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

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

The University Hospital Dresden can look forward to an important award. On June 5, 2025, the Lohfert Prize 2025 was awarded to the project “Carus Green – Sustainability and greater environmental compatibility at the University Hospital Dresden”. This initiative, which began as a trainee project in 2012 and was later converted into an employee working group, aims to anchor sustainability in everyday hospital life and noticeably reduce ecological impact. KMA Online reports that the Christoph Lohfert Foundation is endowing the prize with 20,000 euros and that this is happening for the 13th time.

The jury, chaired by Dr. Andreas Tecklenburg, honored the holistic approach of “Carus Green”, which promotes the integration of employees from different specialist areas. Patrick Emmerlich, who has been coordinating activities in the area of ​​hospital ecology since 2022, is actively working on the introduction of an environmental management system according to ISO 50001. Sustainable improvements can be achieved by identifying ecologically relevant areas 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 extremely relevant because the health sector contributes significantly to climate change and environmental pollution. Innovative approaches to waste avoidance 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 healthcare institutions. For example, the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein and the Stuttgart Hospital received honorable mentions for their sustainability projects. This increase in applications – 58 in total – shows that many institutions are increasingly concerned with reducing pollutants in anesthesia and surgery.

Safe course for the future of procurement

But it's not just the environmental initiatives that are important. Purchasing in the healthcare sector plays a central role on the path to climate neutrality. HCM Magazine reports on a webinar on the topic of sustainable purchasing, which was led by Jens Leveringhaus. This makes it clear that procurement management must take 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 institutions from 2025. This is further motivation to proactively address the challenges in procurement and the pandemic, such as staff shortages. A sustainable approach to procurement not only requires innovative strategies, but also well-thought-out implementation in the organizational structures of hospitals.

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

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