From HOPE to HEALTH: ideas for greener healthcare
From operating theatres to outpatients, bold designs for a greener NHS Scotland are in the spotlight at a new exhibition opening at V&A Dundee on Thursday 2 October.
From HOPE to HEALTH uses product prototypes, video, games and design tools to demonstrate the amazing progress being made by a partnership of designers, researchers and healthcare professionals aiming to reduce the environmental impact of our healthcare system.
This showcase of innovative and transformational research features new designs for healthcare projects under the banner of Design HOPES, such as Reusable Theatre Caps, Green Ward Toolkit and Sustainable Scrubs – vital research into developing products that can be reused or recycled, and testing processes and systems which are less carbon intensive.
Design HOPES (Healthy Organisations in a Place-based Ecosystem, Scotland) is a collaboration across the universities of Strathclyde, Dundee, Heriot-Watt, Abertay and Edinburgh. It is part of Future Observatory, the Design Museum’s national research programme for the green transition, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Design HOPES recently received a funding boost of £3.125m from the AHRC to build on the research undertaken in phase 1 and deliver further real-world impacts during the next phase of the project.
Visitors to this new free exhibition, From HOPE to HEALTH, will be able to see the progress of ideas which came to life in the first phase of Design HOPES, such as the reusable theatre caps co-designed at NHS Golden Jubilee in Clydebank, which are now being trialled across 10 regional NHS Scotland health boards from Ayrshire to Shetland.
The caps are made with reusable and biodegradable plant-based textiles, and have the potential to reduce waste caused by the millions of single-use theatre caps which are disposed of annually and take up to 300 years to disappear. Current trials show that a four-pack of reusable theatre caps has the potential to remove over 2,000 single use plastic caps from NHS waste.
The question of how to make essential hospital clothing more sustainable is also explored by Medi-Flax, which assesses whether locally produced flax could provide linen textiles suitable for healthcare. Also on display is Sustainable Scrubs, a project in collaboration with fashion designer and activist Niki Taylor to develop a new range of biodegradable and better fitting uniforms, supporting localised production, sustainable field-to-fabric systems and providing staff with workwear that embodies care in all stages of their making and use.
From HOPE to HEALTH highlights the work of Gregor Stratford, a recent product design graduate of the University of Strathclyde, who was motivated by personal experience to redesign single-use IV clamps. During hospital stays, Gregor was inspired to rethink the materials used to create these plastic connections, used once and then disposed of multiple times a day, replacing them with a reusable, fully sterilisable version.
Some of the designs on show at V&A Dundee have been developed in the city, including the Green Ward Toolkit, which consists of three components: a web browser, case study cards, and a ward 2045 CO₂e monitor. These link together to empower staff, giving them the knowledge and resources to make ward settings more sustainable.
Meanwhile, the digital tool Flow uses real data from Ninewells Hospital in Dundee to explore different scenarios during a typical patient journey through an A&E department, identifying ways to streamline and reduce the carbon impact of various choices at each stage of the process.
Professor Paul Rodgers, University of Strathclyde, Co-Director of Design HOPES, said: “Design HOPES is about helping NHS Scotland meet its commitment to becoming a net zero organisation by 2040.
“Through imagining these future scenarios, creating the prototypes and testing the tools, behaviours and systems that we are carefully designing in partnership, we are creating a sustainable and efficient health and social care system – and that is something which will benefit every person in Scotland.”
Professor Mel Woods, University of Dundee, Co-Director of Design HOPES, said: “Visitors to this new exhibition will see how NHS Scotland’s expertise, excellent design, meticulous research and passion for climate action are coming together to shape change. The sections From Field to Fabric, From Person to Planet and From Tools to Transformation signal the ambition and momentum already underway.
“Without doubt, working together we can embed these shifts at the heart of the NHS and make a real difference in our hospitals and healthcare system.”
Exhibition curator Dr Miriam Mallalieu from V&A Dundee said: “This new exhibition embodies how design can be functional, beautiful and transformational. The designs on display have the potential to improve hospitals and healthcare settings, as well as making life easier and more sustainable for the professionals who work there and the patients using those services.
“It’s wonderful to welcome Design HOPES back to V&A Dundee. The work of this partnership of designers, academics and healthcare professionals is ambitious and inspirational. It gives us real hope to see such tangible and positive steps forward for these game-changing ideas and tools.”
Earlier this year, a work-in-progress Design HOPES exhibition at V&A Dundee attracted more than 50,000 visitors.
Design HOPES: From HOPE to HEALTH is free to visit at V&A Dundee’s Michelin Design Gallery from 2 October until 8 February 2026.
