Sustainability

The NOHC Green Energy Committee is proud to launch the NOHC Sustainability Plan 2026–2030. Building on our environmental achievements to date, this strategic framework outlines our commitment to embedding sustainable practices across clinical and non-clinical operations.

Healthcare delivery and environmental responsibility go hand in hand. Over the next five years, we will focus on reducing our carbon footprint, eliminating waste, conserving vital resources, and fostering a culture of health and sustainability throughout our organisation.

Our Green Charter outline our formal commitment to embedding sustainability across all clinical practice, campus operations, and hospital activities. Driven by the NOHC Green Committee—established in 2020 under the leadership of CEO Angela Lee and chaired by Deputy CEO Aoife Gallagher—the charter sets out a clear roadmap to reduce energy usage, minimise waste, conserve water, and pioneer sustainable healthcare initiatives.

Key Pillars of Action

• Sustainable Surgery
• Green Labs
• Green Radiology
• Water Conservation
• Digitisation

We will continue our work on waste management and biodiversity, rethink how we source goods and promote improvements in our professional and personal practices to reduce our carbon footprint, empowering our people to be champions of sustainable change.

Our 2026–2030 Plan is a living strategy that relies on collective action. Whether through small daily operational shifts or major infrastructure upgrades, every effort contributes to a healthier environment for all.

Media Links:

Fergal Bowers, RTE visits NOHC to learn more about the Hospital’s sustainability efforts

SEAI Case Study on Sustainability at NOHC

Publications:

Climate Action Plan 2026

Operating theatres are among the most resource-intensive areas in a hospital, consuming three to six times more energy per square metre than general wards and generating up to 30% of total hospital waste. By transforming surgical practices, we can safeguard patient outcomes and reduce our environmental footprint.

There are many changes we can make towards sustainable Surgery, transitioning toward low-carbon operating theatres by minimising volatile anaesthetic gas usage, optimising theatre energy consumption, replacing single-use surgical items with reusable options, and streamlining surgical sets to avoid obsolescence.

Progress toward sustainable surgery relies on a measured approach, identifying key areas for improvement, then verifying that every proposed change maintains the highest standards of patient safety.

We have already successfully undertaken projects to determine waste generation in hip and knee arthroplasty surgery and the merits of reusable headgear in theatre. You can read about these and other sustainable projects underway by clicking the links below:

You can follow our progress by clicking the project links below: 

• Waste Generation in Hip & Knee Arthroplasty: https://nohc.ie/news/the-transition-to-green-operating-theatres/
• Reusable Headgear

Media Links:

Laboratory results guide up to 70% of medical decisions; however, behind every routine blood test, swab, specimen test, or biopsy lies an energy- and waste-intensive operation. In fact, clinical laboratories are thought to consume 3 to 6 times as much energy as typical office spaces and generate vast quantities of single-use plastic and hazardous waste.

At NOHC, we intend to review energy consumption, reduce reliance on consumables and single-use plastic, manage water use, and enhance chemical/biohazardous waste management.

You can follow our progress by clicking the project links below:

Radiology departments are among the most resource- and energy-intensive areas in hospitals. Diagnostic equipment, including MRI, CT, and PET scanners, require large amounts of electricity to operate and maintain continuous cooling and standby systems around the clock.

In addition to electricity consumption, radiology departments generate significant amounts of clinical plastic waste from contrast dye packaging and interventional consumables. Furthermore, contrast agents used in imaging can pose environmental risks.

By implementing green radiology practices such as dynamic power-down protocols during off-peak hours, efficient waste management, and sustainable procurement, we can significantly lower our carbon footprint and operational costs without compromising diagnostic accuracy or patient care.

You can follow our progress by clicking the project links below:

Water conservation is an essential pillar of our sustainability plan, particularly as we balance modern environmental standards with a unique architectural legacy. The main House at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh dates back to 1847, and as additional structures have been added over the past 175+ years, managing an expanding, ageing pipe infrastructure has presented distinct challenges.

Recently deployed smart metering technologies have been instrumental in transforming our water management, enabling real-time tracking to quickly identify and repair hidden leaks across both historic and modern sections of the campus. The recent addition of a new attenuation tank enables the collection and reuse of site rainwater, lessening our reliance on the national water supply. But there’s more to be done and we will continue to explore options to protect our most valuable resource.

You can follow our progress by clicking the project links below:

Digitalisation will play a pivotal role in driving sustainability at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh (NOHC). In recent years, we’ve made great strides in this area, transitioning to MS365, introducing staff apps to improve internal communications, installing digital screens to share messages with patients, implementing digital meal-ordering systems to eliminate paper-based menus, and digitising cleaning matrices to reduce paper waste.

The Hospital’s Sustainability Plan 2026-2030 sets out our ambition to transition to electronic health records (EHRs) and digital patient management systems, which significantly reduce paper consumption, physical record storage, and the carbon footprint associated with physical administrative logistics. Moreover, it will enable a connected environment, helping clinicians to access important patient information at pace.

Beyond EHRs, we will continue to employ smart building management systems and utility monitoring to optimise hospital-wide energy usage. By embracing a “digitisation-by-default” approach, NOHC will integrate modern health technology with green healthcare principles, proving that digital clinical efficiency directly supports long-term environmental sustainability.

The NOHC Green Energy Committee and staff at NOHC were delighted to welcome our new residents, Irish Native Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera Mellifera, to the campus in April 2022.

Initially, we introduced two half hives. As the weather improves and flowering plants are aplenty, we expect the bee population to thrive, and the hives will soon reach full capacity of between 50,000 to 80,000 bees.

