Philips [NL]

“There is growing momentum across the healthcare industry towards more sustainable and low-carbon healthcare models. Through this much-needed initiative, we can find, spotlight, scale, and further accelerate best practices in public and private healthcare organisations across Europe.”
Robert Metzke, Global Head of Sustainability - Philips

Thank you again to everyone who applied for the inaugural Sustainable Healthcare Project of the Year award. Are you interested in applying next year? Sign up for our newsletters and never miss an update.​​