A virtuous circle: is the key to NHS sustainability progress to be found in a circular approach?

A virtuous circle: is the key to NHS sustainability progress to be found in a circular approach?

 The NHS faces a triple challenge: rising demand for services, constrained budgets, and the urgent need to meet Net Zero commitments. This pressure is felt across the wider healthcare system too, with private providers and social care organisations balancing the same demands for quality care, affordability, and environmental responsibility.

In this context, sustainability is often treated as a linear process. Set targets, implement projects, measure the results. But what if progress could be accelerated by adopting a more circular mindset? One where every efficiency gained, every investment made, and every behaviour changed, feeds back into the system to unlock further benefits.

At its core, this is the concept of a “virtuous circle” in energy strategy: a reinforcing cycle in which cost savings and operational improvements continually generate new opportunities for progress.

Data as the foundation of circular progress

The first step in creating this loop is achieving better visibility, as without accurate data, energy efficiency efforts risk being fragmented or misdirected. For healthcare, where legacy infrastructure is common and consumption patterns vary widely across sites, the ability to baseline (accurately measure and benchmark what you currently use), and then monitor ongoing energy use, is crucial.

By collecting and analysing energy consumption data at a granular level, trusts and care providers can identify areas of waste, deliver quick wins, and build a more accurate picture of where long-term investment will deliver the biggest return. Importantly, this data doesn’t just inform decisions in the moment; it creates an ongoing cycle of measurement, insight, and improvement. Each round of monitoring can identify new opportunities, driving continuous progress.

Reinvesting savings into further decarbonisation

Energy efficiency initiatives are often judged purely on payback periods. While financial savings are essential in a resource-constrained sector, circular thinking encourages a broader perspective. Specifically, what happens to those savings once they are realised?

In a virtuous circle, cost reductions are not an endpoint but a starting point. Savings generated from initiatives such as optimising heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, or reducing overnight equipment use, can quickly accumulate and be reinvested into further decarbonisation efforts. This might include those requiring more upfront investment like on-site renewables or battery storage.

This reinvestment model ensures that sustainability is not reliant on one-off funding or short-term grants. Instead, it becomes self-sustaining, with each success unlocking the resources for the next.

Balancing cost, carbon, and care

For NHS and social care organisations, the challenge is not just to reduce emissions, but to do this without compromising patient care or creating additional financial pressure. It’s here that a circular energy strategy offers a valuable framework for decision-making.

Rather than pursuing isolated initiatives that deliver short-term results, a circular approach looks at the wider system, and how one improvement can strengthen another. For example, how can energy strategy contribute not just to carbon reduction, but also to resilience, patient comfort, and operational efficiency?

In this way, reducing energy waste can free up budget that supports frontline services. Investing in better temperature control can simultaneously cut emissions and improve patient comfort. Over time, these benefits compound, creating an organisation that is not only greener but also more resilient and better equipped to deliver care.

From short-term fixes to long-term resilience

 Healthcare estates are often characterised by legacy infrastructure, with many buildings not designed with energy efficiency in mind. In this environment, there can be a temptation to focus on quick wins or compliance-driven projects.

While these have their place, true resilience comes from embedding sustainability into long-term planning. A circular mindset shifts the conversation from isolated projects to ongoing strategy. By considering how today’s investments feed into tomorrow’s opportunities, trusts and providers can avoid the stop-start pattern that too often stalls progress.

The NHS and wider healthcare sectors are at a crossroads. The pressures of cost, carbon, and care cannot be solved in isolation. But by embedding circular thinking into energy strategy, healthcare organisations can create a self-reinforcing cycle of improvement. Better use of data, reinvestment of savings, and long-term strategic planning all contribute to a virtuous circle in which progress generates the means for further progress. This approach recognises that sustainability is not a linear journey with a single destination, but a continuous process of adaptation, improvement, and reinvestment.

If the NHS and social care providers can adopt this mindset, sustainability could cease to be a burden competing with budgets and clinical priorities. Instead, it can become a driver of resilience, efficiency, and better patient outcomes. And in doing so, the sector can prove that the key to sustainability lies not in one-off interventions, but in a circular approach where every step forward creates the momentum for the next.

Andrew Donald, Public Sector Business Development Manager