This toolkit was developed by Dr. Nicole Hunfeld, ESCH-R Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of Sustainable Healthcare at Erasmus MC, and Dr. Maike Tietschert, Assistant Professor at the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, as part of the ESCH-R project.
Protocols guide everyday healthcare practice and therefore offer an important opportunity to make care more sustainable and circular. By critically reviewing existing protocols, healthcare professionals can identify opportunities to reduce the use of materials and resources while maintaining safe and high-quality care.
This toolkit provides practical guidance for exploring how circularity can be integrated into healthcare protocols. It uses the 10-R ladder as a framework to identify and prioritise opportunities for circular action — from refusing or rethinking the use of products to reducing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, repurposing, recycling and recovering materials.
The aim is to help healthcare professionals and teams translate circular thinking into practical changes in everyday care.
