Driving Eco-Design and Circular Healthcare Forward at Medical Packaging Conference 2025
From 6–8 October 2025, the city of Frankfurt hosted the Medical Packaging Conference (MPC 2025), bringing together leading voices from healthcare providers, regulators, academia and industry.
ENKORE launches to advance environmental sustainability in European healthcare
The ENKORE project officially kicks off its mission to drive the transformation of the healthcare sector through innovative, eco-designed solutions for single-use medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging. With the support of the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), ENKORE brings together a strong consortium of 39 public and private partners, coordinated by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Medtronic, to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy in healthcare across Europe
By implementing four large-scale demonstrators across five national health systems, ENKORE aims to reduce the sector’s environmental footprint, aligning clinical innovation with sustainability.
A strong voice on regulation
The first session of MPC was dedicated to emerging environmental regulations and standards, a timely topic with the forthcoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and the evolution of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) across Europe. Dr Tatiana Dias (DuPont, ENKORE partner) chaired and moderated this debate, ensuring that ENKORE’s perspective was present in discussions about how regulation will shape the sector’s future.
Her contribution reflected ENKORE’s conviction that innovation and regulation must go hand in hand. By anticipating policy shifts and embedding them into eco-design methodology, ENKORE ensures that the solutions developed within the project will be both compliant and impactful.
Safe & Sustainable by Design
Session 4 – Safe & Sustainable by Design (SSbD) was a highlight of the conference, with ENKORE taking centre stage. Four ENKORE partners presented how the project is translating this European Commission framework into actionable methods and hospital pilots:
- Prof. María Fernanda Cabrera-Umpierrez (UPM, ENKORE Coordinator) introduced the project and its overarching ambition to deliver the first eco-design framework for healthcare.
- Dr María Eugenia Beltrán (UPM-LifeSTech, ENKORE Deputy Coordinator) demonstrated how big data and digital ecosystems are being used to guide design choices and measure impact.
- Dr Marco Cinelli (Leiden University) presented the methodological backbone of ENKORE, enabling data-driven eco-design decisions.
This session epitomised ENKORE’s added value: connecting design principles, data, methodology and hospital practice in a single integrated approach.
Standards that enable scale
For innovation to succeed, it must be supported by robust standards. In Session 5, Thierry Wagner (DuPont, ENKORE partner) addressed how new international standards — including the forthcoming ISO 11607-3 — will be critical for validating and scaling sustainable medical packaging solutions.
His role within ENKORE is pivotal in ensuring that the project’s outcomes are aligned with international regulatory frameworks, enabling smooth adoption by manufacturers, hospitals and regulators alike.
Circular hospitals: where change becomes reality
The hospital setting was the focus of Session 6, exploring the complexities of clinical waste management. Christoph Gibson (Johnson & Johnson, ENKORE partner) shared how surgical supply chains can integrate circularity from the design stage through to end-of-life.
His contribution underscored a key dimension of ENKORE: the project does not stop at research and design but validates solutions in real-world clinical environments, bridging the gap between concept and practice.
Key
takeaways
ENKORE’s participation in MPC 2025 left a strong impression on conference delegates. Several lessons stood out:
- Regulation is a driver, not a barrier – aligning with PPWR, EPR and ISO ensures eco-design solutions are viable.
- Eco-design is actionable – ENKORE is moving from concepts to hospital pilots and measurable interventions.
- Data is the foundation – big data and digital tools provide the evidence base for sustainable choices.
- Hospitals are the test bed – change must be validated in real healthcare settings.
- Standards enable scale – without international norms, innovation cannot reach patients or markets.
ENKORE as a
European reference
With one of the largest delegations at MPC 2025, ENKORE demonstrated the strength of its 39 partner consortium and its ability to address sustainability challenges from every angle regulatory, methodological, clinical and industrial.
The project’s presence in Frankfurt reinforced ENKORE’s mission: to create a healthcare system that is circular, safe and sustainable by design.
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