The Green and Circular Compass Dashboard, developed within the CARING NATURE project, was presented on October 1st at the 8th Nordic Conference on Sustainable Healthcare, held in Malmö, Sweden, and organised by the Nordic Center for Sustainable Healthcare (NCSH).

The conference brought together healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers and industry representatives from across Europe, providing an excellent opportunity to showcase one of CARING NATURE’s key solutions for advancing more sustainable healthcare infrastructures.

Turning green and circular principles into practical decision-making

The Green and Circular Compass Dashboard aims to operationalise green and circular principles in healthcare architecture and support the design of healthier, more resource-efficient and resilient healthcare facilities.

Developed by 4D Architects Amsterdam, archipelago architects and UCLouvain – Université catholique de Louvain, the solution combines several key dimensions of sustainable healthcare building design:

  • Circularity, including indicators supporting more efficient use and reuse of resources;
  • Energy efficiency, to improve the environmental performance of healthcare buildings;
  • Health and well-being, ensuring that environmental performance remains aligned with human-centred design;
  • Nature-Based Solutions, exploring how nature can contribute to healthier and more resilient healthcare environments.

Using a multi-criteria optimisation approach, the Dashboard helps users consider these complementary dimensions together and better understand the potential trade-offs and synergies involved in sustainable healthcare infrastructure design.

Learn more about the Green and Circular Compass Dashboard by visiting CARING NATURE’s Virtual Green Hospital.

Supporting healthier and more resilient healthcare facilities

During the conference, CARING NATURE partners presented the Dashboard and discussed how the integration of circularity, environmental performance, well-being and Nature-Based Solutions can support the development of healthcare buildings that are both more sustainable and better adapted to the needs of patients, staff and healthcare organisations.

The contribution also provided an opportunity to exchange with the wider sustainable healthcare community and further explore how innovative approaches developed through European collaboration can be translated into practice.

The Green and Circular Compass Dashboard directly contributes to CARING NATURE’s overarching ambition to reduce the environmental footprint of healthcare while maintaining high standards of care and well-being.

Congratulations to 4D Architects Amsterdam, archipelago architects and UCLouvain for reaching this important milestone and bringing the solution to the wider sustainable healthcare community.