Driving Sustainability in Digital Health and Care

Alignment of DHI’s activities and the University of Strathclyde’s newly launched Social and Environmental Sustainability Strategy.

DHI attended the November 2025 launch event for University of Strathclyde’s Social and Environmental Sustainability Strategy, during which it was clear that sustainability is a core principle embraced by the whole University.

Their new document sets out an ambitious roadmap for the next five years, offering powerful alignment opportunities for DHI as we advance our own environmental sustainability goals, and in recognition of Strathclyde’s formal hosting role of DHI. 

Strathclyde’s strategy is built around four interconnected themes:

1. Active Citizenship for All – Empowering individuals to take informed, impactful action.

2. Education for Sustainability – Embedding sustainability skills and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into every programme.

3. Research and Innovation for a Better World – Driving interdisciplinary solutions to global challenges.

4. Operational Sustainability – Decarbonising operations and embedding circular economy principles.

With clear KPIs (such as integrating sustainability into all curricula by 2027, and achieving Net Zero by 2040), the strategy demonstrates a very insightful, whole-institution approach to change.

Why It Matters for DHI

Digital health and care innovation and sustainability go hand in hand and DHI has established Net Zero as one of our 7 Priority Action Areas as identified in our 10 Year Strategy.

Here’s how Strathclyde’s priorities align with DHI’s contribution to Net Zero:

Active Citizenship for All

DHI’s work on digital inclusion in health and care equity mirrors Strathclyde’s commitment to social innovation. Launched in 2021, the Digital Lifelines Scotland project (managed by DHI in collaboration with SCVO and Simon Community Scotland and funded by Scottish Government) aims to improve digital inclusion and design digital solutions to reduce harm and deaths among people who use drugs. The programme provides access to devices, connectivity, skills, and confidence, and has supported thousands of people across Scotland to date.

Education for Sustainability

Upskilling the health and care workforce is critical. By embedding sustainability competencies into digital health and care training and education, DHI can follow Strathclyde’s lead in mainstreaming Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). DHI offers Master's Scholarships to support students embarking on an MSc or an MRes degree in digital health and care, with their work aligning with DHI's 7 priority action areas, including “The contribution of digital health and care to Scotland’s Net Zero targets”.  DHI’s SAFXR Project with Care Reality, NES and the University of Glasgow is exploring the use of virtual reality to support the education and training for the workforce, focusing on the area of suicide safety planning. This aims to reduce unnecessary travel by delivering easily accessible digital education and training resources.

Research and Innovation for a Better World

University of Strathclyde’s Living Labs approach aligns perfectly with DHI’s participatory ethos, helping to co-create solutions that solve real-world problems, and generate evidence of impact in inclusive and socially progressive ways. In Moray, DHI’s Rural Centre of Excellence for Digital Health & Care has been driving innovation in the region's health and social care sector. Using a Living Lab approach, the project has worked closely with Moray health and social care staff and citizens to look at how services are working, identify problems, and test practical improvements. This includes helping people securely view and share their health information, find support, and refer themselves to services through the Community Connections platform and Personal Data Store (PDS), with the University of the Highlands and Islands leading the evaluation of impact.

Operational Sustainability

Reducing emissions is essential for University of Strathclyde in developing a greener and more climate-resilient campus. DHI is adopting similar principles for energy-efficiency - prioritising virtual meetings and rail travel over air travel for staff, tracking and reporting travel emissions annually, and promoting sustainable procurement and reuse of equipment where appropriate. DHI aims to publish its carbon emissions baseline in 2026, sharing knowledge with health and care partners on its approach to support their contributions to Net Zero.

Join DHI in building a sustainable digital health and care future

At DHI, we’re already taking steps toward identifying opportunities where we can increase and accelerate our social and environmental contributions, but from experience, we know real impact comes through collaborations.

Here’s how you can get involved:

• Partner with us on research and innovation projects that combine digital health and sustainability.

• Support student learning through internships, placements, or mentoring in sustainable health and care tech.

• Co-create solutions that deliver better health and care outcomes while reducing environmental impact.

• Share your learning and experiences with us to create a virtuous cycle of improvement.

Author - Jennifer Thomas