Lohfert Prize 2025: Dresden University Hospital wins with a sustainable project!

Lohfert Prize 2025: Dresden University Hospital wins with a sustainable project!

Dresden, Deutschland - The University Hospital Dresden can look forward to a significant award. On June 5, 2025, the Lohfert Prize in 2025 was awarded to the “Carus Green-Sustainability and Higher Environmental Compatibility Problem at the University Hospital Dresden”. This initiative, which began in 2012 as a trainee project and was later converted into an employee working group, has set itself the goal of anchoring sustainability in everyday clinical practice and noticeably reducing the ecological stress. KMA online reports that the Christoph Lohfert Foundation ends with 20,000 euros.

The jury, chaired by Dr. Andreas Tecklenburg honored the holistic approach of "Carus Green", who promotes the integration of employees from various departments. Patrick Emmerlich, who has coordinated the activities in the field of hospital ecology since 2022, is actively working on the introduction of an environmental management system according to ISO 50001. Sustainable improvements can be implemented through the identification of ecologically relevant fields of action such as energy and resource management, structural measures as well as education, mobility and campus design.

The most important objectives

The topic of the Lohfert Prize 2025 revolves around "Green Hospital-Environmental Protection and Resource Efficiency in Hospitals". These tasks are of the greatest relevance, because the health sector contributes significantly to climate change and pollution. Innovative approaches for waste prevention and separation, energy -efficient systems and environmentally friendly procurement concepts are therefore in the foreground. The Christoph Lohfert Foundation emphasizes that hospitals should be valuable role models for environmental awareness and resource efficiency.

The excellent initiative has already inspired other health institutions. For example, the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein and the Stuttgart Clinic were given praising mentions for their sustainability projects. This increase in applications - a total of 58 - shows that many institutions are increasingly dealing with the reduction of pollutants in anesthesia and surgery.

Safe course for the future of procurement

But not only the environmental initiatives are important. Purchasing in healthcare plays a central role on the way to climate neutrality. HCM Magazin reported by a webinar on the subject of sustainable purchasing, which was headed by Jens Leveringhaus. It becomes clear that the procurement management must take the quality, quantity and delivery times into account as well as sustainability aspects.

The legislature already has clear requirements that require a sustainability report for large facilities from 2025. This is another motivation to proactively tackle the challenges in procurement and by pandemic, such as lack of staff. A sustainable approach in procurement not only requires innovative strategies, but also a well thought -out implementation in the organization structures of the hospitals.

At the same time, it becomes clear that the healthcare industry, which is responsible for around 5% of German greenhouse gas emissions, is required to drastically reduce its environmental pollution. The Lohfert Prize and the award-winning projects show that the industry is on the right track. Sustainability is not only understood as an essential task, but also as an opportunity to actively help shape the future of the health sector.

The award ceremony will take place on September 16 as part of the Hamburg Health Management Congress. Dr. Regina Klakow-Franck will take over the patronage, and everyone is looking forward to the developments that will bring the excellent projects.