The healthcare sector, while dedicated to promoting human well-being, is also a major contributor to declining environmental conditions, paradoxically adversely affecting health through resource-intensive and waste-generating practices. Laparoscopic surgeries using single-use insufflation devices, or disposables, exemplify the tension between healthcare delivery and sustainability. This graduation project addresses these challenges by exploring and proposing circular strategies to mitigate the environmental impacts of disposables inside a insufflation system through strategic design.

The research follows the Double Diamond Design Framework, beginning with an in-depth context analysis of the environmental impacts of an average laparoscopic patient journey and an extensive literature review on circular economy principles. Empirical studies, incorporating semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders, provide insight from the hospital perspective. Intermediate findings are combined into a design scope, guiding subsequent work. Environmental hotspots are identified by combining a self-executed fast-track life cycle analysis with insights from existing studies. Finally, conceptual circular interventions are developed to address identified hotspots and improve the environmental sustainability of the insufflation system.

This results in a strategic sustainability plan designed to help the client, a medical start-up, integrate sustainability and create a truly “future-proof” insufflation system. This plan includes company level strategies offering recommendations for actionable steps, commitments, and documentation, potentially leading to a competitive advantage in hospital procurement processes and product level circular strategies. These include redesigning devices to reduce material use, introducing reusable or hybrid devices, and exploring recycling opportunities. Applying strategic design thinking, the proposed strategies balance sustainability ambitions and both the complexity and practical constraints of healthcare systems and medical start-ups, offering a roadmap for implementing more circular and sustainable medical practices.

In conclusion, this project demonstrates the potential for applying circular strategies to complex healthcare settings. By integrating circular economy principles, it exemplifies how sustainable healthcare practices can reduce CO₂ emissions and waste from single-use devices. Ultimately, this thesis underscores the growing need for healthcare to adopt circularity, enabling it to continue improving human well-being while respecting the planet.