On October 1st-2nd, 2024, the CARING NATURE consortium held its second in-person General Assembly in Lahti, Finland, hosted by our Finnish partner, the Wellbeing Services County of Päijät-Häme. The two-day event focused on advancing healthcare sustainability and featured site visits, solution development updates and collaborative workshops.

 

The meeting kicked off with a visit to the Salpakierto Kujala Waste Center, a 70-hectares facility that processes 100.000 tons of waste annually, nearly all of which is repurposed. This visit highlighted opportunities for healthcare wase management to lower the healthcare sector’s carbon footprint.

 

For 2 days, the purposes of the meeting were to share the conclusions of the needs and requirements definition phase of the project, to present the work achieved so far regarding the development of the 10 solutions and brainstorm on the alignment and implementation of the solutions in healthcare facilities.

At Sibelius Hall, key discussions included the presentation of the new EU healthcare environmental sustainability framework by the partner, EUR, which outlines actionable strategies for reducing the sector’s carbon footprint. Moreover, RINA and FPG shared the conclusion of the results’ requirements definition activities, actively involving members of the Reference Stakeholder Group, and the methodology adopted to pilot and validate the solutions within the Caring Nature consortium. In total, partners identified 36 use cases to test the 10 solutions in healthcare organization located in Spain, Finland, Greece, Germany and Italy. For each solution, technical developers also presented the work achieved so far, the activities planned and potential risks identified and break-out sessions between solution providers and healthcare providers were set up.

The impact maximisation team also organised a communication workshop to provide the partners with some tips on how to communicate and disseminate CARING NATURE’s results with impact. Interesting interviews of CARING NATURE’s experts were also made and will be uploaded soon on the project YouTube channel.

To conclude this intense and productive consortium meeting, partners visited the Central Hospital in Lahti, and its “Health forest”, offering care services to approximately 120.000 people each year, thanks to its 2.900 doctors, surgeons and nurses. Committed to limit its carbon footprint, the Lahti Central Hospital was a source of inspiration in terms of waste processing and energy efficiency.

Stay tuned for more updates on CARING NATURE !