Cork Hospital Saved €48,000 and Cut Carbon by 261kg, Green Dividend report

A three-year device remanufacturing programme at Bon Secours Hospital Cork generated €48,015 in savings and cut carbon emissions by 261kg, according to a new report published today by Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI). The report, The Green Dividend: Why Sustainability is Ireland’s Health and Enterprise Opportunity, argues that sustainability isn’t an additional cost or a clinical compromise, presenting real Irish clinical evidence to prove it.

Green Dividend report

Globally, the health sector is responsible for an estimated 5 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, with 70 percent of that footprint arising from the production, packaging and disposal of the products hospitals use every day. New evidence from Irish hospitals shows how to counter this:

Bon Secours Hospital, Cork : Medical Device Remanufacturing

• 150 remanufactured devices generated €48,015 in savings for the hospital across 2023 – 2025, plus a further €3,328 in direct payments from the device collection service.
• The programme diverted 41.1 kg of medical waste from incineration and delivered a cumulative 261 kg CO? reduction, equivalent to roughly 1,000 km of driving.
• All devices are CE-marked and regulatory compliant, with no adverse patient outcomes recorded.

Mater Misericordiae University Hospital  – Safe Clean Box

• A closed cabin device pre-cleaning system in use in the Mater, cut cleaning non-conformances by 50% and saved 160 staff hours a year.
• Total annual savings of roughly €32,000, with the equipment’s capital cost offset within two years.
• 82% less energy use than the ultrasonic cleaners it replaced, and 1,200 litres of water saved per day.

University Hospital Galway  – Ecco Spray

• A recent HIHI pilot found that refillable ultrasound gel system replacing single-use sachets cut gel volume per scan by 95% and eliminated plastic sachets entirely.
• Patients reported no reduction in comfort, and the change required no retraining or workflow disruption.
• Ireland performs roughly 500,000 ultrasound scans a year,  meaning even small per-scan savings add up nationally.

HIHI’s GreenTech in Health programme tests sustainable products directly in Irish hospitals and clinics generating verified, site specific evidence that environmental performance and patient care are not in tension. The report argues that this evidence base is exactly what is missing across most of Europe. The WHO Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health, published in May this year, found that more than three quarters of countries in the region still lack clear strategies, timelines or budgets for health system decarbonisation – largely because they lack the kind of verified, real-world data that HIHI’s pilots generate.

Yet the report identifies a significant Irish policy gap: despite being one of the country’s largest purchasers of single-use products, healthcare does not feature as a named priority sector in Ireland’s Whole-of-Government Circular Economy Strategy 2026 – 2028.

HIHI National GreenTech in Health Lead, Eimear Galvin, said:

“Sustainable healthcare, in Ireland and globally, has too often been framed as a cost, a compliance obligation or a long-term ambition deferred to future budgets and future governments. This must change. The innovations exist, the clinical appetite is there, what we now need is procurement reform to match it.

“The widely held assumption that sustainability costs more does not hold up. Drawing on clinical pilots, international case studies and lifecycle evidence, the report shows the opposite is often true, and that export markets are moving, creating significant opportunity for suppliers that can meet new demands for sustainable healthcare solutions.”

The growing commercial imperative is a central tenet of the report. From April 2027, all NHS suppliers, regardless of size, will be required to publish comprehensive Carbon Reduction Plans covering full Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, a change that will directly affect Irish SMEs and start-ups for whom the UK is a primary export market. EU rules are tightening in parallel: the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation will require Digital Product Passports and minimum durability standards for healthcare products from 2026, while the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive already obliges large suppliers to disclose their emissions. Global buyers are moving from asking suppliers to claim sustainability to requiring them to prove it. The report makes the case that Ireland – home to over 450 medtech companies – is uniquely placed to lead the shift toward sustainable healthcare.

HIHI National Director Dr Tanya Mulcahy, said:

“The environmental footprint of Ireland’s health system, including its energy use, reliance on single use products and waste, is a clinical, financial and strategic challenge that demands action. It is also a genuine opportunity. Through our GreenTech in Health programme, HIHI provides the national testbed infrastructure to turn sustainable innovation into procurement ready, export-competitive solutions.”

The report sets out four recommendations for the Department of Health, the HSE, Enterprise Ireland, and the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment – calling for dedicated funding for green procurement pilots, full Scope 1–3 emissions reporting, export-ready circular design capability, and the formal inclusion of healthcare as a priority sector in Ireland’s next Circular Economy Strategy.

The full report, The Green Dividend: Why Sustainability is Ireland’s Health and Enterprise Opportunity, is available from Health Innovation Hub Ireland  here. Executive summary is here

About Health Innovation Hub Ireland

Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) is a joint initiative of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and the Department of Health, delivered through Enterprise Ireland and the HSE, across three locations – Cork, Dublin, Galway. HIHI connects Ireland’s innovation capability with the clinical settings needed to test, validate and adopt it, translating research into real-world impact and domestic pilots into international markets. Its GreenTech in Health programme provides the national testbed infrastructure to turn sustainable healthcare innovation into procurement-ready, export-competitive solutions.

About HIHI GreenTech

Climate change is a significant threat to public health, the health and human services system and the social determinants of health and wellbeing. HIHI is committed to stimulating and supporting the development of innovative products and services that promote environmental sustainability in healthcare.  In 2024/25 partnership with HSE Climate and Sustainability and the Irish College of General Practitioners  HIHI ran the first call to market for suitable product alternative isn Ireland.  HIHI Chairs the national GreenTech in Health Collective – a multi-stakeholder systems level collaboration of policy, industry, academia, clinical and state agency, led by HIHI. The Collective advises on the development and testing of sustainable products in healthcare, supports green innovation and aligns with global best practice to address the research and innovation gaps in sustainable product pathways.

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