The European health industry is under increasing pressure to align its operations with environmental sustainability objectives, including decarbonisation, circular economy transition and resource efficiency. Meeting these expectations depends on a workforce equipped with clearly defined green competences across manufacturing, supply chains, product development and operational management.
As environmental standards evolve, sustainability is becoming an operational and strategic workforce priority. Companies must identify, structure and develop the competences necessary to embed environmental considerations across production systems, logistics networks and product lifecycles while maintaining quality, compliance and competitiveness.
Europe’s transition from linear production and consumption models to circular systems requires new and adapted skills across industries. Core circular tasks, from sustainable design and engineering to waste management and resource recovery, must be embedded at all levels of the workforce.
Within the health industry, strengthening Europe’s manufacturing and supply resilience has highlighted the need to integrate sustainability alongside operational performance. Sustainable production processes, responsible sourcing and environmentally conscious ogistics are increasingly linked to competitiveness, regulatory alignment and long-term market positioning.
Public procurement frameworks are progressively incorporating environmental sustainability criteria, requiring companies to demonstrate environmental performance across supply chains and product lifecycles. These developments reinforce the need for clearly defined sustainability competences across operational and strategic functions.
However, employers report uncertainty regarding which sustainability-related competences are required at applied versus strategic levels. Distinguishing between technical operational skills and broader sustainability leadership capabilities remains a workforce planning challenge as companies navigate environmental transition requirements while safeguarding commercial performance.
To identify and validate the green competences required to support companies’ environmental sustainability and operational transition within the European Health Industry.
The objective of the 1-hour online facilitated national level focus group is to:
Participants will gain insight into shared sector-wide challenges in defining and developing green competences across operational and strategic functions within the European health industry.
By contributing practical experience, employers will directly shape the prioritisation of sustainability-related skills required to support environmental performance and competitiveness. The resulting recommendations and green skills workforce roadmap will provide a structured basis for aligning training provision and workforce planning with evolving environmental and procurement expectations.
