Sustainable Healthcare: Metrics, Materials and Market Opportunity

Sustainability is now a priority across industries, but unlike metrics such as profitability or market share, it lacks a clear standard of measurement.

This often leads to confusion about what sustainability actually means for a specific business or sector. At its core, sustainability is fundamentally about risk management and future-proofing operations to ensure long-term viability.

For the healthcare industry, this translates into more than just environmental responsibility, it’s about safeguarding the well-being of people, protecting the planet, and maintaining economic health. This includes exploring ways to reduce environmental impact, such as rethinking single-use plastics, an idea that aligns with the global spirit of ‘Plastic Free July.’

What Does Sustainability Mean in Healthcare

Put simply, sustainability is exercising good business risk management and planning. It’s about balancing the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. In healthcare, this means ensuring patient safety and quality care, minimizing environmental impact, and maintaining operational and financial resilience.

Consider practical scenarios:

• Rising energy prices mean hospitals must rethink how they manage energy consumption, not as a fixed cost, but as a risk to control.
• Supply chain disruptions affect availability of critical medical supplies, such as rare materials used in medical devices.
• Water shortages in certain regions challenge hospitals’ ability to maintain sanitation and hygiene standards.
• The use of single-use plastics necessary for sterility and safety presents an opportunity to explore more sustainable materials and responsible waste strategies.

These challenges make it clear: sustainability isn’t just an aspirational goal – it’s a core component of operational strategy.

Materiality in Action: Identifying What Matters Most

A key step in defining sustainability for any healthcare organization is a materiality assessment. Identifying the issues that are fundamental to both the organization’s success and the broader environment it operates in.

For example, a hospital may identify energy use and waste disposal as material sustainability risks.

To manage these risks, the hospital might:

• Invest in energy-efficient equipment and renewable energy sources.
• Implement robust waste segregation and recycling programs.
• Monitor water usage and adopt water-saving technologies.
• Explore safe opportunities to transition from single-use to reusable products, where clinically appropriate.

These measures often require upfront costs but deliver long-term benefits by reducing operational risks and improving resilience.

Making Sustainability Measurable in Healthcare

One challenge with sustainability is that it can be difficult to measure. No single metric can capture the full picture. Instead, focusing on material topics helps select meaningful metrics that guide decision-making and demonstrate progress over time.

Metrics might include:

• Total energy consumption and cost trends.
• Waste generation and recycling rates.
• Water use intensity and efficiency improvements.
• Patient and staff satisfaction linked to sustainable workplace initiatives.
• Track plastic usage and disposal patterns to uncover areas for sustainable innovation.

Having the right data enables healthcare providers to make informed decisions, justify investments, and transparently communicate their sustainability efforts.

Why Med Tech Companies Must Prioritize Sustainability

For med tech companies, sustainability isn’t just about compliance - it’s a strategic imperative. They face pressures around:

• Ethical sourcing of raw materials (e.g., rare minerals in batteries).
• Designing devices for recyclability and longer life cycles.
• Minimizing energy consumption and carbon footprint during manufacturing and use.
• Consider incorporating low-waste materials and recyclable components into product design and packaging, where feasible and safe.
• Transparent sustainability reporting to meet buyer and regulatory expectations.

By addressing these material issues, med tech companies can reduce supply chain risks, lower costs, and strengthen market positioning.

From Challenge to Competitive Advantage: Turning Sustainability into Opportunity

For MedTech companies, sustainability is no longer a ‘nice-to-have,’ it’s a business-critical opportunity to lead, differentiate, and future-proof operations. Yes, the challenges are complex. But within these challenges lie real commercial opportunities.

Forward-thinking MedTech firms are already turning sustainability into strategic growth by:

• Innovating products with lower environmental impact and longer life cycles
• Exploring innovative material choices that reflect growing interest in environmental responsibility
• Meeting customer demand for greener, ethically sourced devices
• Gaining procurement preference from hospitals and health systems with ESG mandates
• Reducing operational costs through energy efficiency and smarter supply chains
• Building brand equity around purpose, transparency, and accountability

But MedTech companies can’t do this alone. Delivering on sustainability requires input from a diverse ecosystem of expertise, from renewable energy and climate science to circular design and supply chain ethics. Collaboration with specialists, consultants, and researchers is essential to translate sustainability goals into effective, evidence-based business strategies.

Partnering with IDR Medical: Turning Insight into Action

At IDR Medical, we specialize in helping MedTech companies navigate this complexity through targeted, evidence-led research.

We work with global clients to:

• Understand how clinicians, procurement teams, and stakeholders define and prioritize sustainability
• Identify material risks, unmet needs, and high-value sustainability differentiators
• Shape ESG strategies, product development, and go-to-market messaging with confidence

Whether you're shaping long-term ESG commitments, developing sustainable products, or responding to regulatory pressure, IDR Medical provides the market insight you need to act with purpose and deliver impact.

Sustainability isn't just about compliance. It’s about building resilient, future-ready MedTech strategies rooted in real-world insight. And that starts with research.

As we mark ‘Plastic Free July,’ it’s a valuable time for MedTech leaders to reflect on how thoughtful design, collaboration, and research can support long-term sustainability.

We’d love to help you take the next step. Contact IDR Medical to explore how we can support your sustainability journey.