CARING NATURE is a Horizon Europe research and innovation project addressing the environmental footprint of healthcare, a sector estimated by the project consortium to generate roughly four to five per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Running from 2024 to 2026, it brings together nineteen partners and combines healthcare delivery, engineering, circular-economy expertise, digital tools and organisational change.

The consortium is developing ten solution families across thirty-three use cases. These include artificial-intelligence-supported energy management, lower-impact construction and renovation, the valorisation of medical, food and water-related waste, telemedicine, participatory communities of practice and decision-support tools integrating environmental and financial performance. The University of Louvain contribution, led through the Urban Metabolism Lab, focuses particularly on nature-based-solutions typologies and impact assessment for healthcare environments.

CARING NATURE extends the Lab’s work on circular buildings, biowaste and ecosystem services into operational healthcare settings. Its emphasis on implementation, life-cycle assessment, social life-cycle assessment, reporting and standardisation reflects Daniela Perrotti’s wider objective of translating urban-metabolism research into practical pathways that reduce resource use without compromising care quality or safety.