Green Nursing Challenge 2026
The Green Nursing Challenge 2026 is CSH’s second national Green Nursing Challenge, supporting nurses and midwives to lead sustainable healthcare initiatives and implement improvements to patient care, with additional benefits of reducing costs and carbon emissions.
The Green Nursing Challenge is fully funded by Micro-Tech UK and delivered in partnership with the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing, the Foundation of Nursing Studies, Nursing Now Challenge and the Social Care Nursing Advisory Council.
Apply by Friday 9 October 2026 17:00.
What is the Green Nursing Challenge?
The NHS has committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2040, extending to suppliers by 2045. Achieving this ambition requires action across every part of the health and care workforce, and nurses and midwives, as the largest professional group in health and social care, have a vital role to play.
Adapted from CSH’s Green Specialty Challenge and Green Team Competition, a tried and tested leadership and engagement programme, the Green Nursing Challenge helps transform healthcare by cutting carbon, improving patient care and staff experience, building social value, and saving money. Now in its second year, the Challenge continues CSH’s work supporting nurses and midwives across all specialties and settings, including social care to lead sustainable quality improvement within their own services. It uses CSH’s Sustainable Quality Improvement (SusQI) approach and supports teams to identify sustainability and equity hotspots across nursing and midwifery pathways.
Environmental, social and economic benefits will be quantified at individual project level and modelled to explore the potential for wider national impact.
The first Green Nursing Challenge
The first Green Nursing Challenge in 2025 brought together six nursing teams from across the UK to develop Sustainable Quality Improvement (SusQI) projects addressing carbon, cost and patient care within their services.
Together, the projects delivered an estimated £691,844 in annual cost and efficiency savings and a reduction of 77,398 kgCO₂e per year — equivalent to the carbon absorbed by over 3,000 mature trees. Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital were named winners for their combined Maternity and Inflammatory Bowel Disease clinic, with Oxford Health Foundation Trust’s Planned and Preventative Care team highly commended for their work on continuous blood glucose monitoring in the community.
Watch the Showcase presentations and read each team’s case study on our Showcase videos and case study reports page, or view the full impact report.
Why is the Green Nursing 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 and social care services.
The climate crisis is a health crisis, and it requires significant changes in healthcare strategy to address its impacts. In the words of Charlotte McArdle, Global Nurse Consultant and former Chief Nursing Officer for Northern Ireland: “Nurses and midwives for me have always been the holders of hope, the voice of the vulnerable, and the champions of change.”
Nurses and midwives work across every setting in the health and care system — from hospital wards to community and social care — giving them a unique vantage point on where waste, inefficiency and unmet need intersect. By reviewing and improving working practices, reducing waste, and embedding sustainable quality improvement across nursing and midwifery pathways, teams can reduce environmental harm while improving patient outcomes and experience, addressing inequalities, and contributing to a more sustainable and equitable healthcare system.
How will the Green Nursing Challenge work?
Six multi-professional teams will be selected to take part in the second Green Nursing Challenge. Each team will receive mentoring and structured support from the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare to develop, implement and evaluate sustainable quality improvement (SusQI) projects.
We warmly welcome applications from nurses and midwives at every career stage, in every specialty and setting: from acute and community, quality improvement and governance, infection control, nursing management and leadership, education, and beyond. We particularly encourage early-career nurses and midwives to apply, and invite teams to consider how they might involve nursing students on placement within their project.
Where possible, the carbon reduction potential of projects will be estimated using a process-based carbon footprinting method, supplemented by environmentally extended input–output analysis.
Teams will attend regular workshops and receive ongoing support from CSH staff throughout the project phase. Following 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
- Recruitment opens: 7 September 2026
- Recruitment closes: 9 October 2026 17:00
- Workshops: Week commencing 2nd November 2026
- Launch webinar: 21 September 2026 12:00 BST, via Zoom
- Project completion: 5th March 2027
- Showcase event: May 2027 (TBC)
The launch event
The Green Nursing Challenge 2026 launch event took place online, via Zoom, on 21 September 2026 12:00-13:00 BST.
Before applying, watch the recording of our launch event. It covers how the Green Nursing Challenge works, what we’re looking for in a project, the timeline, and the full recruitment process — plus insights from the first Challenge in 2025, giving you a sense of the kinds of projects selected and developed last year.
The recruitment phase
The recruitment phase was designed to bring together six multi-professional teams from across the UK. The Challenge is fully funded by Micro-Tech UK and open to nurses and midwives across every specialty and setting.
Recruitment closes on Friday 9 October 2026 17:00.
“ I am very excited to be involved in the 2026 Green Nursing Challenge a showcase for nurses to demonstrate how innovative and proactive they are in addressing climate change in healthcare.”
Dr Amanda Young, Director of Nursing Programmes (Innovation and Policy), Queens Institute community nursing.
How to apply
Applicants are asked to submit a short application outlining their proposed project idea and team composition.
Please read the applicant information pack carefully before completing the application form. You will also need to confirm the following on the form:
Essential:
☐ Details of two lead participants
☐ Line manager/departmental lead consent to apply
☐ Availability for both leads to attend the 90-minute workshop on either the 3rd, 4th or 5th November
Optional:
☐ A brief outline of a sustainability project proposal, including the problem identified and a potential solution
☐ Line manager/departmental permission to attend a workshop and protected weekly project time (projects can be completed in participants’ own time if needed)
☐ Contact details for your Trust/Health Board sustainability lead and quality improvement lead
Submit your application form by Friday 9 October 2026 17:00.
The teams
Six multi-professional nursing and midwifery teams will be selected to take part in the Green Nursing Challenge 2026, each developing a Sustainable Quality Improvement (SusQI) project within their own service.
The Green Nursing Challenge supports the inspiring work of six project teams who are helping to shape more sustainable and equitable nursing and midwifery care.
Selected teams will be announced here following recruitment.
The Green Nursing Showcase 2026
The Green Nursing Challenge Showcase will be held in May 2027 and will celebrate the work of the six teams selected to take part in the Challenge.
This event will bring together nurses and midwives 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.
For more information please contact Debs Kerry, our Green Team Delivery Lead.