Sustainable Design for Healthcare Devices: Pathways Toward Net Zero

Abstract

We’re starting to see a huge shift in the healthcare industry towards sustainability, with stakeholders throughout the sector aiming to drive down emissions and reduce environmental impacts. This graphic focuses on device design, and applies to any sector of the industry. It looks at every phase of a product’s lifecycle, and breaks these down into focal points and design opportunities for footprint reduction.

The ultimate goal in sustainability is The Circular Economy, the definition of which is the reduction, capture, and reuse of all embodied resources into an indefinite loop, with minimal negative external effects. The graphic illustrates how the journey to circularity can be achieved through considered design at every one of those lifecycle phases. It examines opportunities within raw materials, manufacturing, transport, use, and end-of-life, considering not just technical approaches but business model development and user behaviours as well, aiming to cohesively target a cradle-to-cradle system. Even for products and services where full circularity is not realistic, it identifies multiple opportunities for good design to reduce emissions and perhaps ease the journey to circularity in the future.