Which processes in a hospital are particularly resource-intensive? How can cost-efficiency in hospitals be increased and environmental impact be reduced? How can life cycle innovation be applied in the health care sector in order to increase its sustainability? The Life Cycle Assessment Research Group of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) will analyse hospital processes from an environmental perspective, while the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) will be responsible for process optimisation. Together with partner hospitals, concrete proposals for implementation will be developed and tested. Based on data collected in the project, the Institute for Economic Studies Basel (IWSB) will analyse the efficiency of hospitals from a cost and environmental perspective. The specific goals of the project “Green Hospital” are:
(1) to develop consistent and comprehensive knowledge concerning resource consumption end efficiency in Swiss hospitals
(2) to analyse determinants of life cycle environmental impacts in the health sector and hospitals
(3) to compile a list of environmental best practices and investigate the currently realisable options
(4) to test hands-on applications for environmentally optimised processes