Powerful Partnerships category

The University of Sydney’s Wiser Healthcare NetZero Leads Partnership is a co-designed collaboration helping to decarbonise clinical care across NSW Health. The partnership brings together the University’s Wiser Healthcare Research Collaboration, NSW Health’s Climate Risk and Net Zero Unit, ten clinician Net Zero Leads, the Agency for Clinical Innovation and the Health Environments and Lives (HEAL) Research Network to address healthcare’s significant carbon footprint.

The partnership supports clinician-led decarbonisation projects across high-impact clinical areas, including anaesthetics, pharmacy, emergency care, intensive care, allied health, surgery and medical imaging. By combining frontline clinical expertise with academic rigour, policy alignment and translation pathways, the initiative evaluates carbon, cost and care-quality outcomes together.

The partnership has produced peer-reviewed publications and has delivered measurable impacts including 239,110 kg CO₂e saved annually in one anaesthetic department. By generating practical evidence for safer, lower-carbon care, the initiative demonstrates how university–health system partnerships can accelerate sustainable healthcare transformation.

University of Sydney – Wiser Healthcare NetZero Leads Partnership

Impacts & Benefits

  • Reduced clinical emissions across multiple specialties, including anaesthetics, pathology, medical imaging, intensive care, infection prevention and surgical practice.
  • Saved an estimated 239,110 kg CO₂e annually in one anaesthetic department through reduced desflurane use.
  • Delivered financial savings alongside emissions reductions, including more than $500,000 saved in one year through reduced low-value pathology testing.
  • Reduced unnecessary waste and resource use, including lower glove use, reduced barrier gown use, redesigned procedure packs and avoided CT scanner energy consumption.
  • Generated a strong evidence base, with nine peer-reviewed publications, three further papers accepted, public reports and Innovation Exchange showcases.

 

Leadership & Engagement

  • Built a genuinely powerful partnership model, linking clinicians, researchers, policymakers, consumers and national networks around a shared goal.
  • Positioned clinicians as co-creators of evidence, enabling frontline staff to lead practical decarbonisation projects supported by academic evaluation.
  • Integrated carbon, cost and care quality, showing that sustainable healthcare can also improve value, safety and operational efficiency.
  • Strengthened system capability, equipping clinician leads with skills in research, quality improvement, data analysis, scientific writing and sustainability leadership.
  • Earned formal recognition for partnership impact, receiving the 2024 University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence – Partnering with Impact.

 

Wider Societal Impact

  • Supported a safer, fairer and more sustainable health system, reducing avoidable emissions while improving care quality.
  • Created scalable exemplars for hospitals, with interventions such as CT scanner switch-off, pathology reduction and ICU gown changes spreading beyond original sites.
  • Contributed to public health climate action, helping reduce healthcare’s contribution to climate-related harm and supporting NSW net zero obligations.
  • Built publicly available knowledge infrastructure, through peer-reviewed publications, ACI Innovation Exchange resources and open dissemination pathways.
  • Reframed sustainability as better-value care, demonstrating that reducing low-value care, waste and avoidable energy use can return savings to frontline health services.
logo

Top 3 learnings

  • Co-design projects with clinicians to align clinical priorities with rigorous evaluation.
  • Build trust through regular meetings, clear roles and shared milestones.
  • Measure carbon, cost and care quality together to support adoption at scale.

Supported by

logo

Category finalists

Learn more

logo
Powerful Partnerships category

The University of Sydney’s Wiser Healthcare NetZero Leads Partnership is a co-designed collaboration helping to decarbonise clinical care across NSW Health. The partnership brings together the University’s Wiser Healthcare Research Collaboration, NSW Health’s Climate Risk and Net Zero Unit, ten clinician Net Zero Leads, the Agency for Clinical Innovation and the Health Environments and Lives (HEAL) Research Network to address healthcare’s significant carbon footprint.

The partnership supports clinician-led decarbonisation projects across high-impact clinical areas, including anaesthetics, pharmacy, emergency care, intensive care, allied health, surgery and medical imaging. By combining frontline clinical expertise with academic rigour, policy alignment and translation pathways, the initiative evaluates carbon, cost and care-quality outcomes together.

The partnership has produced peer-reviewed publications and has delivered measurable impacts including 239,110 kg CO₂e saved annually in one anaesthetic department. By generating practical evidence for safer, lower-carbon care, the initiative demonstrates how university–health system partnerships can accelerate sustainable healthcare transformation.

Top 3 learnings

  • Co-design projects with clinicians to align clinical priorities with rigorous evaluation.
  • Build trust through regular meetings, clear roles and shared milestones.
  • Measure carbon, cost and care quality together to support adoption at scale.

Impacts & Benefits

  • Reduced clinical emissions across multiple specialties, including anaesthetics, pathology, medical imaging, intensive care, infection prevention and surgical practice.
  • Saved an estimated 239,110 kg CO₂e annually in one anaesthetic department through reduced desflurane use.
  • Delivered financial savings alongside emissions reductions, including more than $500,000 saved in one year through reduced low-value pathology testing.
  • Reduced unnecessary waste and resource use, including lower glove use, reduced barrier gown use, redesigned procedure packs and avoided CT scanner energy consumption.
  • Generated a strong evidence base, with nine peer-reviewed publications, three further papers accepted, public reports and Innovation Exchange showcases.

 

Leadership & Engagement

  • Built a genuinely powerful partnership model, linking clinicians, researchers, policymakers, consumers and national networks around a shared goal.
  • Positioned clinicians as co-creators of evidence, enabling frontline staff to lead practical decarbonisation projects supported by academic evaluation.
  • Integrated carbon, cost and care quality, showing that sustainable healthcare can also improve value, safety and operational efficiency.
  • Strengthened system capability, equipping clinician leads with skills in research, quality improvement, data analysis, scientific writing and sustainability leadership.
  • Earned formal recognition for partnership impact, receiving the 2024 University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence – Partnering with Impact.

 

Wider Societal Impact

  • Supported a safer, fairer and more sustainable health system, reducing avoidable emissions while improving care quality.
  • Created scalable exemplars for hospitals, with interventions such as CT scanner switch-off, pathology reduction and ICU gown changes spreading beyond original sites.
  • Contributed to public health climate action, helping reduce healthcare’s contribution to climate-related harm and supporting NSW net zero obligations.
  • Built publicly available knowledge infrastructure, through peer-reviewed publications, ACI Innovation Exchange resources and open dissemination pathways.
  • Reframed sustainability as better-value care, demonstrating that reducing low-value care, waste and avoidable energy use can return savings to frontline health services.

Supported by

logo

Category finalists