How can design improve NHS Scotland’s environmental sustainability while also enhancing patient care?

The climate emergency is a human health emergency—our wellbeing is deeply intertwined with the health of our planet. Air pollution, extreme heat, floods, and contaminated water are already impacting our lives and work, significantly affecting individual, community, and global health and wellbeing.

Just as climate action requires efforts at global, regional, and local levels, healthcare challenges must also be addressed through prevention, improved understanding of poor health and disease, earlier and more precise diagnosis as well as better short- and long-term care.

A healthier environment benefits everyone, but solutions come with trade-offs. We have challenged early-career designers to think critically about the interconnectedness of human and environmental health and propose a meaningful design intervention that balances sustainability with patient care. Challenge winners are supported to develop their ideas with funding and mentoring.