Products and Services
The current level of consumption of materials in the healthcare sector is not sustainable. It is the root cause of the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
The projects in this theme explore ways to reduce product and service consumables and alter systems by adopting the circular economy principles of redesign, reduce, repair, recycle and recover. Doing more with less.
Our co-design approach is auditing current approaches and diagnose issues to identify new opportunities to reduce waste and improve practices in collaboration with clinicians, nurses, support workers, administrators, and other healthcare related professionals.
Events, News
Design HOPES at the 2026 Scotland’s Life Sciences Awards
Design HOPES has been selected as a finalist in the Sustainability category at the 2026 Scotland’s Life Sciences Awards
Green Ward Toolkit on Disegno
Ward 2045 CO2e Monitor is a speculative device designed to visualise energy consumption data for NHS staff and patients, helping hospitals to understand – and potentially reduce – their carbon footprint. It is one of several emergent elements of the Green Ward Toolkit project and in this article on Disegno, Dean Brown speaks with Heather […]
Design for Sustainable Healthcare: An Interactive Pop-up Workshop
Design HOPES at Beyond 2025
We’re excited to be joining BEYOND Conference next week, as part of the showcase, demonstrating two Design HOPES projects; Green Ward Toolkit and FLOW; we’ll be sharing the research and impact to date on these two projects which seek to make visible the carbon impacts of healthcare decision making, both from the perspective of practitioners […]
Design for Sustainable Healthcare: An Interactive Pop-up Workshop
Exhibition Launch: From HOPE to HEALTH
We’re delighted to announce the launch of our new exhibition From HOPE to HEALTH – open from the 2nd Oct 2025, at V&A Dundee. This exhibition showcases the transformational research developed by Design HOPES, a collaborative, design-led research initiative between five Scottish Universities, NHS Scotland, the third sector, and design organisations. NHS Scotland has committed […]
AHRC announce £3.1M funding for Design HOPES
Design HOPES receives new AHRC funding, totalling £3,125m, to further develop and deliver pioneering projects supporting NHS Scotland’s transition to net zero.
Design HOPES: From HOPE to HEALTH
SHIFT Documentation
Looking back at what was captured from our SHIFT symposium, which took place at Civic House, Glasgow on the 22 April 2025 – the people, the papers, the energy and the ideas.
Shifting Reflections
In this article, SHIFT symposium co-convenors Dr. Laura MacLean and Dr. Lewis Urquhart reflect on key learnings from the SHIFT symposium, and where it might go next.