Caring for our Bees:

We’ll be making weekly visits to check the hive’s health to ensure:

• there is brood (eggs and larvae); this shows your Queen is present and laying
• sufficient stores (honey and pollen) and enough food in the area for the bee’s
• there is a good balance between insects and bees – varroa mite, lice like insects live on the bee and, if out of control, can severely damage the hive
• the bees have enough room; otherwise they will swarm
• there are no other threats to the bees

From September onwards, hive visits are less frequent, and the hive is not opened. From time to time, we’ll “heft” the hive by lifting it a centimetre to see if the bees have enough food stores to last through the Winter. Around New Year we may open the hive and feed the bees fondant (like soft icing sugar) by placing it directly over where they are clustering.

Harvesting the Honey

From August to September, Harvesting takes place depending on the weather and weather forecast. We must make sure Bees have a chance to replenish or build enough stores to get them through the Winter.

The Less than Glamourous Life of a Queen

The Queen is confined to the brood box, which is usually on the first tier of the hive. When a super (an upper storey hive box placed over the brood box) is introduced for the collection of honey, a Queen excluder is fitted between the brood box and the super to prevent the Queen from entering the super to lay eggs. The Queen only leaves the hive once and that is when she is a virgin Queen. She leaves to mate and when she returns her function is to lay eggs and release pheromones to keep the worker bees coming back to her. Some beekeepers clip one wing off the Queen to stop her from flying; however, this does not prevent her from getting lost outside the hive.

You can usually tell on a weekly visit if the Queen is preparing to leave the hive. For example, there may be Queen cells ready to hatch, or there may be a second Queen in the hive; and action needs to be taken to split the hive or stop the migration by removing one of the Queens.

5 Interesting facts about bees:

• Bees have five eyes
• They fly at a speed of 20mph
• Female bees in the hive are called worker bees; male bees are called drones
• It takes nectar from 2 million flowers, makes one pot of honey
• A Queen bee lays up to 2,500 eggs a day and can live for up to 5 years

5 Interesting facts about honey:

Honey is 80% sugar and 20% water and has anti-bacterial and anti-septic benefits that are so effective; a peer-reviewed, published paper demonstrates that honey is effective against MRSA  – or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

• Honey is not considered safe for babies because of the risk of infant botulism.  It is also not suitable for people with diabetes.
• Perhaps one of the most bizarre honey facts relates to the Ancient Egyptians.  There are records from 1550 BC, referring to honey that women applied to linen to prevent pregnancy.
• Rameses III, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, offered a river god a honey sacrifice.  As a result, 30,000 lbs of honey were dumped into the river Nile.
• Many people swear that a teaspoon of local honey each day desensitises you to pollen and helps alleviate hay fever symptoms. Sadly, there is no scientific evidence to support this. In fact, bees don’t pollinate grass and trees, and the pollen in honey is the heavy, flower-based pollen that doesn’t cause hay fever.

In 2025, NOHC made significant progress by concluding its multi-year Sustainability Plan. This year marked a shift from strategy development to systematic integration, incorporating early-stage initiatives into daily operations, completing important green infrastructure projects, and fostering a culture of accountability through staff engagement and behavioural change programmes.

The 2022-2025 Sustainability Plan focused on 6 strategic pillars:

• Energy Conservation
• Sustainable Travel
• Litter & Waste Management
• Catering Management
• Water Conservation
• Knowledge & Education

As we conclude the Sustainability Plan 2022–2025, we are proud to share a summary of our major strategic achievements and the specific projects that have propelled the Hospital toward Green Campus status. A strategy is only as effective as the culture that supports it. We are proud of our staff; their enthusiastic response to our call for sustainable changes has been incredible, with individuals across the Hospital contributing in their own distinctive ways to our collective success.

We achieved:

• The 2030 Public Sector Climate Action Plan Targets for Energy Efficiency
• Bronze & Silver NTMA Smarter Travel Award

We Eliminated:

• Nitrous Oxide Gas
• 372,000 Compostable Cups from Landfill
• Printed Cleaning Matrices (500 A4 pages per week)

We Introduced:

• Hot Food Trolleys
• Electronic Meal Ordering Systems
• Zoning Valves and Thermostatic Controls
• Reusable Water Bottles and Cups
• Recyclable Paper Campus-wide
• Beehives

We Installed:

• A Rooftop Solar PV Array
• New Shower Rooms
• 40-Bay Bike Shelter
• A cardboard Baler & Trinity Bins

We Reduced:

• Gas and Energy Consumption by 26% despite 12% Increase in Usable Floor Space
• Food Waste by 54%
• Beef Menu Items by 50%

We Improved:

• Window & Door Energy Performance
• Lighting Energy Consumption
• Waste Management

Aoife Gallagher
Chairperson
Deputy CEO/COO

Jacqui Given
Therapy Services Manager

Mary Doyle
Deputy HR Manager

Ursula Gormally
Professorial Department

Theresa Corcoran
PA to Director of Nursing

Declan Brennan
Hygiene Services Manager

Andy Samuel
Catering Manager

Aoife White
Staff Nurse

Jonathan Suing
CSp Radiographer

Anne Smith
Radiology Manager

Owen McKeown
ICT Helpdesk Supervisor

Ravi Deoker
ICT Officer

Martin Healy
Head of Engineering

Shane Robinson
Facilities Engineer

Damien Gannon
Stores Manager

Marese Mullins
Laboratory Manager

Dr Colm Geraghty
Project Consultant