Corporate social responsibility - Amsterdam UMC

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Waste and circularity

We are working towards becoming a fully circular organisation by 2050, with 75% less residual waste by 2030 compared with 2018 (see image below). The Circularity road map was completed in 2025 and will be published in 2026. That road map includes more than 30 projects, such ones involving reducing the use of non-sterile gloves and reuse of operating theatre clothing sets, all being consistent steps in the move towards circularity. We have also installed 440 new waste separation units; in time, this will help to increase our recycling rate.

5.

Corporate social responsibility

Amsterdam UMC made great strides in making its environmental sustainability ambitions a reality in 2025. For instance, we now have a clearer understanding of what is needed to make our food and material flows more sustainable.

Some of the larger/key moves in that direction are explained below. We could not do without the contributions of the many Green Teams, though. Those teams play a crucial role in the achievement of our ambitions, for example through energy saving and waste reduction.

Amsterdam UMC held a silver-level Milieuthermometer Zorg certificate in 2025.

Climate and energy

Amsterdam UMC aims to be carbon-neutral by 2050, with a 55% reduction in direct CO2 emissions (scope 1) by 2030 compared with 2018. Grid congestion problems mean that it will not be possible to achieve this interim target until 2036. Prompted by the CO2 road maps for buildings and energy, sustainability has been further integrated into policy frameworks for construction, maintenance and renovation. We have achieved specific energy savings in a number of ways, including by insulating pipework, improving control technology and reducing air humidification. Graph 1 and Table 1 below show greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption and production, respectively.

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Graph 1. Greenhouse gas emissions [by tonnes of CO2 equivalent].
The graph shows the organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions, broken down into scope 1 (direct emissions), scope 2 location-based (indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, based on the energy mix in the Netherlands) and, for illustrative purposes, scope 3 (other indirect emissions, based on calculations for the 2023 calendar year). The scope 2 market-based emissions (indirect emissions from purchased energy, based on contractual agreements and purchased energy sources) for purchased electricity will be zero in 2025 because all purchased electricity is from renewable sources; guarantees of origin (GoOs) have been purchased and written off for this entire purchase. A breakdown of scope 1 and scope 2 for 2025 is included in the appendices.

*The emissions from previous years reported here differ from some previously reported values. Emissions were calculated in line with the GHG Protocol using tank-to-wheel emission factors instead of well-to-wheel emission factors in the reporting year. The same methodology has also been applied retrospectively to previous years to ensure comparability over time.

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Table 1. Energy consumption and production [MWh]
The table provides an overview of the organisation’s total energy consumption and energy production, broken down by renewable and fossil fuel sources. Energy consumption includes all purchased energy and fuels, as well as the organisation’s own consumption of self-generated renewable energy. Energy production consists of electricity generation and the organisation’s heat and cooling production. A comparison with previous years was not yet possible.

Heat and cooling production

Table 1. Energy consumption and production [MWh]

Electricity generation

From renewable sources:

Elektriciteitsopwekking

MWh

Energy consumption

From fossil fuels:

Of which cooling

13.261

Of which gas oil

1.515

Of which natural gas

194.939

Of which purchased electricity

44.769

Of which cooling from natural gas

36.566

Of which heat from natural gas

98.013

From fossil fuels:

Of which from gas oil

1.531

Of which from natural gas

57.907

From fossil fuels:

Of which from solar panels

632

Uit hernieuwbare bronnen:

Of which self-generated solar power

632

From renewable sources:

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Graph 2. Quantities of waste [in tonnes] and processing
This graph shows the trend in waste quantities* in recent years and our ambitions for 2030. Ambitions for unsorted residual waste and specific hospital waste have been quantified at organisational level for 2030; ambitions for separated waste have not yet been specified. The methods for processing separated waste for 2024 and earlier years are approximate.

*This graph concerns waste streams excluding construction and demolition waste (CDW)/bulky waste (210 tonnes in 2025, excluding contractors’ CDW) and excluding green waste (55 tonnes in 2025). A breakdown by processing and type is included for 2025 in the appendices.

Water and medicines

Sustainable use of medicines and reducing medicine residues in wastewater are key focus areas. In 2025, we concentrated on raising awareness and changing behaviour. Medication waste has been reduced through digitisation, clustering preparations, just-in-time immunotherapy and reusing vials containing hazardous medicines.

Nutrition and health

Our aim is to provide a health-promoting and sustainable environment. For the food options available to staff and visitors, this means 80% healthy (in 2024: 24% healthy) and ≥60% plant-based protein by 2030 (in 2024: 53%). We used a staff consultation in 2025 to consider how best to achieve this (to be published in 2026) and the first long-term steps to that end were taken. Bicycle hire schemes have been made available for travel between the two sites. Assistants in nutrition have been trained and initial adjustments have been made to the hospital menu to make food for patients more sustainable as well.

Societal impact

Sustainability and planetary health are becoming ever more firmly embedded in research and education, particularly within medicine degree programmes (BSc and MSc). Curriculum assessments have been carried out with students in order to integrate sustainability permanently into all advanced programmes. We tightened up and laid down our ambitions within research in 2025, producing a position paper on sustainability in research (to be published in 2026).

Supplementary sustainability table 1

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Supplementary sustainability table 2

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