UMC Utrecht accelerates sustainable healthcare through regional collaboration
The UMC Utrecht is working together with four other hospitals in the Utrecht region and the Province of Utrecht to make healthcare more sustainable. Together, they are focusing on three key areas: reducing waste, increasing reuse, and lowering environmental pollution. Existing improvements can therefore be implemented more quickly and easily across all hospitals.
For example, expanding capacity in sterilization departments, where surgical instruments are hygienically cleaned, allows for greater use of reusable instruments instead of single-use ones. By working together, circular innovations can, for the first time, be introduced and scaled up simultaneously at a regional level.
On Friday, 27 February 2026, Deputy for Circular Economy Has Bakker and board members of the Diakonessenhuis, the Prinses Máxima Center, UMC Utrecht, Meander Medical Center, and St. Antonius Hospital signed a letter of intent. In doing so, they agreed to strengthen their existing collaboration and work together on a large scale towards more sustainable healthcare. By combining knowledge and experience and aligning their working methods, sustainable solutions can be implemented more quickly and create lasting impact. This is urgently needed, as the healthcare sector is responsible for approximately 7 percent of national CO₂ emissions and produces large amounts of waste, much of which is still unnecessarily incinerated. With this regional strategy, hospitals in the Utrecht region aim to reduce waste, increase reuse, and lower CO₂ emissions.
Regional initiative
The Province of Utrecht plays a driving and supporting role. As an independent party, it brings hospitals together, helps define shared priorities, and supports both the approach and potential funding. Process facilitators help maintain momentum and ensure concrete steps are taken, such as reducing waste and pharmaceutical residues in water, encouraging reuse, and jointly procuring circular products. Program Manager for Sustainability, Celina Kroon: “For UMC Utrecht, this collaboration marks an important step in realizing our sustainability vision.”
From individual ideas to collective impact
The letter of intent and the strategy linked to it will run until the end of 2030. Over the next four years, the focus will be on developing innovations, implementing projects, and scaling up successful initiatives. Collaboration on improved reuse and recycling of medical materials is central. The hospitals will also expand recycling for specific types of hospital waste and share sustainable practices more effectively, such as discontinuing disposable clothing for parents in operating rooms, following the example of the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, part of UMC Utrecht.
“In every hospital there are many opportunities to make healthcare more sustainable, and everyone is working on their own part, each with strong ambition. By working closely together, we can share innovations more effectively, develop them faster, and scale them further. With the province acting as coordinator, we can accelerate that process.”
– Josefien Kursten, Executive Board Member, UMC Utrecht
Through this joint effort, the Utrecht hospital sector is pooling knowledge and experience to accelerate sustainability. This puts them on track to become a recognized, well-established, and visible partnership by 2030, leading the way in sustainable and circular healthcare.