Green Gastroenterology Challenge 2026
The Green Gastroenterology Challenge 2026 is a project led by the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare to support gastroenterology professionals to lead sustainable healthcare initiatives and implement improvements to patient care, with additional benefits of reducing costs and carbon emissions.
The Green Gastroenterology Challenge is fully funded by Micro-Tech UK and delivered in partnership with the British Society of Gastroenterology.
What is the Green Gastroenterology Challenge?
The NHS has committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2040, extending to suppliers by 2045. Achieving this ambition requires action across all specialties, including gastroenterology.
The Green Gastroenterology Challenge is a national programme designed to promote sustainable practices within gastroenterology in line with NHS Net Zero targets. The project is fully funded by Micro-Tech UK and delivered in partnership with the British Society of Gastroenterology.
The Challenge is a national adaptation of the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s Green Specialty Challenge and Green Team Competition – an award-winning, tried and tested leadership and engagement programme designed to transform healthcare by cutting carbon, improving patient care and staff experience, and saving money. It uses CSH’s Sustainable Quality Improvement (SusQI) approach and supports teams to identify sustainability and equity hotspots across gastroenterology pathways.
Environmental, social and economic benefits will be quantified at individual project level and modelled to explore the potential for wider national impact.
The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare has been successfully reducing environmental impact and building social value in healthcare through these programme and challenge for over nine years.
Why is the Green Gastroenterology Challenge important?
The NHS is responsible for around 4-5 % of the UK’s total carbon footprint, with healthcare services contributing significantly to national emissions through energy use, supply chains, travel and waste. Healthcare systems globally contribute roughly 4 % of total greenhouse gas emissions, making health services themselves part of the environmental and ecological crisis.
The impacts of climate change disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people in society, exacerbating health inequalities and placing increasing pressure on already stretched health services. Disadvantaged communities are often more exposed to environmental hazards, less able to recover from them, and more likely to face barriers to accessing high-quality healthcare, highlighting the deep links between climate change and health equity.
Within this context, gastroenterology — particularly procedures such as endoscopy that are resource- and waste-intensive — has a crucial role to play in helping the NHS meet its Net Zero by 2040 ambitions.
Studies show routine endoscopy can generate significant emissions and waste, with individual procedures estimated at around 28 kg CO₂e in some settings — travel and equipment contribute substantially. Endoscopy units produce large volumes of plastic waste, and travel (patients/staff) can be a major part of the footprint while single-use duodenoscopes have much higher emissions than reusable alternatives — up to ~20× more. Literature describes making gastroenterology “green” by reducing waste, optimising procedures, and targeting high-impact areas.
By reviewing and improving working practices, reducing waste from consumables and procedures, and embedding sustainable quality improvement across care pathways, gastroenterology professionals can reduce environmental harm while improving patient outcomes and experiences, addressing inequalities and contributing to a more sustainable and equitable healthcare system
How will the Green Gastroenterology Challenge work?
Six multi-professional teams have been selected to take part in the Green Gastroenterology Challenge. Each team is receiving mentoring and structured support from the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare to develop, implement and evaluate sustainable quality improvement (SusQI) projects.
Where possible, the carbon reduction potential of projects is being estimated using a process-based carbon footprinting method, supplemented by environmentally extended input–output analysis.
Teams attend regular workshops and receive ongoing support from CSH staff throughout the project phase. Following the final submissions, teams will present their work to a judging panel at a national Showcase event. All projects will be shared by CSH and through partner networks.
Timeline & key dates
- Launch and recruitment: 09 February 2026
- Recruitment closes: 20 March 2026
- Workshops: workshops will be running between Monday 27th April to Thursday 30th April and both applicants need to be available to attend the same workshop
- Project phase deadline: August 2026
- Showcase event: Wednesday 4th November 2026 (time TBC)
- One-year impact review published: September 2027
The launch event
The Green Gastroenterology Challenge launch event took place online on Monday 9 February 2026 from 18:00 to 19:00.
This free online event was open to all. Gastroenterology clinicians, nurses, technicians, managers, trainees and anyone with an interest in climate action within the field were invited to attend. The session introduced the Challenge, shared insights from previous Green Specialty Challenges and outlined how teams could apply.
Those who attended expressed great enthusiasm for the project and welcomed the opportunity to contribute. All those involved – CSH leads, partners and funders – are now eagerly looking forward to reading the many exciting project proposals before selecting the teams that will take part in this challenge.
Watch the recording now
The teams
The Green Gastroenterology Challenge, funded by Micro-Tech UK, brings together six multi-professional teams from across the UK to develop more sustainable, patient-centred models of care within gastroenterology services. Each project focuses on reducing the environmental impact of a common clinical pathway while maintaining high standards of safety, effectiveness and patient experience.
The selected teams and their proposed project areas
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
At Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the gastroenterology team is transitioning patients with inflammatory bowel disease from hospital-based intravenous Vedolizumab to subcutaneous injections at home. This aims to reduce travel, resource use and carbon emissions, while improving convenience and exploring the wider environmental, social and financial impacts of the shift.
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, NHS Grampian
At Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, NHS Grampian, the focus is on endoscopy sustainability through the use of biodegradable stents in ERCP procedures. The team is quantifying the carbon and cost differences compared with traditional plastic stents, to support standardised local use and wider adoption, alongside capturing patient and staff perspectives on sustainability.
Practice Plus Group
Practice Plus Group is piloting the use of Penthrox across two hospitals as an alternative to Entonox for suitable endoscopy procedures. By reducing reliance on high-emission analgesic gases, the project aims to lower the carbon footprint of care delivery, with potential for national rollout if successful.
NHS Highland
Similarly, NHS Highland is evaluating Penthrox for diagnostic colonoscopy, building on earlier pilot work to assess feasibility, safety, patient tolerance, and environmental and financial impact. This will help determine the potential for wider implementation across Scotland.
Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
At Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the endoscopy team is addressing a high failure rate in lower gastrointestinal procedures, with a particular focus on combined procedures (where upper and lower endoscopies are performed together), which show especially high failure rates. The work aims to reduce patient travel and minimise financial and environmental resource waste, while improving patient experience. The team will also evaluate outcomes from recent changes to the service’s pre-assessment appointments and bowel prep.
Warrington Hospital, North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust
At Warrington Hospital, North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust, the team is addressing the overuse of liver function tests (LFTs) on inpatient wards, aiming to reduce tests repeated within 72 hours without clinical justification, in line with national minimal retesting interval guidance. Reducing low-value testing can lower the costs and carbon emissions associated with sample storage and processing.
Together, these six projects show how innovation, collaboration and a focus on sustainability can drive meaningful change in gastroenterology, supporting a lower-carbon future for care.
The Green Gastroenterology Showcase 2026
The Green Gastroenterology Showcase will be held in late autumn 2026 and will celebrate the work of the six teams selected to take part in the Challenge.
This event will bring together gastroenterology professionals from across the UK who are leading the way in aligning clinical practice with environmental sustainability while improving care, outcomes and patient experience.
Each team will present their Sustainable Quality Improvement (SusQI) project to a judging panel. Projects will focus on priority areas identified through carbon hotspot analysis, collaboration with Challenge partners and consultation with people with lived experience, with the shared goal of reducing environmental harm and tackling health inequalities within gastroenterology care.
For more information please contact Debs Kerry, our Green Team Delivery Lead.